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As a former WWE SmackDown Women's Champion, a Money In The Bank winner and the winner of the most recent WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal, Carmella is one of the top female wrestlers in the WWE today.
Also a cast member on Total Divas these days, Carmella has been working on her fair share of mainstream projects both now and prior to her career with WWE.
Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of interviewing Carmella -- although addressing her as "Leah Van Dale" -- by phone about her new wine, Capo Cagna. Translating to "Boss B***h" in Italian, Capo Cagna was a name chosen by the WWE Superstar herself, partially to reflect her Italian roots. A few quotes from that interview with The Hype Magazine are below.
On when she first became interested in wine:
"When I turned 21. I never really drank wine before and one of my girlfriends was like, 'No, you have to try it.' At first I honestly didn’t really like it, and then I tried more and more different types.
"I started with whites and then I dabbled in to reds, and I love red wine as well. I guess the rest is history. When I’m on the road and it’s been a long day traveling, I just want to unwind with a glass of wine at the end of the day."
On where more projects and products are coming under the "Capo Cagna" banner:
"That’s a great question. I have no idea. To be honest, I never thought I would be in the WWE. I never thought I would be a wrestler. That wasn’t something that I thought a girl of my size could do. But I’m here and I’m doing it and having a great time with it.
"It’s led me to so many other opportunities, again here with the wine and without my career in the WWE, I wouldn’t have this platform and the fanbase that I have to explore the world of wine and create my own brand and everything like that.
"But I kind of like to let things unfold the way they’re supposed to do. I don’t really have a plan. It’s kind of like, “Go with it.” Because I mean it’s working out for me so far to get through my whole entire life, I am having so much fun performing and traveling the world and having so much fun learning about the wine business.
"I have a degree in marketing, so I’m really trying to put that to use. Not only marketing myself and my Carmella character but also Capo Cagna."
On her proudest career accomplishment so far:
"Becoming Smackdown Women’s Champion in WWE, because like I said, it wasn’t something I ever thought I would do. I never thought I would be a wrestler. So to train and do it for such a short period of time and reach the height and become champion, that says a lot about work ethic and how hard I tried and worked at becoming a wrestler.
"To me that’s the pinnacle, that I can go down in history as being champion, because there’s nothing higher than that. So I feel very fortunate for that."
