Carmella has been a member of the WWE Universe in one way or another since 2013, when she joined NXT and spent the better part of her time in developmental serving as a manager/valet for the dynamic duo of Big Cass and Enzo Amore. Over that run, Mella established the “moon-walking, trash-talking, Princess of Staten Island” persona fans came to know and love both on NXT and in WWE, before transitioning over to the “Untouchable” she used from 2020 until she left the company in August 0f 2020 because she was pregnant.

Discussing what she expected when she returned to WWE in January of 2023 just before the Elimination Chamber in an appearance on her husband Corey Grave's podcast After the Bell, Carmella was beyond excited to bring back her old gimmick for a new run on RAW.

“I had no idea what to expect,” Carmella said via Fightful. “I knew how things were run and how things went when I was there before, but everything had changed. The locker room was different, the management is different, how am I going to fit in? How are they going to view me? How am I going to come back? Am I going to come back and be remembered and do what it is that I like to do or is it going to be completely different? I'm so grateful that I am able to return to the moonwalking, trash-talking, Princess of Staten Island. For me, this is the character that is so near and dear to my heart. I created this character in NXT, it is me, it's part of me, it's me just turned way up. I feel so confident and comfortable in this role. To be able to be given this opportunity to go back to what brought me to the dance to begin with, I'm so grateful and so excited. I've never felt more comfortable. I don't have to think about anything, it's just me. I can just be and perform. To come out through that curtain, I hit the damn moonwalk, I heard the F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S, little mixed up with my new song. It's like the best parts of the old Carmella, the best of the new Carmella, mash it all together and I am thriving. I'm so excited.”

Is Carmella still technically a heel? Technically, yes, but she's more of a fun heel who talks a ton of trash during backstage interview segments and then hides in an Elimination Chamber to avoid getting attacked after attempting to steal a win from other wrestlers. In a way, that feels like the perfect fit for Mella in 2023.

Carmella discusses the pressure of looking like a professional wrestler in WWE.

Discussing her physical health with Tayler Adidun of Yahoo Life, Carmella noted that there's a lot of pressure to look a certain way in the WWE, and she didn't always achieve that look in the most healthy way.

“There's a lot of pressure to look your best and be fit and healthy, and I think I was sort of doing it more in an unhealthy way,” Carmella said via Fightful. “When I look back, I realize I was just so strict with my diet and restricted myself from eating anything and everything that wasn't vegetables, fruit and lean meats, and that's just sort of how I lived my life.”

“When I started out, I had so much pressure like ‘I have to be fit, I want to have a six-pack, I need to keep this up.' I mean as a wrestler, you need to have a specific physique and look a certain way, and that's kind of what set me apart too is I always had a defined body and things like that. I tried to keep that up. For a long time I was always lifting heavy weights and tearing my body apart on the road with wrestling. Then when I'm home, I'm lifting weights, and I was just feeling so weak, my body was hurting so much. I did it just because that was what I thought I needed to do because I wanted to project this image. I want everyone to know that I'm fit and I'm healthy and I have a six-pack and things like that.”

Fortunately, Carmella has moved past her perceived notion of what looks healthy and instead embraced living a healthy lifestyle that isn't solely linked to the number on the scale.

“I look back and I kind of laugh at it because at the point I'm at now I do it for all the right reasons and not because I want people to perceive me a certain way. At this point in my life, I never weigh myself anymore. I do not care about that. I've finally gotten to a point where I don't want to restrict my diet. I don't want to tell myself I can't have something. And I feel like now this is the best I've ever looked and the best I've ever felt because I just am doing what's right for me and eating intuitively.”