Carmella has been pretty open about how becoming a mom completely changed the way she thinks about her health, and apparently that change may have followed her all the way into the wrestling ring. The former WWE star is now wondering whether being responsible for two kids is part of the reason getting back in the ring doesn’t sound nearly as appealing as it once did.
During an episode of her Hot Mom Sh*t podcast, Carmella discussed the postpartum anxiety and intrusive thoughts she has recently been dealing with. She admitted that before having children, the possibility of getting seriously hurt while wrestling simply wasn’t something she spent much time worrying about.
“And I think talking about, like, all of this, all of this with, like, me catastrophizing injuries and health and all of it, it’s just exacerbated now that I have kids.
I feel like before I had kids, of course, I thought about, you know, dying or, you know, something were to go wrong or health issues, but it was just, like, a thought and be gone.
I would never really fixate on it or think about it. I mean, I traveled the world. I was in the ring wrestling, and, like, I could at any point get a serious injury, but I didn’t really think about it. I didn’t really care.”
Things feel very different now. Carmella admitted she has started wondering whether those fears are actually contributing to why she isn’t particularly open to returning to the ring.
“And I’m wondering if maybe now that’s why I’m not really that open to wanting to go back into the ring because I do have kids. The thought of, like, being hurt or, gosh, there could be something that could go terribly wrong.
Now that I have kids, I have these two little humans that I need to be healthy for and be there for and want to be around for as long as I humanly possibly can. It’s just so different now that I have kids. Like, everything can affect them.”
Those concerns aren’t limited to wrestling either. Carmella explained that her husband, Corey Graves, travels frequently for work, and her anxiety has sometimes left her imagining what would happen if she suffered a medical emergency while she was home alone with their children.
“Even to the point where Matt travels a lot for work, and I’m constantly thinking about, ‘Oh my gosh, what if something were to happen to me and I’m home alone with the kids? What if I pass out? What if I freaking die?’
What if, like, these crazy thoughts, and then I’m thinking, like, how will my kids, how will anyone know something happens to me? Dimitri doesn’t know how to call my mom or call 911.”
For Carmella, having children has essentially changed the stakes whenever she thinks about her health. Staying healthy isn’t only about herself anymore, because she now has two children depending on her.
“It’s like you want to take care of yourself better, you want to be healthier, you want to be a good example, you want to make sure you’re around as long as you can be for these little babies that rely on you.
And I think that’s just made everything a lot more apparent. And I’m grateful that I’ve been able to, like, take better care of myself.”
Carmella isn’t definitively shutting the door on wrestling here, but she’s clearly looking at the risks through a completely different lens than she did before motherhood. Right now, getting back between the ropes has to compete with something much bigger than the itch to wrestle again — making sure she can be there for her kids.
Do you think Carmella’s comments suggest a wrestling return is becoming less likely, or could she eventually become comfortable with getting back in the ring? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
