A Quote by Carmella

I have had way more opportunity on 'Smackdown Live' than I ever did at NXT. — © Carmella
I have had way more opportunity on 'Smackdown Live' than I ever did at NXT.
I do believe that Raw, SmackDown, and NXT are the three brands, and I think that people can come from Raw or SmackDown to NXT, and I think that people from NXT can go to Raw or SmackDown. It's very interchangeable.
I'm really excited to bring everything that I had learned from NXT and put that into the character on 'SmackDown Live' and be one of the biggest, if not best heels the company has ever seen.
I wasn't featured in NXT. I never had a TakeOver match. I never held a title. I wasn't a featured athlete. I knew, going in to SmackDown Live, I had to kick down the door and take every opportunity for what it was, and sometimes in WWE - and in life - those opportunities don't come back.
After starting off in NXT and then getting here to 'SmackDown Live,' all I ever wanted to do was to create history and be a part of the women's revolution.
I was in NXT for about a little over two years, and then I was drafted to 'SmackDown Live,' and now I can say I'm the first-ever Miss Money in the Bank.
I didn't feel that I was ready to leave NXT. When I was called up to SmackDown, I was very nervous. I hadn't done many of the things at NXT that I thought I was supposed to. I didn't have a TakeOver match. I never held the title. I only had a few matches on NXT TV and to be called up and told, 'Well, here you go!'
There's a level of exposure that 'Smackdown' and 'Raw' get that other brands like 'NXT,' 'NXT UK,' and '205 Live' do not get. But at the same time, I feel like I would not be who I am without '205 Live.'
A different demographic of people watch NXT compared to Raw and Smackdown; NXT is followed by the real knowledgeable, hardcore internet audience, whereas the main shows have a more family feel.
I wanted to be a part of WWE and part of NXT first, as, if I went to 'Raw' or 'SmackDown' right away, I would always wonder what NXT would have been like.
To me, it was so exciting that after just a short time of being on my own in NXT, I proved that I could do this on my own, and I got drafted to 'SmackDown Live.'
I just look at like, if I'm doing 200 plus dates a year on the road with Raw or SmackDown, or I'm doing a manageable load of 30 to 50 matches with NXT - I can do four years of that in the time that I do one year on Raw or SmackDown.
I think '205 Live' is the ultimate underdog story. This isn't a knock on any other brands; you have your stars on 'Raw,' you have your stars on 'SmackDown Live,' and I almost feel like NXT already has this amazing face to continue building stars, but '205 Live,' that is not the case. There is no foundation. We are not capitalizing off of stars.
In terms of my own life and the mistakes I made and the struggles I had, I'm grateful for them. It taught me more than success and opportunity ever did.
Any time guys move to 'Raw' and 'SmackDown,' I think that is what has kept NXT so relevant and has kept the fans so invested because they are now conditioned that whoever leaves or comes in, NXT, as a product, is going to give really exciting sports entertainment every time.
For a long time, we had Raw and SmackDown, and there wasn't really anything else. The NXT Universe kinda opened up channels for wrestlers to come in from the independent circuits, like myself.
The main thing is that everything is taped at Full Sail. It is kind of like competing on home turf every time in terms of the tapings and specials. The main roster travels, I am in Hartford for live Smackdown, then head to Edmonton and Calgary and Denver. It is travel travel travel. NXT is more stationary.
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