Carmella was picked last in the WWE draft.The Princess of Staten Island must be happy to move up to the main roster, but that final-pick status places unique pressures upon her. It implies, albeit unfairly, that Carmella is ready for prime time, but barely so. It invites the inevitable backlash from fans who view the draft as a shoot. It invites snap comparisons to her undrafted, NXT counterparts. Why was she drafted instead of Bayley' Or Asuka' Or Samoa Joe' Or Shinsuke Nakamura'Carmella has always fought to be taken seriously. Aside from her debut match against Blue Pants, her boys, Enzo Amore and Big Cass, only occasionally accompanied her ringside. Meanwhile, she was ringside at every one of their matches, which reinforced her status as a valet rather than as an equal partner in their trio.Carmella had a difficult time getting over with the NXT fans. Maybe it was her lack of experience. Maybe it was her repeated, kayfabe rejections of Enzos advances. Maybe it was the you cant touch me princess attitude that she cultivated as her in-ring gimmick. Carmellas persona is a "tweener" type, with the line between trashy-fabulous heel and fabulous-fabulous babyface dangerously thin. Shes struggled in the past to define it.Heres one of her matches against Emma from 2014. Despite being pushed as a babyface, Carmella engaged in borderline heel tactics. She acted super cocky, even checking her nails while sitting on her opponents back.But heres another one of Carmellas matches from 2016, when she teamed with her mentor Bayley against Emma and Dana Brooke. In the time between these two appearances, Carmella refined her gimmick. She now had a moonwalk in her entrance. The cockiness was still there, but not unbearably so. She had an enthusiastic babyface taunt at 1:44 before transitioning into the crowd-pleasing Bronco Buster. Her ring work was noticeably improvedshe added in a crisp reverse STO before locking in the Code of Silence that ended the match.Her NXT title match against Bayley was further proof that Carmella had improved her ring work by leaps and bounds. She still looked unwieldy at times, but she was no longer stringing together pre-planned spots. She did a fair amount of grappling in the ring. She pulled off a nice series of pin combinations, not to mention a diving crossbody between the ropes.Today, Carmellas got an incredible look. Shes got fantastic mic skills. Her ring work is more than acceptable. Shes got the heart and passion. There was a fair amount of concern when she was first separated from Enzo and Cass, but in hindsight she's been better off for having done so. Her boys personalities are huge, so huge that they would have engulfed and overshadowed her. And again, a trio would continue playing into the valet perception that Carmella so clearly wants to shed.During Carmellas SmackDown debut against Natalya, the crowds response to her was disappointing. There were a few pockets of cheers here and there, but there was also a disconcerting amount of silence despite Carmellas surprise victory. Hopefully, this problem will fix itself.Carmella needs a grace periodmost fans only know her from NXT, and although SmackDown attracted 2.455 million viewers this past week, the WWE Network only has approximately 1.52 million subscribers total, according to the most recent earnings report.The casual fans should come around once theyve learned more about her; theres no reason why they wouldnt. And once they do that, the skys the limit for the Hottest Chick in the Ring. The SmackDown womens roster, aside from Becky Lynch and Natalya, lacks in top-tier star power. So its a ripe time for Carmella to prance in, pick up some key wins and build a strong, mainstream reputation.
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