WWE’s Women Know They’re Underpaid Compared To Men
A former WWE superstar is speaking out about women not being paid similarly to men in the company.
Carmella is a former WWE Women’s Champion and Women’s Tag Team Champion who had an impressive 12-year run with the company. However, Carmella’s WWE contract expired recently, which means she is no longer with the company.
The last time Carmella had a match in WWE was in March 2023. A few months later, she announced she was pregnant and in November 2023, Carmella gave birth to her first son with her WWE announcer husband Corey Graves.
After having the baby, Carmella has spoken publicly about dealing with drop foot, which meant that she had a physical ailment preventing her from getting back into the ring. In Carmella’s mind, WWE was punishing her for having a baby.
It just feels like a sh***y way to end a twelve-year career with the company, like, this is how it ended. I got a call saying that my contract was up in ten days…ghosted. Ghosted, completely ghosted.
What if this is the end of my career? Like, what am I doing with my life? What do I have to offer? Why wasn’t I given an opportunity somewhere else…I feel like I’m being punished because I had a baby.
Carmella Feels WWE Women Are Underpaid Compared To Men
In the current era of WWE, there are more women under contract than ever before if you consider how many are on Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and in the developmental phase of their careers. It wasn’t always like that since the roster was dominated by men. It’s a new era and a lot of fans are happy to see so many women under contract.
During an appearance on the Barely Famous podcast, Carmella talked about how men like Big E and her husband Corey Graves were given other opportunities when they weren’t allowed to wrestle anymore while she was not given those same opportunities. Carmella also made the point that women aren’t getting paid like men are in WWE, but they are unwilling to talk about it publicly.
“For example, my husband (Corey Graves), years ago, he had gotten several concussions. He had to retire. They let him figure out another path. They let him try commentary and he completely excelled at that. He’s incredible. He’s like one of, if not the best commentator WWE has. He’s incredible.
There’s another guy, a couple years ago, Big E, he’s a friend of mine. He broke his neck unfortunately in the ring. But, he was given the opportunity to have another avenue to succeed.
Why wasn’t I afforded (those) same opportunities? That’s what I keep asking myself because I feel like I have a lot to offer. I have a fan base, I represent the company well. Why wasn’t I given an opportunity somewhere else? When I’ve shown interest and shown that I wanted to contribute in any way that I could, and they didn’t give me that opportunity and I just — is it because I’m a woman?
And I don’t wanna keep saying these things but I just feel like there — it is 2025 but we still have a long way to go with equality. I think many of the women there are extremely underpaid compared to the men and that’s just a fact. Everyone there knows it. The women working there know it and they maybe can’t say it because they’re working so let me say it. I’m gonna say it and speak up for them because it’s important, and there’s some work to do I feel like.”
Carmella’s husband Corey Graves was moved from SmackDown to NXT to start 2025 and wasn’t happy about it at first. However, Graves has settled in on NXT to form a three-man team with Vic Joseph and Booker T. Over the last decade, Graves has been an announcer on Raw, SmackDown, NXT and called many major PLE shows.