The pressures of being a second-generation wrestling star are certainly plenty, but coming from a family inside the industry certainly comes with a few terrific stories, too.
That’s certainly the case for Bianca Carelli. The daughter of famed WWE star Santino Marella, Carelli’s upbringing allowed her the opportunity to accompany her father to a number of his professional wrestling bookings and training sessions, including one that WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix recently tweeted out detailing her memory of a 10-year-old Carelli cutting a promo at an OVW training session.
Carelli and I recently chatted about the tweet and her memories of the promo as part of our upcoming interview for Love Wrestling.
“So first of all, Beth is a super sweetheart,” she began at the mention of Phoenix’s tweet. “She’s like the nicest ever. She was at OVW; a lot of people that have had careers or still have careers with WWE were at OVW when my dad was there. Of course, I’m little and all I know is that my dad’s in Kentucky, he’s wrestling, and he wants me to see what it’s like. So, there I go with my Hello Kitty backpack, my Nintendo DS, and I’m sitting in the stands. I just watched the wrestling classes, which were like Rip Rogers just like yelling at everyone. Totally awesome.”
“One day they’re doing promos,” Carelli continued. “My Dad, like, I can’t fully remember this, but I remember watching them do promos and I remember my dad saying ‘do you want to do one?’ I think they were practicing, the next day they were gonna tape. So I was like, ‘okay, sure!’ I always did like school plays and the speech contests and I liked talking in front of the class or answering questions. I was kind of like a nerd, Teacher’s pet, nerd kind of girl. My pencils were always really sharp so they were ready to write with. Anyways, I came up with the promo and then I cut the promo. They actually – my dad posted a picture of it, I think we actually have the footage of it.
I don’t really know where it is.”
The Battle Arts Academy Women’s Champion paused before continuing.
“But, I remember it was actually like a heel promo.
I remember it! It was like, ‘everyone says the OVW Divas are the best. That they’re the most beautiful, and they’re the most talented,’ and then I think I said something like, ‘well, they must be blind!’ I was so little. Then, I remember saying something along the lines of like, ‘you know, you guys, you’re like cassette tapes,’ that’s how old back we’re going. I was like, ‘you guys are cassette tapes, I’m an iPod Nano,’ and that’s back when the iPod Nano was the thing!'”
I had to chuckle at the comment.
“Beautiful. Oh my god. Well played!” I exclaimed.
“Yeah, I guess I got them,” the 2nd-generation star grinned.
“Burn!”
“That was my big line, I guess ‘I’m an iPod Nano and blah, blah, blah.'”
“That’s all I really remember from it,” concluded Carelli. “But, I remember all the girls, especially Alicia Fox was like, ‘oh my god, that was awesome!’ I was just a little kid and I felt cool. I felt good about it.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotes used.
