Leah Van Dale, formerly Carmella in WWE, had her contract expire and not renewed in February after missing two years of her career. She went out of action in 2023 due to her pregnancy and giving birth to her first child. From there, she developed a medical condition named drop foot that had left her out of the ring and away from WWE.
After a couple weeks from this news breaking, Van Dale explained that she did feel ghosted by WWE. She went on to say that her contract expiration was told to her 10 days before it occurred and there was no indication to help her with a new deal.
In a new interview with the New York Post Sports, Van Dale did say that if she were to return to wrestling, she would want it to be WWE.
“So I’m not like a never-say-never person. To me, I do feel such loyalty to WWE. I loved my time working there,” she said.
“If I ever went back, I would hope it would be for WWE. I would wanna go back as Carmella and moonwalk my way out there and be in a WWE ring.
I do feel like that would be my home, but I’m not gonna say never, right? Who knows what the future holds. I don’t wanna become a hypocrite.”
Van Dale first started with WWE in 2013 and is considered to be a home grown talent. You can watch the full interview below.
The tag team division is heating up in TNA thanks to NXT teams who are looking for championship gold.
Add to the upcoming episode of iMPACT! on April 3, a tag team match between Spitfire and NXT’s Meta-Girls has been added. The Meta-Girls crossed the line into TNA a number of weeks ago. Ash & Heather by Elegance were crowned the new champions at Sacrifice, and ever since then, Meta-Girls along with Tatum Paxley & Gigi Dolin have been wanting the gold.
Meta-Girls have a chance to put themselves into title contention if they are able to get a win over the former two-time champions Spitfire.
THURSDAY at 8/7c on @AXSTV in the US, @Sportsnet 360 in Canada, and TNA+ worldwide.
The Women’s World Title was on the line in London during the main event. Rhea Ripley was hell bent on making her way to WrestleMania by way of defeating IYO SKY to regain the Women’s World Championship. This did not go the way Ripley had planned or hoped.
Bianca Belair served as the special guest referee. Belair had the most interest in this match, because whoever walked out as champion would be her opponent at WrestleMania in just three weeks. Belair had to call for a double disqualification.
First, Belair was inadvertently knocked in the face by Ripley who went after SKY who dodged out of the way. This left Belair flying out of the ring. While there was no referee to make the count, Ripley had SKY pinned for about a 15 count. Once Belair made it back in the ring, Ripley went for the pin again and SKY kicked out at two and a half. Ripley grew frustrated and would strike Belair again (this time definitely on purpose) before SKY inadvertently landed a missile drop kick on Belair launching her out of the ring yet again. Belair gave up and called for the bell and decided on a double disqualification.
Post match, an irate Ripley delivered Riptides to both Belair and SKY. The crowd chanted to do it again, and she did so to Belair from the ropes to end the show.
There is no official word as of yet on if Ripley will be added to the WrestleMania match (but we know…)
Elsewhere, we learned that next week, Bayley will challenge Lyra Valkyria for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez aren’t too happy about that as Rodriguez lost her title match against Valkyria last week.
Maxxine Dupri let Adam Pearce know that she wants to get into the tag team division, with Natalya.
The countdown to this year’s WrestleMania is in full swing. WrestleMania 41 takes place on the weekend of April 19 and 20. 52 (really 55) matches in the history of WrestleMania include women. Diva Dirt will countdown two matches daily to rank all 52 leading up to this year’s event.
This was probably one of the better if not the best “Playboy” matches by sheer wrestling. Ashley and Maria really did well in this match for them not being on the same level as Beth and Melina. The weird lights going out is not something I remembered and then they had to finish the match with a spotlight which I actually thought was a nice touch, even if it wasn’t planned.
The lumberjills actually did some work in this match (not a whole lot) as opposed to the prior year’s match between Melina and Ashley where they didn’t have to interact even once.
37. WrestleMania 27
Trish Stratus, Snooki, and John Morrison def. LayCool and Dolph Ziggler
Ah Snooki, honestly, I was impressed by the 20 seconds she was in the match. I am glad they didn’t utilize here throughout it as they did with past match with Maria Menounos and just let her lay there. And this really should have just been the women, because why were the men even there?!
WWE Superstar Asuka is reportedly set for a return soon.
Asuka has been out of action for almost a year as she had a knee injury last May. She dropped the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships that she held with Kairi Sane at Backlash France to Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill. This ended the Kabuki Warriors second reign as tag team champions at 99 days.
In a new report by Cory Hays of PWNReports, Asuka is planned to return by May of this year. It is likely to be after Backlash which takes place in St. Louis, Missouri on May 10. She will be returning to the Raw brand.
@PWNReports has learned of some potential return dates for a few superstars coming back from injury. Asuka is set to return to #WWERAW sometime in May, likely following Backlash. Tonga Loa will look rejoin #Smackdown in June and Ilja Dragunov is targeting to be back on #WWERAW in… pic.twitter.com/WMgENkgaOW
The two have been working together for months now. When they are being utilized, they are often walking away with losses and there has not been a real positive direction for the duo. According to a response by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, there hasn’t been anything in the plans for The Vendetta for weeks.
When The Vendetta were consistently on AEW programming, they would often tease adding a new member to the group. According to Sapp, there was never an actual plan to add another member. It was only an idea thrown out to add intrigue. Purrazzo has made creative pitches but there are no immediate plans for the duo.
Valkyrie made her debut with AEW in March 2023, while Purrazzo joined the promotion in January 2024.
On today's Select Answers, SRS revealed that there haven't been immediate creative plans for the Vendetta over the last number of weeks and there was no plan for a third member.
Subscribe to Fightful Select to get access to the weekly Q&A plus 5-7 Select Answers articles weekly! pic.twitter.com/qrewajKkWR
The seventh episode of WWE’s LFG had a special guest, Gunther. Gunther was the one who decided what teams got the points this week. Zena Sterling was a stand out in this episode after her coach, Bubba Ray, wanted her to show a different side of her this week. And she met the challenge by finally earning the first point for Team Bubba.
Mickie James had some comments on Sterling’s ring attire. Although her critic makes sense, when we have current women at the top of the division Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan wearing even worse, it is an odd comment.
Bubba Ray brought something out of Tyra Mae Steele this week after saying she is too happy and smiles too much. She didn’t receive positive comments about her match against Sterling as everyone who commented said it wasn’t her best.
Former NXT Women’s Champion and WWE talent Mandy Rose is surprised that her name isn’t mentioned on NXT TV. Rose worked for the company for seven years and was the leader of Toxic Attraction leading up to her release.
Recently, Stephanie Vaquer became a double champion in NXT and was mentioned as the first-ever female double champion in the brand’s history. Rose felt some type a way about this as she unified the NXT Women’s & NXT UK Women’s Championship. Many fans tried correcting her that Vaquer is a double champion while Rose simply unified two titles. Rose said that was all about “semantics.”
While speaking on Busted Open Radio, Rose responded to a question that she is surprised that she isn’t mentioned on NXT TV. Regardless of her not fitting into the double champion discussion, she is often omitted as if she never existed.
“It does. I asked the same question you’re asking to be honest. I don’t know, I really don’t know what it was. I think, like circumstantial and there’s been a lot of the people in the company that have- things happen and time goes on and they come back and it is what it is. It’s a business, right, at the end of the day, and they usually look at it like that, it’s a business,” Rose said.
Rose continues to say that she would want something with substance if she were to return to the ring. She acknowledged that she has not been reached out to by WWE or any other major wrestling company to return to the ring.
“I’ve never hung up the boots and said ‘I’m done.’ I’m still young and all that but if it made sense, I would definitely consider it. But that question I ask myself a lot too,” Rose said.
Rose talks more on this as seen below.
"I feel like I am a little bit erased from their rolodex of superstars. I could be wrong, though."@mandysacs discusses the possibility of a WWE return.
The countdown to this year’s WrestleMania is in full swing. WrestleMania 41 takes place on the weekend of April 19 and 20. 52 (really 55) matches in the history of WrestleMania include women. Diva Dirt will countdown two matches daily to rank all 52 leading up to this year’s event.
This match was solid. Nothing wrong with it, just the typical too short. It ended abruptly also, which given the time they received makes sense. Blayze retained here and this was Leilani’s first WWF match that was televised since 1988 when this took place in 1994.
A true intergender match at its finest. This was fun.
Chyna was truly incredibly over and was put with a team of Too Cool who were extremely popular. She even got the pin for her team on Eddie Guerrero. The dynamic that grew between Chyna and Eddie was one of the more successful on screen couples in wrestling history and continues to be memorable.
Check back in with us here at Diva Dirt tomorrow for numbers 38 and 37 as the countdown continues!
This week’s episode of AEW Collision was planned for a Jamie Hayter vs. Queen Aminata main event. This was Hayter’s return after being missing in action for a couple of months. However, Aminata suffered a wrist injury against Julia Hart last week so was replaced in the match by Billie Starkz.
In a backstage interview with Aminata, Serena Deeb interrupted and continued to push her narrative that Aminata needs to listen to her.
Hayter would go on to face Starkz and get a victory in the main event after hitting a springboard Hayterade. Post match, Athena would emerge to the ramp as she and Hayter exchanged words as Collision went off the air.
AZM will be challenging Starlight Kid for the Wonder of Stardom Championship at the upcoming All Star Grand Queendom event. The event takes place on April 27. This will be the first time AZM is challenging for this belt as Starlight Kid has held it since December and recently defended it against Konami.
A championship that AZM has challenged for is the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship. She challenged for it when the gold was previously held by Stephanie Vaquer. Now she wants another shot at the title against the current champion Mercedes Moné. Moné has held this title since defeating Vaquer for 273 days and counting. A date for this encounter between AZM and Moné has not been set at this time.
While AZM will be challenging for the Wonder of Stardom Title at ALL STAR GRAND QUEENDOM, she also made a challenge for the NJPW STRONG Women's Championship.
AZM will finally face Mercedes Moné one-on-one — something both wrestlers have wanted since Moné made her NJPW debut in… pic.twitter.com/kE9rkuBoZI
The annual Owen Hart Cup is starting soon and the brackets will be revealed this Wednesday on Dynamite. Six of the eight women have declared their spots as of the March 29 episode of Collision. The names are as follows:
Prior winners of the Owen Hart Cup have been Britt Baker, Willow Nightingale, and last year’a Mariah May. May shocked the world after her win by attacking Toni Storm.
Thunder Rosa and Kris Statlander have officially entered the Owen Hart Cup Tournament!
The Forever Champ, #ROH World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz have a message for TBS Champion Mercedes Moné AND Athena has entered herself into the Owen Hart Cup Tournament!
The forever ROH Women’s World Champion Athena confronted the TBS Champion Mercedes Moné on the March 29 episode of Collision. Prior to the confrontation, Moné was in action against Robyn Renegade. She defeated Renegade with the Moné Maker into the Statement Maker causing her to tap out.
After the match, Moné would get interview in the ring. She said that she is declaring herself in the upcoming Owen Hart Cup Tournament. Moné plans to win the tournament and head to All In to become the AEW Women’s World Champion.
The name of Billie Starkz was brought up by Tony Schiavone, which Moné instantly felt some type of way about, and asked who even trained her? She said that Starkz isn’t nearly as good as Renegade is and gave Robyn her kudos. Renegade was still in the ring.
Athena came out and once in the ring, the crowd chanted for both Athena and the CEO. Moné went after Athena with the TBS Title belt as the two got physical. Renegade went to help Moné up, but the TBS Champion escapes the ring as Athena hit Renegade with O-Face. Moné retreated to end the segment.
Per Fightful, a report has come out that both Robyn and her sister Charlette have been pitched to join Moné as a faction. This may be the start of that.
4-Belts Moné is out for more gold!
Officially entering herself into the Owen Hart Cup!
Timeless Toni Storm may be in a bit of trouble. In one week and a day on April 6, Storm will be defending the AEW Women’s World Title against Megan Bayne. Bayne pinned the champion in a tag team affair last Wednesday on Dynamite.
The 'Timeless' one tries to come to terms with Wednesday's beating at the hands of Megan Bayne…
Storm started off the March 29 episode of Collision. She asked Bayne to come on out but she figured that her upcoming challenger was too busy smashing watermelons and eating babies. Storm talks about Bayne being the better woman when Bayne pinned her. She says she returned to her hotel room and laid in the dark. She kept going over and over the same scene in her head. Storm says she woke up sweating more than usual. She went to take a piss, stubbed her toe, hit her head and then looked at herself in the mirror.
The timeless one then realized who the hell she is! She is Timeless Toni Storm and she vows to leave Dynasty with Bayne’s tits in her purse. Out of nowhere, Penelope Ford kicked the champion in the face. Storm fought back before Bayne attacked her from behind. She sent a message and told Storm to bow down after hitting the F-5.
The rumors have been flying heavily the past few weeks that we are finally going to get a second Evolution this summer. In fact, there’s talks it taking place in July and in Connecticut tentatively. There has also been talk that an announcement for this event will happen in the next few weeks prior to WrestleMania. Of course, all of this is just that, rumors, at this point. However, as women wrestling fan’s we can’t sit here and say we haven’t had fantasy bookings ever since the first Evolution took place in 2018.
Here is a fantasy card (and the most realistic) card that could be put together by Diva Dirt. We know in this Triple H era; we get about five matches per premium live event. Of course, some of these PLE’s have specialty matches such as the Royal Rumble, and Elimination Chamber that takes up a lot of time. The 2018 event had a total of seven matches that were aired and a dark match making eight total.
We likely won’t get eight matches, but we should…so here are the eight matches we would like to see in the card order. Let us know in the comments what you would want to see?
WWE Women’s Championship – Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Natalya
WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship – Bayley (c) vs. Roxanne Perez vs. Liv Morgan Last Woman Standing Match
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Elimination Match – Becky Lynch & Lyra Valkyria (c) vs. The Bella Twins vs. Meta-Girls vs. Kayden Carter & Katana Chance vs. Piper Niven & Alba Fyre vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
AEW has announced a Toni Storm segment for tonight’s episode of Collision. Storm suffered a tag team loss on Dynamite as she was pinned by her upcoming Dynasty opponent, Megan Bayne. Storm was teamed with Thunder Rosa while Bayne was with Penelope Ford.
The countdown to this year’s WrestleMania is in full swing. WrestleMania 41 takes place on the weekend of April 19 and 20. 52 (really 55) matches in the history of WrestleMania include women. Diva Dirt will countdown two matches daily to rank all 52 leading up to this year’s event.
The fact that this was the only time the Divas Championship was defended at WrestleMania. What? If they weren’t too busy just putting together tag team matches for the whole Divas Era it may have been different.
Anyway, this match was doomed from the start. They truly put it in a death slot and right after Brock Lesnar ended The Undertaker’s streak. The crowd was drained, commentary was talking more about Brock beating The Undertaker than the match itself. AJ was barely in it, and she just appeared back in the ring at the end to put Naomi in the Black Widow to win the match by submission. This was just an example of throw every woman into a match and see what happens.
I will say it did allow Divas such as Eva Marie and Rosa Mendes to do a decent amount in the match. And there was a fun spot with Brie & Nikki which got a small pop from the crowd. Other than that, another match that was just thrown together for the Divas during this time.
I really struggled where to put this, and I don’t think I can put it that much higher. For the sheer fact that it was memorable for Chyna to win her first (and only) women’s title was iconic, but that’s about it.
The match was super short, under 3 minutes, and Chyna was mostly known for her power so that just dominated Ivory. I just remember feeling so disappointed back when it happened knowing the match should have been epic.
Check back in with us here at Diva Dirt tomorrow for numbers 40 and 39 as the countdown continues!
Hello everyone, welcome to the CMLL weekly review! This week we will be covering three women’s matches.
First, on Tuesday from La Arena Coliseo de Guadalajara, we had one half of the new CMLL World Women’s Tag Team Champions, Lluvia, teaming up with La Catalina and Kira in a six-woman tag match against her rival Dark Silueta, Persephone, and Sanely.
Se mantiene la rivalidad entre Lluvia y Dark Silueta. La Catalina y Kira acompañan a la técnica, mientras que La Ruda #1 es respaldada por Persephone y Sanely.
Lluvia was able to lead her team to the win, with la cavernaria.
Una cavernaria fue suficiente para que Dark Silueta cayera ante Lluvia en la lucha de Amazonas. Persephone y Sanely perdieron su combate junto a La Infernal mientras que Kira y La Catalina lograron el resultado con La Pequeña Tentación#MartesDeGlamourCMLL#CMLL#2LeyendasCMLLpic.twitter.com/k3HarELUbg
On the same night in La Arena México, we had a different tag team match between the newly crowned Mexican National Women’s Champion, India Sioux, Princesa Sugehit, and one half of the Mexican National Women’s Tag Team Champions, Skadi, versus Candela, Metálica, and the CMLL World Women’s Champion, Zeuxis.
With their athleticism, Las Técnicas were able to get the first fall while Las Rudas got the second fall, but after a triple suplex, the babyfaces cleaned the ring to finish the job, winning the match with an armbar and a powerbomb.
Lastly, on Friday, we had another tag match; this time, the CMLL tag champs, Las Chicas Indomables, battled Reyna Isis and Persephone.
Reyna Isis le ha robado la victoria a Lluvia y La Pequeña Tentación la reta a un mano a mano.
Coming at number 19 of WWE’s 50Greatest WrestleMania Matches Ever, we have one of only two women main events in the history of the show. It lands itself at number 19 and makes the fourth match on this list to include women.
At WrestleMania 37, Sasha Banks defended the SmackDown Women’s Championship on Night One in the main event against Bianca Belair. This made Banks and Belair as the first-ever two Black women to wrestle for a championship at WrestleMania. The also became two of only five women to ever main event a WrestleMania following the Triple Threat at WrestleMania 35 that involved Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, and Charlotte Flair.
Belair would go on to win this match and become the SmackDown Women’s Champion, earning her first ever championship in WWE at the time. This ended Banks’ longest reign as champion in the WWE at 167 days.
Other matches that have mad WWE’s list so far are –
36. Becky Lynch (c) vs. Bianca Belair Raw Women’s Title WrestleMania 38
31. Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch Divas Title/WWE Women’s Title WrestleMania 32
21. Stephanie McMahon & Triple H vs. Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle WrestleMania 34
WWE’s international tour continues, and Friday Night SmackDown aired this week from inside the O2 Arena in London, England.
We got our first glimpse of Team Blue’s female fighters this week in a backstage segment with Zelina Vega and the recently transferred duo of Kayden Carter and Katana Chance, who saw what the Secret Hervice (Alba Fyre and Piper Niven) did to Vega following her match last week where she lost to Niven. Carter says that the two and Chelsea Green think they’re untouchable, but someone’s going to have to stop them eventually. It’s a “speak of the devil” moment for the three, as Fyre and Niven enter the room to clear space for the Women’s United States Champion. Vega says that she’s glad that the “bootleg Men in Black” decided to crash the party. She continues to speak as she adds that she may be small, but the “small threat” is a big threat to Green and her championship, otherwise it wouldn’t have taken the trio to beat her. Carter and Chance agree, and decide that tonight, Fyre and Niven will see what happens when the odds are even.
Their tag team match was next following the segment. Carter and Chance started off with a double team sequence, but both women would be taken out by a Swanton Bomb from Niven at ringside. The “spicy margarita” would get back in the ring to focus on Chance, and Fyre was tagged in to continue the offense. Niven would use her tie to try and choke Chance while the referee wasn’t looking, allowing the Secret Hervice to continue controlling the match. Chance would tag in Carter; the former NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion gained momentum for her team by throwing the artist formerly known as Kay Lee Ray in for a loop, but not enough momentum could put her away as Fyre had tagged in Niven once again, with a senton attempt failing to work. Carter and Chance took advantage, hitting a lateral press for a near-fall.
The end would come when Chelsea Green distracted the referee, which frustrated Chance; this would lead to Niven pushing Carter into her to send her to the floor, followed by a Piper Driver for the win. The trio would continue to beat them down post-match, but Vega would run in to make the save, attacking Niven and Fyre but being pummeled by Green, who tried to hit the Unprettier but was reversed. Vega would try and get the upper hand, but just like last week, was once again outnumbered by the Secret Hervice.
After re-emerging last week to exact payback on Jade Cargill for attacking her twice in this past month in response to being revealed as her attacker, a Naomi vignette aired featuring her talking to herself, unsure of why she was filming the segment and how she ended up here. Turning to the camera, Naomi would say that she’s always been a woman to do the right thing. Directing her attention to Bianca Belair, she questions the EST on thinking that attacking Jade was somehow different from doing the right thing. When Naomi thinks about all that she has sacrificed and given, it breaks her heart to be seen as the “bad guy” of the situation between her, Belair, and Cargill. At the same time, she just can’t understand how Jade could just come in out of nowhere and take her place. She then asks Bianca, who inspired her? Who has inspired women over the last decade? Who always had her back from day one? It’s not Jade.
Naomi concludes by saying that what she has learned throughout this situation is that you teach people how to treat you, and she is done with being treated as a third wheel. She’s done being pushed to the side, with being too nice, undervalued, underutilized, and underappreciated. Moving forward, her message to Cargill is that if she continues to get in her way, she strongly advises her to proceed with caution.
Jade Cargill was in Nick Aldis’ office, wanting to get her hands on Naomi and demanding to know where she is. Aldis says that he nor anyone else has seen her, so as far as he’s concerned, she’s not in the building, but Jade doesn’t care, because when she finds her, it’s on sight. As Jade walks out of his office, Michin & B-Fab appear. B-Fab tells Cargill that they think what Naomi did to her was trash and uncalled for, and know that Jade will take care of her, while Michin says she’ll take care of Charlotte Flair; the two have a match following Charlotte’s victory over B-Fab two weeks ago. B-Fab continues and says that Naomi deserves everything that’s coming to her: no sympathy, no regrets.
As Michin made her entrance accompanied by B-Fab, Naomi would attack and punch her in the ring. Turning her attention to B-Fab, Naomi would throw her into the barricade and the commentary desk before Cargill chased her enemy away and checked up on her. Helping B-Fab to the back, Charlotte Flair would make her entrance, at which point Cargill and Flair would have a brief stare-down.
With Michin still visibly hurt but ready to fight, Charlotte would give her a superkick and a near-fall attempt, but The Crazy One held on, taking some hard chops from The Queen. The match remained in Flair’s favor, with her putting Michin in many holds and more pin attempts. Michin eventually started to take control, although Flair was able to counter Eat Defeat and even kicked out of a powerbomb. After a second try at Eat Defeat, Charlotte would put her foot on the ropes and would drop to the floor, evading a kick that sent Michin crashing into the steel steps. Flair began to focus on Michin’s leg and put her in the Figure Eight to win via tap-out.
Immediately following the match, Jackie Redmond stood side-by-side with Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton to talk about last week’s interview segment. Stratton says that Flair loves to hear herself talk, and after 10 years in this business, she’s still so insecure that she wouldn’t let her get a word out. She did, however, learn something last week: walking into WrestleMania, she’s not the one who has something to lose. If she loses, she loses to Charlotte Flair, the legend, as a 25 year-old rookie with a year of being on SmackDown. But if Charlotte Flair loses? Then she loses to an “undeserving, delusional, unoriginal, backflip-doing, blonde hair having, little girl”. The Buff Barbie can’t wait to see the look on her face when she hears “AND STILL…” after retaining her title; maybe then Flair will shut up for the sake of everybody. They say what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, and she’s going to make damn sure that Flair’s massive ego stays there, because she’s walking out of WrestleMania as the WWE Women’s Champion.
Friday Night SmackDown airs next week from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. Here’s what is set to take place:
B-Fab vs. Naomi
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s edition of SmackDown in the comments below!
A new Naomi vignette has aired on the new episode of SmackDown in London, England on March 25. In the vignette, Naomi address both Jade Cargill but more so Bianca Belair.
Naomi explains that she is tired of being the third wheel. She asks Belair who inspired her, who has been there for her from the start? Because it wasn’t Jade.
Check out the new vignette below. SmackDown will air in the United States as a taped show at its normal time.
