Leah Van Dale’s twelve year career in WWE was marked by record-breaking performances and a growing legion of fans. It was surprisingly successful for a young woman with no prior wrestling experience, trying to win audience share in a world built on hyper-masculine spectacle. “For so long, it was bra-and-panties matches. Women were being exploited. That was not what I wanted for my life,” she recalls. “But by the time I got my contract, women were getting more time, more matches. I thought, let’s see what I can do.”
That decision and nothing-to-lose attitude changed everything. She quickly became a breakout star under her persona, Carmella. I just fell in love with it,” she recalls. “I loved the athletics of it. I loved being physical. I loved being a character and performing. I guess you could say the rest is history.”
For Van Dale, though, her story neither began nor ended in the ring. This dancer turned wrestler parlayed her lifelong performance skills into a new fandom format for WWE’s macho spectacle. Yet her most transformative chapter began not in the ring, but in the deeply personal space of motherhood. Now, she’s taking the lessons of grit, resilience, and showmanship into her next chapter, as founder of ‘Snatch,’ a women’s health and wellness platform rooted in community and defying societal stigma. I sat down with Van Dale to discuss her unexpected path from dancer to wrestler to founder, and why she believes women need to create a new space for unfiltered conversations about their health.
