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Former WWE star James Ellsworth recently joined PWMania.com for an exclusive in-depth interview. During the discussion, James Ellsworth opened up about the creative to his WWE character, helping Carmella win the first Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match, if he’d be open to a WWE, and much more.
You can watch the complete interview below:
WWE creative behind helping Carmella win the first Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match:
“They didn’t tell me til the day of that it was actually happening, but we have rehearsed at Money in the Bank. I mean, just watching wrestling my whole life and understanding it, when we did the rehearsal they had every girl climb the ladder and grab the briefcase, right? And then before we left they’re like ‘Hey James, climb up the ladder grab the briefcase real quick in case we have you like teasin you know, climbing the ladder at the at the show,’ and I was like oh okay and I climb. I remember after that, I went up and pull Carmella aside. Carmella and I always got along. I absolutely love her. I’m gonna publicly congratulate her and Graves. I call him SJK cause that was his indy name and I knew him way back then, we used to be on shows together. And you know, obviously, they’re expecting two great people. I’m glad that they got together because I love them. Both are both amazing people. So I just want to congratulate them.
“I remember telling her, I said, ‘you’re gonna win the match, I’m gonna help you win the match.’ In rehearsals, like there’s a reason why they just had me do that. I was like, I’m gonna help you win the match. And she goes, ‘James, it’s the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank… they’re not going to have a guy grabbing the briefcase. And I said, ‘that’s probably why they’re going to do…they like that controversy.’
“And then I remember the day of the Money in the Bank, when they had the meeting, they said, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing. The reason why we’re doing it is later on an episode of SmackDown, we’re going to do another one, you know, and like, it’s going to help us pop a rating for Smackdown, the controversy will be good.’ They explain it to everyone why we’re doing this. And so we always knew we were going to do the second Money in the Bank on SmackDown two weeks later, we always knew that. See the internet so funny place man, like something gets on there, and then people just go with it and say, oh they had to redo it because of the backlash of James grabbing it. No, it was planned the whole time. And I remember, I told her that day, the day of the Money in the Bank, I said ‘hey, I just spoke to Laurinaitis,’ because he was the one that told me, he told me first, he was like, ‘Hey, you’re gonna climb up there as quick as you can grab it, throw it down to Carmella, we got to rehearse that.’ And I told her she’s like, ‘really? Like, I’m winning it?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I told you, I’m gonna grab it and give it to you like, it’s gonna be great.’ And that was just me like, again, watching wrestling my whole life and knowing like, ‘Oh, this is what’s happening?’ You know?
If he’d return to WWE if an opportunity came:
“You never know, I was watching RAW, I think it was last RAW of October or the first RAW of November. And Dominick Mysterio said, ‘I’m this generations Eddie Guererro,’ and AJ Styles said, ‘No you’re not, you’re more like this generations James Ellsworth,’ said my name, and I was like wow that’s cool, and I remember, I text AJ the next day cause I still keep in touch with some people there and AJ’s one of them. I said, man, thank you for saying that, that was cool and I made a video reacting to it and put it on TikTok. He said, ‘Man, I loved your video, I’m glad we got to say your name.’ I’ve been gone almost 5 years now, I haven’t been on TV since like, I think the last thing I did for them was Smackdown 1000, it was just like a backstage they put on digital, so almost 5 years. They mentioned my name, they mention me every now and then. Over the years, people, Sasha Banks, Dana Brooke, Alexa Bliss, they’ve all said to Carmella, ‘Oh if it wasn’t for the chinless guy, you’d never been champion.’ AJ actually said my full name on RAW which was cool.
“I’ll be 40 years-old next year, I loved playing the James Ellsworth character, it was so much fun. Always felt like, I didn’t go through NXT, and this is just my feeling, I’ve never been told this. But they have time and money invested in people that went through the Performance Center and NXT, and I didn’t go through that system, so I always like an outsider, that caught wind with that Strowman match. I was always grateful they found a spot for me, cause I was never in their plans. They found a spot for me for a couple years. I had two good years there.
“I feel like the Ellsworth character is somebody you could bring back for a Royal Rumble appearance or another Money in the Bank appearance or something with AJ or something was Strowman or something with Carmella, and they all still work there. Since they all three still work there and I have history with them, if they did you know like AJ Styles, this is your life or Carmela this is your life. So you never say never. I feel like Carlito, for instance, he’s been gone 10/11 years and now over the last two or three years he’s been there twice and looks like it might be more. I don’t know… You never say never, MVP came back after several years. Several people have, I don’t know, I would love that Ellsworth character to be that, in the future, be a Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan, or a Jim Cornette manager for somebody, like I was for Carmella. It worked well and I keep going my thing, keep staying positive, keep working hard on the independence, like I said, I love enjoying time with my family. So whatever happens, I was very grateful to live my dream and be a part of WWE for a few years, I’ll never forget it. And absolutely, if they call and want me to do a cameo appearance or even more, I’ll definitely be there for them.”
His future and goals:
“As far as wrestling school goes, never say never. I’m enjoying what I’m doing, wrestling just about every week. During the week, I enjoy being a father, enjoy being a husband, like, my wife has helped me become the best version of myself. I have a great home life, and I am so blessed with that. You know, not a lot of people are blessed with that I am. So just always making sure my daughters are taken care of and doing good in life is first and foremost the most important thing to me. I’ll be 39 December, 40 next year, so you know, still wrestling on the independents, but I’m not going to be 65 years old wrestling…nothing against anybody that does…I just don’t want to do that. But right now just keep working hard. Keep a positive attitude and just, you know, enjoy one day at a time.”
Ellsworth also dived into his creative process for his character in WWE, his opinion on the current product today, advice for up and coming wrestlers, and more.
