Who is Carmella's fiance? WWE star claims she gets no respect because of 'good looks'
WWE star Carmella has stoked a bit of controversy claiming her good looks are an issue when it comes to the sport. In a recent podcast appearance, she claimed "I’m never going to get the respect that I deserve because of how I look and that’s just how it is." It's not just her fans who are focused on her good looks though, she recently declared herself 'The Most Beautiful Woman in all of WWE', leveraging her looks for both backstage appearances and matches.
The star has been making headlines frequently for a large number of reasons. Back in February 2020, her bout with Charlotte Flair left Flair with a serious injury and some lost teeth. But, it's been her relationship that's caught most people's eyes. Carmella is currently engaged to Corey Graves, a retired professional wrestler. Back in 2019, he was accused of cheating on his wife with Carmella, which he denied, but it clearly ended very badly for Graves' then-wife Amy.
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The accusations were made in February. By October 2019, Graves and Carmella were so close, they were featured in an episode of 'Total Divas'. The episode gave us a first look into the couple's turbulent relationship, which appears to have grown stronger since. On October 24, Graves popped the question and the two are now engaged. If you are wondering who exactly Graves is, here's everything we know about him.
Who is Corey Graves?
Originally called Matthew Polinsky, Graves was born in Pittsburgh and introduced to pro wrestling early thanks to his dad, whose friend ran an independent wrestling promotion. "The guy wouldn’t have trained me normally because I was only 14, but since my dad was friends with him, he put me through the school," he recounted in a 2010 interview. During his early days, Graves used the stage name Sterling James Keenan, while also working as a body piercer part-time.
He debuted in 2000 and has since gone on to appear in numerous promotions, from independent promotions to the International Wrestling Cartel and One Pro Wrestling. Since 2006, he also began to appear in WWE matches, but he got his first WWE contract in 2011. However, it didn't last long and he was forced to announce his retirement in 2014 due to a series of concussion issues.
Graves then transitioned to a commentary role, first with the NXT team then with RAW. He's since jumped around a bit but is still working as a WWE commentator. In 2019, he also launched his own podcast 'WWE After the Bell', and in 2020 launched a second one with then-girlfriend (and now fiance) Carmella called 'Bear With Us'.
The Graves-Carmella story
In early 2019, Graves and his then-wife Amy Polinsky filed for divorce, after being separated for months. It's unclear why the two decided to split up, but during the divorce proceedings, Graves began to see Carmella. By the end of the year, the duo went public with their appearance on 'Total Divas'. Since then, they've been pretty close and extremely public, after their rather rocky start.
On October 24, 2021, three years after they began seeing each other, the duo got engaged. Carmella announced the engagement in a social media post tagged 'Best birthday ever', showing off her ring. The black-and-white photo quickly went viral, with many fans celebrating the announcement on social media.
Incidentally, it was on Graves' podcast 'After the Bell' that Carmella made her rather controversial statements. She revealed, "When I got signed in NXT, I remember Bill DeMott said, ‘You’re going to have to work twice as hard as everyone else because you’re pretty'." Carmella added those claims "fired her up", but she still wanted respect for her work and not just her looks. "If I didn’t look like this and I had the same matches and same career, people would be like ‘Carmella is amazing, we love her.’ Because I look how I do, I’m not going to get the respect that I deserve," she lamented.
But it doesn't look like she's letting it defeat her. Not only is Carmella working twice as hard, but she's also co-opted her looks to dub herself 'The Most Beautiful Woman in all of WWE', a nickname that's now become her name on Twitter.