Emma Opens Up About Why The Emmalina Gimmick Failed

A few months ago Emma was released from her WWE contract, and fans were shocked. She recently made her return to the independent wrestling circuit, and she’ll be working under her real name, Tenille Dashwood, moving forward. But fans still have a lot of questions regarding the botched Emmalina gimmick.

WWE spent several months promoting Emmalina’s debut using video packages, but after her debut got pushed back several times, Emmalina became somewhat of a running joke before she ever even appeared on WWE programming.

Emmalina was said to be Vince McMahon’s pet project, and it’s been rumored that Emma’s failure to deliver was one of the reasons she was released from her contract.

She recently opened up about the gimmick during an appearance on Lance Storm’s Killing The Town podcast, and she admitted that the gimmick just wasn’t a good fit for her.

Dashwood was asked if she had any idea where the gimmick was headed, and she responded with the following answer:

“No. I wish I had more to say. I don’t know. I guess there was an idea to it, and they realized along the way that, that wasn’t me, that wasn’t for me at all. I mean I’m not a diva. I’m not like that at all. And I just wanted to wrestle.”

She went on to say that the Evil Emma character was a better fit for her, and Lance Storm agreed.

One way or another, it’s a shame that Emma was released during a time when business really seems to be picking up for the WWE women’s division, as she has a lot to offer.

Hopefully she will continue to work hard proving herself on the indies and eventually be welcomed back to the company with open arms.