One of the biggest wrestling stories that has broken in the last week is the release of James Ellsworth, announced on November 15, 2017. Initially James was brought in as enhanced talent and then was placed in the middle of SmackDown Live’s biggest feud between AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose. Once that story ended he found a new home, until his release, being paired with Carmella.
The Setup:
Since Money in the Bank James Ellsworth has taken a secondary role as Carmella has become a bigger star due to her win in the first Miss Money in the Bank ladder match. Even though Ellsworth played an instrumental role in allowing that to occur. This has caused him to be at odds with the entire Women’s Division as he helped to cheat many of them of a victory. Due to this he was fined $10,000 and suspended for 30 days by General Manger Daniel Bryan. During this time, without Ellsworth, Carmella was beginning to be received better heat by the WWE Universe. Upon his return Ellsworth helped Carmella to win a match against Naomi, which didn’t provide any additional heat to her character. This led to him being further demoted as a character as she put him on a dog leash for interfering in her matches, which reduced the previous heat she had received while damaging his character. All throughout this time he was further cast away from the spotlight. On November 7th Ellsworth had his final match against Becky Lynch as he challenged her to be the captain of the SmackDown Live’s women’s team. He lost that match and was attacked by Carmella, which officially ended their relationship and buried him as a wrestler. 8 days later he was released from WWE on November 15, 2017.
How he should have been booked:
WWE missed a cash cow opportunity with James Ellsworth and Carmella starting on November 7th. Instead of Becky Lynch winning the match it should have been him as the captain for the Women’s SmackDown team. This would have created an interesting dynamic at Survivor Series as it would have been fascinating to see how he would fare against the women of Raw. Furthermore, it would have allowed him to become more protective and controlling of Carmella as he would not allow her to tag in. By doing this it would have allowed for Carmella to turn face and for himself to turn into a real heel for not allowing her to wrestle. This behavior would continue to build for several weeks as he would allow her to wrestle, but would throw in the towel if the match got too tough, which would be when she is winning. Eventually, being that he wants to control her, he would replace her in every one of her matches. This would lead him to a title opportunity against Charlotte where he would go onto to defeat her. Right when his hand is being held with the title Carmella would come out and cash in her Money in the Bank contract as he lays on the ground as she pins him. Then both her and Ellsworth would tell the crowd how for the last several weeks they had planned all of this out and that they were stupid enough to fall for it. It would not only establish Carmella as a top heel for the next several months and make her title reign mean something, but it would capture how cunning Ellsworth is. This shred they played will bring the two of them closer as a couple which in several months will play out when Big Cass comes back from his injury as he wants to kill Ellsworth for being with his girl this entire time. That would ultimately turn Carmella or Ellsworth into a face as another feud starts with the all three. Yet this can’t play out, and it should have, because WWE has released James Ellsworth prematurely as there were several feuds/events he would have been perfect for that the WWE Universe would enjoy seeing played out.
