Charly Caruso Discusses Her Journey To WWE & ESPN

Charly Caruso appeared as a guest on a recent episode of Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia, and discussed her journey to WWE. During their conversation, Caruso also opened up about her new role with ESPN, as well as her personal life.

Her path to WWE began with a trip to Smackdown in her hometown of Indianapolis. “I was with a friend of mine who was a huge WWE fan, and he had backstage passes,” she said.

She had some familiarity with wrestling, and describes herself as something of a lapsed fan. “Growing up, I was really into it. For a couple year span, at the height of the attitude era, I loved it.”

After working as a journalist in West Virginia and Indiana, she was between jobs at the time. When she spotted WWE’s head of talent relations Mark Carrano, Caruso saw an opportunity.

“I recognized him from Total Divas,” she said. “So, I just approached him. I was like ‘Hey, I’m a sports broadcaster, can I pass along my reel?’ I heard nothing for a couple of months, so I reached out to him again,” she said.

“He asked me to resend it, he saw it, and passed it along to Michael Cole. From there, he told me they wanted me to come in and audition.”

She aced the audition, but had already verbally committed to a job as a sports anchor in Washington. She backtracked, and chose to go to WWE. “I totally made the right choice,” she said.

With a busy career and a crazy travel schedule, Caruso says that finding time for a relationship is not always easy, particularly being based in New York.

“Trying to date now, in this era, especially in New York City, is a trip,” she said. “We’re all so focused on ourselves. We’re career-driven. We’re trying to get where we want to be, so relationships take a back seat.”

While maintaining her position with WWE, Caruso took on another job with ESPN this year.

“Right now, I’m just a part-time employee,” she said. “Depending on the week, I’m usually off from WWE on Thursday and Friday and the weekends, so there’s some time in there.”

Caruso says that the opportunity to add another high-profile job has made her incredibly busy, but that she relishes the chance to get back to her sports roots.

“I’ve been talking with ESPN for a while now,” she said. “Sports is my background, they had a need, and the stars just kind of aligned. The two jobs go hand in hand so perfectly.”

She stopped short of saying that a full-time job with ESPN is her ultimate career goal, but she certainly is open to the idea.

“Who knows? I could one day be hosting a show on the Travel channel. Whatever opportunities I’m presented with, I’ll definitely evaluate. But as for right now, if I can keep up with doing WWE and ESPN, this is, right now, the perfect scenario for me.”

Caruso also discusses growing up with divorced parents, studying abroad, and growing up as an athlete. You can check out the full interview below.