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Over the weekend, I sat down with Danielle Kamela aka the former Vanessa Borne in WWE NXT for a 75-minute discussion about her time in WWE, her post-WWE plans, her journey leading to professional wrestling and being released several weeks ago.
During the conversation, we discussed a number of WWE personalities Borne had the chance to work with during her run. When she was officially hired by WWE, it was the same class as current Smackdown Women's Champion Bianca Belair. Reflecting on their time together in the Performance Center and the friendship that blossomed from the experience, Kamela commented:
"Well, Bianca's probably my closest friend from the WWE. So, watching her grow and just having our friendship has been great. Yeah, she's been able to excel so much, and I'm definitely happy for her and proud of her. We went through a lot of times throughout the past few years of our career together, which were good memories. We struggle at times. So, I think she's one of the best. She has all of the skills you need to be a top-tier talent. So, I love watching her. Yeah. No, I love her. She's one of my close friends."
Of all the talents she faced, Kamela pointed out Japanese star Kairi Sane as one of the talents she loved working with:
"Everyone's different; and I've had so many different experiences, like you said, with working different people. But one of my favorite people that I've had the chance to work with was Kairi. I've worked a lot of matches with her at live events and a few on TV, and they were just always so much fun. She always wanted to bring fun into the match, which I appreciated about her. She had a lot of great ideas. So, I loved working with Kairi, and I loved all of her moves. I loved selling for her. So, I guess I would have to say Kairi was one of my favorite opponents, but all of the other women I've worked... It's always fun. It's always a good time. I guess Kairi just was one of my favorites."
Borne was aligned on camera with Aliyah, a tandem that immediately clicked but found themselves separated after an injury followed by Borne's aborted call-up to WWE's main roster. Reminscing on Aliyah, Kamela commented:
"Honestly, I think it didn't take that long for us to have chemistry together because we got along outside of the ring before we were teamed up together. Then once we did start tagging, we had a lot of fun coming up with different tag moves and things for our characters. I think they meshed really well, and they grew together. So, we had a lot of fun doing that and it was a bummer just because we had been tagging for such a long time. Then she ended up having to be out for surgery. So, that took us off of TV when we were on a roll, so that was a bummer. Then within that timeframe, that went over to when I ended up getting called up. But it was fun. I loved tag team wrestling. I think it just adds a whole nother element, and having to deal with more than just one other person along with the ref in the ring is a completely different learning experience in itself as well."
Of course, one vision for Kamela on the main roster that unfortunately never came to fruition was her trio with Chelsea Green and Santana Garrett. When asked about the attempts to find the right creative fuel for the concept and it never debuting, Kamela noted:
"We basically pitched all of the ideas for what we wanted the group to be about. Chelsea had her specific ideas. Santana had hers. I had mine. So, we were just trying to put those all together into different pitches we could give to potentially get our group on TV. Yeah, I want to say we were working on that for two to three weeks, maybe even four before they were like, "Okay, it's not going to happen anymore." Which I feel like a all female faction would have been really cool because they didn't have one at the time. I don't think they have one right now either. So that's why I was like, it would have been fun to be able to do and bring to television; but that didn't work out. Now, all of us are free agents, so who knows. Maybe down the road you'll see the three of us together."
You can find out more about her plans at www.DanielleKamela.com as well as following her on Twitter @VanessaBorneWWE
You can listen to the entire conversation now featuring Kamela discussing her release from the company, sitting in suspended animation for 18 months after being called to the main roster but not utilized, her social media response to her release, who initially wanted her called up, how plans changed, the WWE act she was almost a part of, why she never debuted, her path to the business, the WWE Performance Center, learning under Serena Deeb and Sara D'Amoto, thoughts on Triple H, the Mae Young Classic, her pairing with Aaliyah, thoughts on how WWE could handle things better, the unfortunate twists of fate in her WWE journey, advice to those dealing with adversity, her future in pro wrestling and beyond, whether returning to WWE is the goal, Vanessa Borne vs. Danielle Kamela, Bianca Belair, negativity of some fans and how talents react to it, favorite moments, taking part in Wrestlemania weekend, Florida loops and tons more at www.PWInsiderElite.com
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