Why This Former WWE Personality Is Now Hated, Explained

Highlights

• Charly Arnolt, also known as Charly Caruso in WWE, has faced backlash from wrestling fans and others due to controversial statements and actions she has made both during her time with WWE and after leaving for ESPN and OutKick.
• Arnolt's late interviews with wrestlers Randy Orton and Sheamus led to her being taken off television and eventually replaced. She then left WWE to join ESPN full-time, but later stated feeling "stifled" by the cancel culture there and joined OutKick.
• Arnolt's controversial takes on transgender athletes and her stance as an anti-vaxxer have received backlash and accusations of hypocrisy from fans who point out her past advocacy for equality and wearing shirts against discrimination. She currently hosts a daily show on OutKick and works as a UFC broadcaster.

Not every wrestling fan might be familiar with the name Charly Arnolt. Perhaps, if we talk about her WWE stage name, Charly Caruso, it might ring some bells. Those who don’t follow the stories on the web may not know that Charly has become quite a topic online. During her time with WWE, she worked as a backstage interviewer, and while there was some gossip about her backstage, it wasn't bad and certainly didn’t turn a lot of people against her. So what’s the whole story, and why does Charly seem to be getting a lot of hate from wrestling fans as well as other people in general?

RELATED: Charly Caruso & 9 WWE Employees Who Outgrew The Company

Charly Arnolt Joined WWE In 2016

There’s a somewhat interesting story behind Charly Arnolt’s hiring in WWE. She attended the February 25, 2016 edition of SmackDown, which happened at Bankers Life Fieldhouse arena. Tony Khan, now of All Elite Wrestling, had invited her to this show, and backstage she got introduced to Mark Carrano (who was famously fired after the Mickie James trash bag incident). This led to a meeting with Michael Cole.

It took a few more months for Arnolt to sign a WWE contract. It happened in May when Cody Rhodes and Brandi Rhodes very surprisingly decided to leave the company. Arnolt took over Brandi’s position as the ring announcer for NXT. She later started interviewing wrestlers backstage on the main roster shows as well. WWE once even involved her in a romance angle with Angel Garza, which didn’t go anywhere for some reason. That was in 2020, and a year later, Caruso and WWE announced that they were parting ways so she could join ESPN full-time.

Charly Arnolt Left WWE To Join ESPN Full-Time

This wasn’t the first time Charly was going to work for ESPN. She was with ESPN part-time for around three years when she left for WWE. The deal started in late 2018 and Charly would host SportsCenter on Snapchat as well as provide updates on SportsCenter. She later started contributing to First Take as well, and became the host of the “First Take, Her Take” podcast. Nothing unusual here, right? Charly was just getting bigger opportunities in her career. But the controversy, at least the first of the many, surfaced when rumors emerged that people in WWE weren’t happy with Charly.

A Fightful report mentioned that Charly was consistently late for interviews with wrestlers like Randy Orton and Sheamus, and it led to WWE taking her off television and eventually replacing her with Kevin Patrick. A few months after these rumors first emerged, Charly officially left WWE to join ESPN full-time.

Charly Arnolt's Controversial Takes Turned Fans Against Her

Two years after joining ESPN full-time, Charly Arnolt announced that she’s leaving them to join OutKick. In an interview, she said she felt “stifled” in ESPN and that the whole cancel culture and not being able to express herself the way she wanted led her to join OutKick. Her stance on transgender athletes landed her in the pool of controversy as she talked about Lia Thomas and also praised Sam Ponder and Sage Steele for voicing against trans athletes. This was enough for her to get called out by a lot of fans on the internet. People recalled how, before joining OutKick, Arnolt talked about equality. She even wore a shirt telling everyone to not be racist, sexist, homophobic, or even transphobic. A lot of fans called her a hypocrite over this as well and called it a case of right-wing grifting.

Arnolt has been getting into similar controversies. Some months back, in a tweet, she shared the sentiment that Lebron James’ son’s cardiac arrest happened due to the COVID-19 vaccine, though she did later make a statement that she wasn’t making any accusations. She didn’t flat out say it, but it was pretty clear to everyone what she meant. She later confirmed her stance on this matter and called herself a lifelong anti-vaxxer. Needless to say, her tweet received backlash from everyone for spreading misinformation. These are just some of the controversial takes Arnolt has made in the past few months. Regarding Arnolt’s work with OutKick, she recently debuted her OutKick the Morning with Charly Arnolt daily show. In addition to this, she’s also a UFC broadcaster.