Maria Kanellis: 'I begged WWE not to use my personal life'
Former WWE Superstar Maria Kanellis has revealed that she begged WWE's creative team to not use her and Mike Bennett's personal life in WWE storylines if they were going to drop them soon after. However, according to Maria, WWE dropped the storyline anyway.
Maria Kanellis took to her official Twitter account to discuss her conversations with WWE's creative team about her storylines in response to a recent story that former WWE Superstar Rusev revealed about himself and Vince McMahon and the "Rusev Day" gimmick:
"This doesn’t surprise me. We were the most watched segments when we were doing the 24/7 storyline and Vince still pulled the rug out from under us. I begged them not to use my personal life, if they were just gonna drop the storyline. But, they did it anyways."
Maria Kanellis in WWE
Maria and Mike Kanellis made their WWE return/debut at the WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view in 2017. However, their run with the company would largely be uneventful.
During this period of time, Mike Bennett would successfully overcome his addiction to prescription medication and Maria Kanellis would become pregnant on two occasions, giving birth to a baby girl in 2018 and a baby boy in 2020. Prior to going on maternity leave in 2019, Maria and Mike Kanellis would be involved in an angle on Monday Night RAW in which Maria would repeatedly state that Mike was not the father of her unborn child. During this storyline, Maria and Mike Kanellis would become the WWE 24/7 Champion on several occasions.
However, Maria along with her husband, Mike Bennett, were among the lengthy list of WWE Superstars, employees and producers released by WWE in April of 2020 due to COVID-19 budget restrictions.
Both Mike and Maria Kanellis have now completed their 90-day non-compete clauses in their WWE contracts and are currently free to sign with any professional wrestling promotion.
Maria Kanellis, along with Mike Bennett, were seen most recently during Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows' Talk 'N-Shop-A-Mania pay per view on FITE TV earlier this month.