Maria Kanellis says Dolph Ziggler incident started heat with Bella Twins

As noted before, former WWE Diva and current ROH First Lady Maria Kanellis revealed that she was contacted by WWE about a possible return to the company for an eight-woman Divas tag team match at WrestleMania 29, but the Bella Twins prevented it from happening.

I recently interviewed Maria, which will be posted in its entirety this week, who discussed her heat with the Bella Twins and how it started.

“It was very random,” Maria said. “Me and Dolph Ziggler were very close friends. We have been for a long time before the twins ever arrived and one time I was dancing with Dolph at a party we were at, at a Green Iguana place or something. So we were all hanging out, having fun and dancing. I was dancing with him. I was dancing with the girls. I was dancing with the other people that were there. So all of a sudden when I’m dancing with Dolph I get a tap on the shoulder and it’s Nikki Bella going, ‘what are you doing?’ And I said, ‘uh, dancing with my friend?’ And she’s like, ‘oh, he’s with me.’ I said ‘okaaaay, sure.’

“I never heard that from anybody. I didn’t know that I was doing something so wrong with dancing with friends. But, ever since then it’s been very strange between us, but still, I would do business. They could call me up, and if I wasn’t under contract with Ring of Honor, and asked me to work with Nikki, I’m sure that I could have the greatest feud going back and forth with her. Why? Because I’m a business woman and that’s what I do. It doesn’t matter, my personal feelings. At the end of the day this is a job and I like to do very well at my job.”

Maria also noted that Nikki Bella attempted to contact her after news got out that they blocked her WWE return.

“They called me, I was busy,” Maria said. “I sent her a text back. I said there’s nothing really to talk about. I know what the story is and God bless you for it. I hope everything works out. There’s no real reason to talk to her. She’s not worth my time. She took something from me and it wasn’t a man, or it wasn’t a piece of candy, it was a contract. It’s my career and I think for me, that’s probably the worst thing you can do, is mess with my money. I’m not going anywhere. I’m in wrestling. I’m staying in wrestling and I’m sure our paths will cross again.”