Maria Kanellis On WWE Sitting Her At Home And Wasting Her Shelf Life

Maria Kanellis was part of WWE’s April 15th, 2020 releases. This was a terrible situation as the company cut people across the board to prepare for pandemic losses.

The Angle Podcast recently welcomed Maria Kanellis on as a guest where she revealed that she was “one of the favorites” during her first run. This was surprising for her to realize, because there is no way to gauge how anyone feels about you. She was working all the time, but that was not the case during her second run.

She also discussed her first run in WWE and how little she was paid. The company had Kanellis jetting all over the country, working 300 days a year, but she made more with Impact Wrestling.

“During my first run with WWE, I didn’t realize it at the time, but I came to find out I was one of the favorites. I had no idea – you don’t know if you’re liked there or hated there and it could be both in the same day. I was on every single show in WWE. Then coming back for this second run and not being on TV was so weird to me.”

Advertising

Advertising

“This time around they would sit you at home for months on hand and they would still want to keep you and it’s like wait a minute here, I’m getting older, I have to make the most of it now. There’s a shelf life! And because there’s so many powerful women in the industry, the shelf life is not as long as it used to be. You can’t sit at home and continue to get contracts if you don’t have a bigger name.”

“When I left WWE the first time, I made almost the least amount of money I made with any company. When I was working 300-350 days a year doing Celebrity Apprentice and everything, I was making less than what I was making in IMPACT or this last time I came back.”

Mike and Maria both ended up in ROH where they signed short-term contracts. We’ll have to see if either of them find their way back to WWE, but they would certainly prefer to be used more if that happens.

Thanks to Wrestling Inc for the quote