January 08, 2021 / By mobanmarket
Raj Giri of WrestlingINC.com recently caught up with interviewed the “First Lady of ROH” Maria Kanellis, who spoke about getting her break in the business, working for WWE, her WWE release, signing with ROH, turning down TNA and more. Here are some highlights:
How she got her break: “I was watching Monday Night Raw and they were advertising for it. [Laughs.] Honestly, everybody asks me this question and everybody thinks that I just came from a model search. But, me and Michelle McCool were the only two that self-entered online — not from an agency — we just loved wrestling. So, I entered online and I made it to the next round. The only reason I knew I made it to the next round before they told me a week after was that I saw my picture on Monday Night Raw when I was watching the show.”
Did WWE get her on the Celebrity Apprentice: “No, I did that myself. They like to claim it. I walked up to Donald Trump and said, ‘I want to be on your show.’ He said, ‘You want to be on my show, Celebrity Apprentice?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ I continued to calling every single day until I got an interview. Then, from there,
they gave me the interview and I heard nothing for months. I continued e-mailing every single day saying, ‘I want this job. I’m going to be on this show.’ They let me have it and I did it.”
“I got no appreciation for it [from WWE] whatsoever. I went on that show completely — this was not who anybody expected me to be. I have old ladies in supermarkets grabbing my arm after I had done the show and saying, ‘Oh, my gosh. I loved you so much on it. You were so good, you were so smart.’ They’ve never seen wrestling before, they just saw
me on Celebrity Apprentice. Which was being seen by 10 million people per week.
“So, when it came to them giving me my new contract and I didn’t want to sign it — I wanted my lawyer to look over it — WWE just did not see me as a smart girl. They saw me as a stupid girl and they wanted me to be a stupid girl. When I broke that and I changed into the person that I actually am, they hated it.”
Her WWE release: “It was out of the blue. My discussion with John Laurinaitis went like this: ‘Are you going to sign the contract?’ It was the same contract that I signed when I was 22-years-old and had never been on television before. Everybody gets a raise, even a bus girl. They had given me a raise, but because I
didn’t sign it right away, they took that contract from me and gave me a different contract. The contract was exactly the same as when I started.
“So, I said, ‘No, I’m not going to sign that contract. And yes, I want my lawyer to look at it.’ I knew that they were probably going to release me. But, see, that’s the thing: If I was a guy, that wouldn’t have happened. But, because I was a girl that stood up for what I believed in and I’m not going to be caught in a hot tub with the office and I’m not going to be caught being shady — but I will be there working every single day, I will be doing every single media thing and I will go on Celebrity Apprentice and do a good job — because I’m that kind of girl, they didn’t want to re-sign me.”
Working for ROH: “There are so many opportunities at Ring Of Honor. If you do a good job, you get to do more. If you do a crappy job, then you don’t. [Laughs.] I love that. I love that excellent work is rewarded. I love that hard work is important in Ring Of Honor. It’s really the most important thing is working hard. I’ve been a fan of Ring Of Honor for a long time. I probably went to my first Ring Of Honor show in maybe 2006 or 2007.
“I’m a fan, I’ve been a fan of the product for a long time. It came up as a very strange thing in the beginning. But, they were just like, ‘Hey, would you want to come and be at a pay-per-view?’ I said, ‘Sure, I would love to.’ Then, I ended up being with Mike and I was in town, and I was like, ‘You know what? I’ll just go to the show with him.’ All of a sudden, I’m on the show all of the time. [Laughs.] It’s just a very strange thing.”
Her thoughts on TNA: “I don’t watch it. I’ve heard that the girls over there are tremendous. I think that Lisa/Victoria/Tara [laughs] is one of the greatest female wrestlers of all time. One of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Right now, she is the best that is out there. The only people that I probably could compare her to is Sara Del Rey and Beth Phoenix. Those are the only other two that I think are on that level of amazingness. But, I don’t watch the show very often.
“They have approached me, but I love my spot at Ring Of Honor. I can’t imagine leaving. [Laughs.]”
Maria also spoke about problems with the WWE, exactly what she told TNA when they contacted her, her beef with Mark Madden, WWE Divas today and more, you can check out the full interview at WrestlingINC.com by clicking here.
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