Maria Kanellis Said She Thought She Was Staying With WWE For The Rest Of Her Wrestling Career

Maria Kanellis spoke on her recent WWE release.

The former 24/7 Champion and her husband Mike were one of several wrestlers who were released by WWE last week. Maria was actually on maternity leave as she gave birth to her second child weeks ago and in an interview with WrestleTalk, Maria said there wasn’t any specific timeframe for her return.

“There is no specific timeframe. There is nothing in our contracts that talks about maternity leave or pregnancy or anything like that, that’s not in the contracts at all. So there’s really no standard to go by. I was home for about six months after Freddie (first child) so I would have no idea how long I would be home for. I was planning on going to WrestleMania and I had already received messages, before this craziness happened, saying that I would be doing signings, so I just assumed I would be starting with some signings over WrestleMania week,” Maria said.

When Mike and Maria signed with WWE back in 2017, they did not follow other prominent wrestlers who started at NXT when they signed with WWE and instead appeared on Raw and SmackDown. Maria said she and Mike never asked to be put on the “main roster” and said it was a little weird that they got sent there immediately.

“It was weird because we never asked to be put on the main roster right away. A lot of my people were still in NXT at the time, so it didn’t really matter to me where we worked because I knew people on the main roster and knew people I could work well with down with in NXT,” Maria said.

Maria then admitted that her plan was to stay with WWE throughout the remainder of her wrestling career.

“I thought I was going to live out the rest of my days there. I wanted to have one more really good storyline. Then I just wanted to talk to the young guys backstage and give them what’s in my brain from being there at a time when with Triple H and Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock and all these guys. Yes, I played the ditsy character and yes I was the ditsy interviewer but I was stood there taking in all of what they know. If I can give a little of a hint, like, ‘Maybe you can try it this way.’ That was what my plan was in WWE,” Maria said.

Earlier in the week, both Mike and Maria announced that they would be starting a podcast called the “Non-Essential Wrestlers” podcast. Fightful also spoke with Mike and you can check out the full interview at this link.