Maria Kanellis says her 2017 WWE return almost went in a completely different direction, because she and Mike Bennett thought they were headed to NXT before Vince McMahon may have stepped in and changed the plan.
Maria and Mike were coming off their run in TNA when WWE brought them back into the fold, and according to Maria, the expectation was that they would start in NXT. She says they were actually excited about that path until word got back to them that Vince had other ideas.
“We thought we were going to NXT and we were excited about that, but then rumor has it Vince got wind of that and was like, ‘No, Maria’s going straight to the main roster.’”
Maria wasn’t given a clear explanation for why Vince may have wanted her to skip NXT, but she has a theory. Since she had already spent years in WWE before leaving the company, she believes Vince may have simply looked at her as someone who didn’t need to go through NXT first.
“So, I don’t know if it was because I was already in WWE that he thought I needed to just go straight back to the main roster. I’m not sure.”
The crazy part is that going straight to the main roster didn’t exactly mean Maria and Mike were immediately thrown onto television. They had already gone through the process of getting cleared and thought they were going to begin appearing shortly after WrestleMania. Instead, they wound up sitting around waiting for WWE to figure out what it wanted to do with them.
“We got cleared and ready to go when we thought we were going to be starting on TV right after Wrestlemania and then we sat.”
Maria and Mike eventually made their WWE debut together at Money in the Bank in June 2017, with Mike taking the Kanellis name and the two leaning into their over-the-top romance gimmick.
That main roster run never really caught fire the way their TNA work had, which makes the NXT part of the story even more interesting. Ringside News has covered Maria Kanellis and Mike Bennett’s WWE run over the years, including the many creative twists and frustrations that came with their time in the company.
Looking back, Maria’s story leaves one pretty obvious question hanging over the whole thing: what would have happened if WWE had just left them in NXT? They were coming in with momentum, had a defined act, and could have had time to build themselves up before being thrown onto the main roster.
Do you think Maria Kanellis and Mike Bennett would have had a better WWE run if they started in NXT first, or was going straight to the main roster the right move? Leave your feedback in the comments and let us know what you think.
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