Maria Kanellis spent years on WWE television playing the bubbly woman who couldn’t seem to get a question right, but behind the scenes she wasn’t laughing nearly as hard as everybody watching at home. Maria now admits the deliberately “ditzy” character pissed her off for years because she felt WWE was putting her right back into the stereotype she had spent her life fighting against.
Speaking with Wrestling Life Online and Tall Oak Productions, Kanellis looked back at how the character actually came together after she entered WWE through the 2004 Diva Search. Maria couldn’t say for certain whether Vince McMahon or Paul Heyman deserves the credit — or blame — because both were involved around the same time.
“So, it was I’m not exactly sure if it was Vince or if it was Haymon. Um, it came together about the same time. So, I’m not sure.”
Maria said one of the moments that helped push things in that direction happened while she was working in OVW. Heyman had talent practicing promos, and Maria — who had basically zero wrestling experience at the time — decided to go completely off the wall.
“I had never done one before. I had never been in wrestling, so I did I’m a Little Teapot. I just sang I’m a Little Teapot.”
Maria said her naturally high-pitched voice, constant smiling and excited personality gave WWE something they could exaggerate. The problem came when the company cranked that up into making her character look flat-out dumb.
“So I think they both saw that and went, okay, this is a direction we could go. Cuz I was very young. My voice was a lot higher. Since then, I’ve had thyroid surgery, so my voice has came down quite a few notches since then.”
“Um, the dity part, they kind of added in, but it I am so I was angry about it for a long long time.”
That anger wasn’t just about looking stupid on RAW. Maria said the character hit a nerve because of how she grew up and the ideas about women she had already spent years pushing against. She described her father at the time as a “very hard Greek man” with an old-school mentality about the man running the household.
“You know, the woman belongs in the kitchen and all this stuff. And now he’s changed over the years as everybody has.”
So when WWE handed her a character whose entire joke was basically that the pretty woman didn’t know what she was talking about, Maria felt like she was getting shoved directly back into the box she hated.
“To go into a role that then was basically putting me in my place um you know I think it was God’s way of humbling me.”
Maria said she didn’t see any upside to it while she was actually living through the gimmick. In her mind, WWE had given her something that made her look less capable instead of letting her show what she could really do.
“I just didn’t see it at first. I just saw it as a way of keeping me down, but really it was a way of pushing me higher.”
Time has definitely changed Maria’s view of the whole thing. She now believes the character gave her a lane nobody else had, because practically any WWE Superstar could bounce off the clueless interviewer asking the completely wrong question.
The comments also fit into a much bigger picture Maria has been painting about her original WWE run. Kanellis recently said WWE offered her less money when her contract came up despite her claiming her website traffic was comparable to John Cena’s, while she has also spoken in the past about having to fight WWE over how her Playboy appearance was presented. Those weren’t the same battles, but Maria clearly remembers an era where she wasn’t afraid to push back when she hated the direction WWE wanted for her.
What do you make of Maria Kanellis saying WWE’s “ditzy” character made her feel like she was being put in her place? Did the gimmick help make her memorable, or did WWE lean way too hard into making her look stupid? Leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
