Shelley Martinez had a LOT to say about Maria Kanellis, but now she’s admitting she got the whole thing wrong! The former WWE Superstar brought up old personal drama, questioned Kanellis’ past behavior, and helped turn a controversy involving Kelly Kelly into a much bigger story. There’s just one problem — Maria wasn’t the person involved, and Martinez found that out AFTER she had already aired her grievances for everyone to hear.
Speaking on her TMI podcast, Martinez addressed the fallout from her previous episode, where she discussed comments made by Barbie Blank, better known to WWE fans as Kelly Kelly. Barbie had spoken about an incident involving another woman in wrestling, and Martinez began speculating about whether that person was Kanellis. Things quickly got personal when Martinez started revisiting her own issues with Maria, including an old situation involving an ex-boyfriend.
Well, that speculation didn’t exactly age well. Martinez revealed that after the episode went viral, several people within the wrestling business contacted her with information about the situation. And apparently, somebody finally gave her the detail she was missing before she started talking about Maria.
“Amongst everyone texting me in the business, I found out who it was that that not Maria that Barbie was talking about and it wasn’t Maria.”
That’s right. Maria wasn’t the woman Kelly Kelly had been talking about. After all that discussion about Kanellis and their personal history, Martinez was now walking back the very suspicion that helped kick off the controversy. And she didn’t even try to deny that she’d been wrong.
“I was wrong. It wasn’t It wasn’t her. But I never even said for sure it was Maria. So get over it, people.”
Martinez also revealed that Maria had already apologized to Kelly Kelly over their past issues. And according to Martinez, the relationship between the two women had apparently improved enough that Barbie later helped Maria find a fertility doctor when she was trying to have another child.
“So since then, finding out that she has apologized to Barbie, that Barbie helped her find her fertility doctor to help her have another kid And I looked, I did my research. I looked and Barbie does follow Maria.”
And here’s where Martinez really put her foot in her mouth. She admitted that if she’d known all this before recording her original episode, she wouldn’t have brought up the ex-boyfriend drama at all.
“Now, if I knew that information before our last show, I wouldn’t have talked about the ex-boyfriend and all of that.”
Martinez didn’t have the full picture, went into her personal history with Kanellis anyway, and then admitted that having the actual information would have changed what she said. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of how the original controversy was handled.
Still, Martinez wasn’t about to spend the entire episode apologizing. Instead, she defended her decision to speak publicly about Kanellis and claimed that her previous comments had actually earned praise from people within the wrestling business. According to Martinez, several high-profile personalities contacted her privately after the episode went viral, thanking her for speaking about things they supposedly weren’t comfortable addressing themselves.
“There were people, highprofile people, I’m not going to name names, highprofile people saying thank you for saying that. Thank you.”
Martinez also insisted that she’s not trying to stay relevant or manufacture controversy for attention. She argued that her previous experiences in WWE and elsewhere give her firsthand knowledge about the people she discusses, and that being retired means she no longer has to worry about upsetting anyone who might affect her career.
“I stand by what I say because people in the business liter literally thank me for saying what other people won’t cuz they’re scared.”
And despite the incorrect speculation, Martinez made it clear she wasn’t backing down from her decision to discuss the controversy.
“I don’t regret anything because I got my answers and I didn’t even have to talk to Maria. I got my answers and my closure and I didn’t even have to talk to her.”
Martinez explained that she had carried resentment toward Kanellis for years and that the latest developments finally allowed her to move past those feelings. She said Maria had disrupted her peace on numerous occasions, but learning what actually happened helped her find the closure she’d been looking for.
“Maria doesn’t affect me anymore. And I’m so glad to break the chains of Maria.”
So after all the accusations, old relationship drama, and attention surrounding her original comments, Martinez says she’s finally moving on. That’s great for her, but there’s still the small matter of Maria Kanellis getting pulled into a controversy that Martinez now acknowledges wasn’t about her.
Martinez may have finally gotten her closure, but Maria Kanellis got dragged through the mud over something she wasn’t even involved in. And while Martinez admits she got it wrong, she doesn’t seem particularly sorry about how things played out. Now the question is whether admitting she was wrong is enough, or if Maria deserves an actual apology.
Do you think Shelley Martinez owes Maria Kanellis an apology after all this drama? Let us know in the comments.
