Maria Kanellis has an interesting history with WWE as she first got involved with the company through the Diva Search, and she later officially joined WWE in 2004. Kanellis stayed with the company until 2010 when she was ultimately released from her contract.
During an interview with Wrassingh Show the former WWE star talked about her first run with the company, and she noted that WWE was trying to control her musical projects while discussing WWE’s current edict on third party platforms.
“WWE has been, they’ve always been that way about your personal projects. And now it’s really starting to come to light with Twitch, with Cameo and all of that kind of stuff. But even back then when it came to my music or me trying to go and do acting things or even going on auditions, WWE wanted to have control over that. And I just, I wasn’t interested in that, especially with how much they wanted to pay me!
The former WWE 24/7 Champion went on to say that she eventually asked for a raise, but the company denied her request.
“I hadn’t had a raise in five and a half years, so I asked for a raise and then they didn’t want to give me one! So like, it was just weird that I was working just as much as the top guys were, but I wasn’t even paid one tenth what they were. For me it just wasn’t reasonable, like you shouldn’t stay in a relationship that is so one-sided and that’s how it felt for me was just them taking from me while I wasn’t getting enough in return. I mean, it just wasn’t a favorable time in my life financially or just like personally.”
Maria ended up returning to WWE in 2017 alongside her husband Mike Bennett, but they were both released in 2020 due to budget cuts.
H/T Wrestling Inc.
