Behind the scenes news on why Maria was released

Quote :

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, www.pwtorch.com



Maria Kanellis' release from World Wrestling Entertainment is being seen as a surprise considering that the fans voted her Diva of the Year in an online poll last December not to mention that she will be appearing as a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice, which debuts in two weeks on NBC. She herself has told friends she was blindsided by the release and that she had no reason to believe it was coming.

Her departure was said to be due to management's negative reaction to an interview she did with The Sun this past January where she said she wasn't sure how much longer she'd stay with WWE because she had outside interests and would like to start a family at some point.

"I'm starting to do other things and it's partially because one day I want to be a mom and I want to get married and you can't really do that when you're on the road," Kanellis told The Sun. "So I've got to find a job that will allow me to do that."

When the interview drew a bad reaction, she did a follow-up interview to clarify that it was long way away and that she had no plans on leaving anytime soon. In the day following her release, she did a third interview to say it was not her decision to leave WWE, nor did she ask for a release. However, she did note that "when a bad relationship is over, you move on." She also said WWE was holding her back from expanding her career. WWE officials were not high on her asking to take deals outside of the company.

One company source said Vince McMahon had been negative on her in meetings in recent few weeks, with one person claiming she came back with an change in attitude after returning from Celebrity Apprentice.

"She always made my honor roll of talent to deal with on the Divas end of the roster. Super easy going and actually played a role well as the bubbly ditz," said one former WWE writer of Maria. "However, Vince knows all too well about how the ego swells when the performers get some mainstream traction and it never benefits the company."

Some of the wrestlers have an idea on how she performed on Celebrity Apprentice, with one person close to the matter saying he expects her to come out of the season looking like a star and could not understand why WWE would cut ties with her. Another wrestler said this was likely the situation because WWE figures if you find success outside of wrestling, you're going to receive outside offers and end up leaving wrestling anyway, noting what happened with Stacy Keibler.

While Maria weighs her future, she will be pursuing a career in music in the meantime as she is expected to release her debut album Seven Sins on Apr. 13 on iTunes.

Really, really, dumb ass reason to release her, especially since she clarified in another interview. If I recall both Orton and Mickie have stated similar things in interviews. If it's the attitude problem, that's nothing new with a WWE superstar. Could go back to Orton here. Oh, I realize that I might be comparing her to people who WWE value higher but my point remains.

She is just a pretty face. WWE isn't losing much because they have a lot of pretty face's and they can build another "Maria" quickly. Hell, ECW GM Tiffany could be a "Maria" for SD.

^I disagree, personally. I also don't think she is as bad as a wrestler as everyone says.

WWE made Maria popular by shoving her into TV. Mickie James was off of TV for over 6 weeks when Maria got her Playboy push. She is not awful, but she is not great either. She will be successful outside of the WWE like Stacey. She already has a prime-time showcase on the Apprenatice. She will be fine and WWE will be fine. I have no problem with WWE eye candy. Hell, I like it, but not every WWE Divan needs to be pushed into the ring. Allow them to do what they do best and don't push them into the ring. I think she in about the same level Ashely was when she was released. Since the WWE/Playbo thing is over, they don't need Diva's that are only in the WWE because they are willing to get naked. Sure, a lot of current Diva's did Playboy before they were in WWE, like Tiffany and Maryse, but I doubt they will be in Playboy again any time soon.

Concrete Jesus wrote:

She is just a pretty face.

I disagree, I actually think she is really ugly. Disturbs me actually ...

So what will you say when she ends up with TNA, in 3 months or so?

That she is ugly ... There is like three actually good looking Knockouts. I aint the mark here CJ ... I think we know who is.

There are more then 3 hot KO's. I am a mark, but I will also throw WWE under the bus when they do something stupid. Which KO's do think are hot? I know, you like ODB.

I "Throw TNA under the bus" quite alot but ...

Velvet Sky
Christy Hemme
Taylor Wilde

Honestly, if it's by fear that she will do well outside of WWE that they released her, that's a poor excuse. It gives the impression that Vince is possessive when it comes down to the success of his talents and he wants them to be successful under his own watch. The more I read about this situation, the more I feel like it's one of these things where Vince McMahon ego kicked in and he didn't want to lose face with another WWE talent choosing to venture out of the business so he pulled the plug on Maria before she left herself

If Maria truly comes out of Celebrity Apprentice as a star, I'm not even worried for her future. If it worked for Stacy Keibler, I think she can do very well too. I'm not saying that she's gonna become a major pop star with her upcoming album but she can have moderate success, especially that her album will be released during The Celebrity Apprentice. She can't definitely do worse than Brooke Hogan, that's for sure.

Concrete Jesus wrote:

There are more then 3 hot KO's. I am a mark, but I will also throw WWE under the bus when they do something stupid. Which KO's do think are hot? I know, you like ODB.

I'm not an ODB Fan, but hey, having valets is good for the business, something that the WWE lacks these days

Managers and valets other than Layla, but that's another story

But as far as Maria goes, she might have interest in being a celebrity, I don't know.