Mike Kanellis and his wife Maria have had something of a whirlwind year. Most of it, unfavorable.
At the start of 2019, they had merely been two of the most deeply underutilized talents on WWE’s roster, which is really saying something. And Maria in particular had been very vocally displeased with this, constantly tweeting her frustrations at WWE for their lack of screen time and opportunity. Of course, how much you see from wrestlers on social media is real and how much is in-character is often a little blurry. People play up angles online all the time, and their discontentment did come up on 205 Live quite regularly.
Still, Maria went so far as to imply that their contracts were coming up and they weren’t going to re-sign… until they did. Five year deals, no less. They were among the initial wave of WWE offering their talent huge, lucrative contracts to stay with them in the midst of AEW’s rise.
It seemed that WWE would be silly to give such deals to people they had no intention of using. And perhaps they agreed, as WWE began to… use them.
What happened next was the most thorough burial we’ve seen in decades.
WWE had the pregnant Maria Kanellis tear down her husband at every turn, chide him for his lack of manhood and regularly imply that their child was not his. At one point, after Mike sneaked a win of the 24/7 Title, he locked himself in his room to hide. Maria banged on the door and threatened to ‘kick him in the vagina’ if he didn’t open up. That’s seriously what she said. He let her in, and Maria proceeded to command him to get on the ground. She pinned him with her foot on his chest, in what could only be described as a public humiliation in front of millions of viewers.
And that wasn’t even close to the end of it. The angle baffled many as it seemed pointlessly vindictive. It didn’t appear as though it could possibly lead anywhere of value. They spent weeks upon weeks just trying to wring whatever credibility they could out of a guy that, I must stress, they have locked down to a high paying contract for the next five years.
One can only wonder what motivates Vince McMahon to do the things he does. And we can of course only speculate on whether or not this was what the Kanellis’ were expecting when they were offered these deals. But I know the prospect of going through this ’til 2024 seems soul crushing to many viewers.
Today came the next weird step in this debacle.
Mike Kanellis has now publicly requested his release from WWE.
He has, naturally, done so in the form of a tweet, and you can read his statement below:
https://twitter.com/RealMikeBennett/status/1183855911619776512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1183855911619776512&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F411mania.com%2Fwrestling%2Fmike-kanellis-says-hes-asked-for-his-wwe-release%2F
To say the least, I’m a tad skeptical. If only because this reminds me oh so much of the Luke Harper situation.
Harper, who even now after his return appears pretty openly miserable, famously posted a similar letter on twitter announcing his request of his release. He sounded hopeful for the future and inspired to prove his worth in pro wrestling. Many of his colleagues in WWE publicly showed their support for it and their excitement for his career. And then… the release didn’t come, Harper’s contract was reportedly extended so he’d have to wait it out longer, and he continued not being used on television for an additional six months.
It’s a little hard to believe that anyone would try this after how that situation played out. So, odds seem good to me that this is a work of some kind, though as always, there’s no real indication of where it could possibly be going.
All I can say is that I hope for the best for Mike and Maria. Wherever things go, I hope they’ll be happy with it in the end.
