Maria Kanellis-Bennett Says She Hated WWE Ditzy Character – Is Grateful Now

Maria Kanellis is proud of her time as a WWE Diva but hated her ‘ditzy’ character when first presented with the idea.

Maria debuted on Monday Night RAW in 2004 and played an airhead backstage interviewer before later transitioning to an in-ring role.

Speaking on the “AEW Unrestricted” podcast, Maria spoke about how the character was against how she perceived herself. She said,

“I’m thankful for it now, but I was pissed when they made me ditzy. I fought against that from the time I was young.

“As soon as they were like, ‘We’re gonna have you be ditzy and dumb,’ I was like, ‘aaaaahhhh!’”

Maria added that she had been brought up to reject stereotypes but acknowledges that the character helped her work with several names. She said,

“It was my worst nightmare at the time. I’m so grateful now, because of that, and being that kind of character I got to work with everybody, because they could play off of me. They could get their characters over because I was ditzy.”

Maria would return to WWE (without her ditzy persona) in 2017 but would be released in 2020.

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