Maria Kanellis Discusses Why She Chose AEW Over WWE, Receiving Hate Messages From Anti-AEW Fans

(@mariakanellis)

AEW/ROH star Maria Kanellis recently spoke with Steve Fall’s Ten Count for an interview with WrestlingNews.co to talk about a number of topics.

Kanellis’ reasons for choosing AEW over WWE:

“I think AEW is the best situation for my family right now. The schedule is the best. I love growing and building with companies. I mean, I worked for Ring of Honor and rebuilt the women’s division last year with Bobby Cruise. So like, building is really interesting to me, and I think that for us, it’s just the best schedule we can possibly have with two kiddos.”

Regarding whether she received hate messages from anti-AEW supporters:

“A lot. It was amazing, really, and I don’t hate WWE. I had great conversations before we made our decision on where we were going to go and my husband had great conversations before we decided where we were going to go. I think, you know, that’s the thing that people also need to realize, too, is that a lot of us keep great relationships everywhere. So, you know, Triple H and Stephanie sent huge baskets to our house full of all these kids’ gifts after both of my kids. So it was these baskets of, you know, rocking horses and all these different things, and clothes, and all these really nice gifts for both of my children. So of course, like, you know, I appreciated that they did that for us back then. I still think highly of them today. I think what they’re doing is great. I’m excited to see friends like Mia Yim go back and whoever else is probably going back. I think that’s fun. I still have a great relationship with Scott D’Amore. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I hate impact. I’m leaving.’ No, it was, this is the best decision for my family.”

You can check out the complete interview below:


(h/t to WrestleNews.co for transcription)