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Maria Kanellis detailed her role when she initially joined WWE in 2004.
During a recent interview with It's My Wrestling Podcast, Kanellis said that she initially wanted to be a backstage interviewer.
Maria Kanellis added that she admired Jonathan Coachman and thought of him as an incredible personality. She mentioned how she liked his interactions with The Rock and thought he added a lot to each wrestler.
This remains one of the primary reasons why Maria wanted to be like Coachman as she was highly inspired by him.
“So what I wanted to do was be a backstage interviewer. I love Jonathan Coachman. I thought he was incredible. I loved his interactions with The Rock and I thought he added so much to all of the guys at that time. So that's the job I wanted. And that's the job that I thought I would hold for my entire career in WWE," said Maria Kanellis.
Check out Maria Kanellis' interview below:
Maria Kanellis ended up being inside the ring
Maria Kanellis talked about how everyone kept pushing her to compete in the ring.
The former WWE 24/7 Champion said she had the motivation to step in the ring thinking about the adrenaline rush, the crowd getting behind her, and much more.
“Along the way, of course, they're, like, hey, so do you want to train and I have a pretty high pain tolerance. I can figure this out and I can get in there. It's addictive, that adrenaline rush, thinking you could win. Crowd gets behind you. And I lost a lot of matches, but I also was in the ring with some incredible people. And no, that wasn't necessarily the job that I applied for, but it was a lot of fun," added Kanellis.
As seen in the aforementioned quote, Maria noted that wrestling wasn’t the job she signed up for, but she sure did have a lot of fun in the industry.
After leaving WWE in 2010, Maria returned to the company in 2017 after appearing on several promotions like NJPW and TNA. During her second stint on WWE, Maria performed alongside her husband Mark Bennett. She won the 24/7 Championship during her second run.
In April 2020, Maria Kanellis was released from her WWE contract due to budget cuts amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
