Despite being in Ring of Honor as a manager and her husband, Mike Bennett, playing a big role as part of The Undisputed Kingdom in All Elite Wrestling for the past year, Maria Kanellis-Bennett hasn’t been utilized all that much in the grand scheme of things.
This has gotten some people to flat out wonder if she had retired, particularly after the slew of releases both AEW and WWE have been having in 2024.
When asked about it, Maria was as straightforward in her response as she could be, stating “No, just not being brought in.”
This seems to fit a trend based on her social media habits over the past month or so.
On June 9th, she had posted a picture of herself backstage with the caption “Back to work…”
Right after, on June 12th, she had posted “If it doesn’t support this, enhance this, or understand this I’m not interested. #momlife” with some photos of her family.
Since then, every post has been either retweeting something about AEW or ROH, or about how she’s on “vacation mode until further notice” or “waiting…”
Maria hasn’t wrestled since July 1, 2019 on WWE Monday Night RAW, teaming with her husband against Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch. Instead, she’s been possibly working behind the scenes (some things hint at that, others flat out have her stating she’s not a backstage agent), as well as managing talent like Griff Garrison and Cole Karter, who notably underwent surgery on July 3rd, which may partially explain Maria’s absence:
Maria seemingly remains committed to trying to bring her Women’s Wrestling Army to ROH HonorClub and to play her role as manager to Garrison and Karter, but obviously has her biggest priorities on her family. What this means for her future remains to be seen, but for anyone assuming she’s “retired”, that appears to have been answered with a solid no, even if Tony Khan and the powers that be have no use for her at this moment — take that for what you will.
How would you like to see Maria used in AEW, ROH or elsewhere? Do you think Women’s Wrestling Army would be beneficial for HonorClub? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!