Maria Kanellis Credits Nigel McGuinness For Being First Person To Suggest That Mike Bennett Go By ‘Mike Kanellis’
Maria Kanellis looks back on her time working with her husband.
The latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet was a sit-down chat with Maria Kanellis. She dove into her time working alongside her husband, Mike Bennett.
She spoke about Bennett going from his original name to ‘Mike Kanellis’ in WWE. Maria said the first person to suggest that Bennett switch last names was Nigel McGuinness.
“Nigel McGuinness actually had come up with this idea of calling him Mike Kanellis when we were in Ring of Honor and we were on a car ride back from Canada, and he had brought up this idea he had, and lo and behold, WWE is the one that did it. He was fine with it because he thought there was going to be a payoff at the end. He thought he was going to be able to turn on me, and I always wanted to do the fight with him. I always thought that would be such a cool (idea). I really wanted it to be the three of us, where Matt Taven, Mike, and myself were kind of in this little power struggle. But yeah, Mike was fine with it because he is the consummate professional. He is a fantastic worker, and he was like, alright, that’s what I’m doing, and so he thought he was going to get a really good payoff for it, and unfortunately, it never happened.”
Bennett and McGuinness are both with AEW/ROH. Maria is no longer with the company.
