Ex-WWE writer Road Dogg has slammed “exaggerated BS” reports that surrounded Maria Kanellis in 2019, following her becoming pregnant shortly after signing a new WWE deal.
Road Dogg has jumped to the defence of former WWE Superstar Maria Kanellis.
The ex-WWE star made headlines in the summer of 2019 when various media outlets criticised her decision to fall pregnant for the second time after only just signing a new multi-million dollar WWE contract. Maria has previously denied the accusations, stating that WWE was fully aware of her desire to have a second baby at that time.
Speaking on the latest Oh…You Didn’t Know? podcast, Road Dogg, who is now Senior Vice President, Live Events, came to Kanellis’ defence. The 2019 WWE Hall of Fame inductee claimed that WWE was understanding of Maria’s circumstances when opting to keep her around:
“I feel like that’s exaggerated BS like, look, did we hire them and she got pregnant? Yes. But that’s [life], their husband and wife. Like, what do you do, life happens. I mean, you see today, from a writer standpoint, holy crap, Becky [Lynch] gets pregnant. Holy crap, I can’t use Becky for nine months. Yeah, selfishly, I totally understand that line of thinking. Because Becky was a huge star, I was using her every week and now she’s not gonna be there.
But Maria and him [Mike] just came in. So really, it was. If anything, the timing was good, in my opinion. So I don’t know where that talk comes from.”
Maria and Mike Kanellis ultimately welcomed their first son, Carver Mars Bennett, to the world on 3 February 2020. Maria had previously announced her pregnancy on the 1 July 2019 broadcast of Raw while she and Mike were in the midst of a match with Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch.
Released from WWE in April 2020, Maria returned to Ring Of Honor for a brief run in late 2020, and now resides in IMPACT Wrestling as a valet for Honor No More. Within the Eddie Edwards-helmed group, Mike – now wrestling again as Mike Bennett – is half of the IMPACT World Tag Team Champions alongside Matt Taven.