Mike Kanellis was released from WWE along with his wife Maria Kanellis on April 15th as part of the biggest mass release in the company in years. Kanellis worked with every brand in the company barring NXT UK.
Kanellis recently spoke to Fightful, where he talked about the difference between working with Vince McMahon and Triple H. He said that McMahon has the last word on anything that goes on the red and blue brands. He did not have anything good to say in that regard.
“RAW and SmackDown is Vince [McMahon]. That’s all Vince. Even with Paul [Heyman] and Bruce [Prichard], everything goes through Vince. That’s just how it’s always been. That’s just the way that the company runs. You can either like it or you can hate it, but at the end of the day you accept it. It’s his company.”
On the other hand, NXT is an entirely different experience. Kanellis compared NXT house shows very favorably to the independent circuit. He loved the atmosphere and leadership in NXT.
He also praised 205 Live, which was also under Triple H. He loved the freedom on 205 Live and praised working with Adam Pearce who treats 205 Live as “his baby.” However, sometimes Vince McMahon would appear on the show and they could not go the extra mile. However, they were still allowed more creative freedom and longer matches.
“NXT is all Triple H. Triple H runs everything. I didn’t get on NXT TV, so I don’t really know how NXT TV worked. The house shows for NXT were a blast. Usually Steve Corino was running it or Norman Smiley and they had so much trust in me and Tony that were just like, “Just go do whatever you guys want and have fun.” It was like being on the indies again, and I loved it.”
“I loved being on 205. Triple H ran 205, but it was really Adam Pearce—that was his baby. He had so much pride. He was so great to us. But, the one thing I loved about 205 is we were always given time to have our matches. Like, 15 / 20 minute matches and they didn’t pick it apart as much as they do on RAW and SmackDown. They give you leeway to do whatever you want. There might be a few things we run by Adam and he’d be like, “You know, if the boss is watching that—” ‘cause sometimes he’ll poke his head in, he’d be like, “—that’s probably not a good idea.” He was really good about doing that.”
Kanellis is free to join whichever promotion he wants to now. We will have to see which promotion he signs with once the COVID-19 outbreak is over.
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