Maria Kanellis Bennett has big goals for Women’s Wrestling Army because the performers are worthy of it.
Women’s Wrestling Talk recently welcomed Maria Kanellis Bennett, who spoke about some potential touring plans for her Women’s Wrestling Army promotion. Maria said that running in Chicago makes things a bit easier for her personally, but the promotion is looking at running shows and they’ve had talks with other overseas companies.
“Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, we’ve talked to [UK-based] Pro Wrestling EVE before about doing some combined shows. I’d love to work with any of the all-women Japanese companies. So yes, definitely would love to. The world is opening back up. And so I think that there’s more and more possibilities for that. You know, Chicago is close to home for me. So, for me, it makes things a lot easier to book. There’s also a huge women’s wrestling tradition here with SHIMMER, so there’s also that aspect of it. But yeah, we will take it on the road. We’re looking at possibly Nashville, possibly Orlando. We’d love to get back down to Texas. Personally, I’d love to have a show during WrestleMania weekend in Los Angeles. So you know, there’s so many different opportunities out there.”
Maria then spoke about what goals she has for Women’s Wrestling Army talent and says she’d love to get them health insurance and enough of an income to take care of their families and expenses.
“Yeah, I have a few. Health insurance. I would like to be able to provide health insurance. Even if it’s very basic health insurance, I would like to provide health insurance. Second one is out — well, and this one is probably a little bit longer than five years, but we’ll get there — I would really like everybody to make a million dollars a year. That’s what I want,” Maria proclaimed. “I want everybody’s paycheck to be a million dollars a year. Why? Because they’re worth it. And because everybody should be able to pay for their family, pay for their bills.
“I believe that wholeheartedly,” Maria said. “You’re going out there, you’re killing yourself. Why not? A lot of actors in Hollywood are on weekly television shows and they’re making a million dollars per season. So you know what, I want to be able to provide that for wrestling too.”
Women’s Wrestling Army is coming to the Berwyn Eagles November 4th and 5th!!! Get your tickets NOW!!! @WWrestlingArmy https://t.co/YXQ5w7WF4Shttps://t.co/1JjorfQmKG pic.twitter.com/JGu0lEwG2d
— MariaKanellisBennett (@MariaLKanellis) October 3, 2022
Maria went on to share some goals that were more attainable in the immediate future like beauty and fashion sponsorships, explaining that wrestling and some of these companies have similar values.
“Whether it be Fenty or Skims… Kylie [Jenner]’s makeup line, I want to be able to do those things within women’s wrestling, because our values of being empowered, strong women are the same values of those companies. And so why can’t we do it? And with that comes huge endorsement deals for all the women that are underneath the Women’s Wrestling Army brand,” Maria explained. “I don’t think it’s ever been done in the way that I think it’s possible. And so those are some things that I really would like to accomplish.”
In addition to those goals, Maria hopes Women’s Wrestling Army could expand its audience on a platform like Netflix or another streaming outlet. Maria would also like to take WWA’s docu-series on the film festival circuit and share their story about empowering women in a male-dominated field in a bigger way.
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