Cathy Kelley Details Return To WWE
Cathy Kelley joined WWE for her first spell in 2016, primarily serving as an interviewer on the "NXT" brand. In February 2020, after years of featuring on "NXT," the WWE Network program "WWE Now," and Sam Roberts' Sirius XM radio show about WWE, Kelley resigned from the position to try out new creative endeavors.
However, earlier this year, she was one of the many people brought back to the company under the new leadership of co-CEOs Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon, and the Chief Content Officer, Paul "Triple H" Levesque.
"They made it very clear that the door was always open and then, [it] just kind of happened," Kelley recalled on "The Big Thing" podcast. "I remember I just sent him a birthday text and that's sort of what snowballed everything for me coming back."
For Kelley, it was an easy decision to return to work with Triple H and Stephanie due to the impression they made on her during her first run with the company. "Working for them was very appealing. I think that they are both the epitome of what great leadership looks like."
Multiple opportunities were presented to Kelley, with Stephanie and Levesque seeing great potential in what she had to offer. "[Stephanie] was like, 'Do you want to come back as a writer, do you want to come back as a liaison to WWE community and do a lot of the events like going to different food kitchens or the boys and girls club.'"
Cathy Kelley's journey back home
Ultimately, Cathy Kelley chose to return as a backstage interviewer for the main roster, which she revealed was her original goal when signing with the company back in 2016. "[Stephanie] also offered training for me to do commentary, which I love that she believes in me for that." Along with working under Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, she will also be working with the Vice President of Announcing, Michael Cole, to continue to elevate her craft.
"With those two, I've always had a great relationship. I still have a great relationship with Michael Cole and a lot of other people there. So, even when I was leaving, they were saying we want to make this work so you can stay but I already had my mind set," she explained.
But even with so many significant changes behind the scenes, Kelley's actual day-to-day doesn't feel much different since Triple H was the boss in "NXT" when she worked there during her first spell. "For me, there's not much of a difference because I was at 'NXT,' which was run by Hunter at the time, so it was always just a lot of people who were creative and passionate about what they do and I think it's like that on a bigger platform."
Kelley currently serves as a backstage interviewer for "Raw."