Maria Kanellis-Bennett Has Had Talks About Bringing A Women's Wrestling Show To ROH
There are many women in professional wrestling without a platform to shine. For the longest time under its previous ownership, Ring of Honor barely featured female talent in its programming. That changed when Maria Kanellis-Bennett and ROH ring announcer Bobby Cruise took over the Women of Honor division. They rebuilt and revitalized it from the ground up and continued to do so until the company went on hiatus ahead of it being purchased by Tony Khan.
During the period of uncertainty before the ROH sale, Kanellis-Bennett and Cruise launched Women's Wrestling Army and put the spotlight on the incredible women of this business. Now that the duo works under the AEW banner as part of the new ROH, what does that mean for WWA? They hope to bring the promotion to the HonorClub streaming service.
In an interview with WrestleZone, "The First Lady of ROH" revealed that there have been preliminary discussions with T.K. about collaboration between WWA and ROH. According to Kanellis-Bennett, "there's so much crossover [talent] between the two brands [and] it's also the same style of wrestling," so joining forces just makes sense to her.
Bring Honor To Us All
There are still some obstacles to overcome before a Women's Wrestling Army-Ring of Honor partnership can come to fruition.
"I think that it's all about bandwidth," Kanellis-Bennett said. "Tony Khan is a very busy man. Whether or not that can happen, we don't know, but we're definitely investigating [those options] and Tony's super open. He's one of the best bosses I've ever had when it comes to open communication, so we're talking about it. He definitely sees the potential and I definitely see the potential for us being placed on HonorClub."
Not only does the Raw Divas Search contestant and former TNA Knockouts Champion see Women's Wrestling Army as complimentary programming to the weekly Ring of Honor show, but she feels as though it could be a developmental territory for women looking to get onto ROH and AEW programming in the same way that "NXT" or "AEW Dark" functions. Although, she knows that they can't reach that goal by playing safe.
"I think when you get to such a high level, the pressure to take to not take risks is there," she explained. "We have the opportunity right now to take chances on people."
Betting On The Next Generation
"I think watching that growth of talent is really important in a feeder system," Kanellis-Bennett continued. "You don't want it to be so clean to where you don't get to see the struggle. That's one of the things that makes Ring of Honor so incredibly special. You see the undercard being built. You see them start to have those moments and matches that can make an entire career. I'd like to have us positioned in that way and that's again why being under that HonorClub umbrella would be the ideal place for us. Then it's not that we're so big or on a network that tries to take too much control, but we're within a place that we can take those risks with talent."
As of now, while WWA's future with ROH is uncertain, new episodes can be seen weekly on Pro Wrestling TV. And when it comes to The Kingdom, the ideal place for Kanellis-Bennett will be by the sides of Mike Bennett and Matt Taven as they enter the "Reach For The Sky" Ladder Match to crown new ROH Tag Team Champions at Supercard of Honor.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WrestleZone with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.