Mike Bennett & Maria Kanellis Also Leaving Impact Wrestling

[ShinChan]

Impact Wrestling has secured two of its top stars for another year, as “The Miracle” Mike Bennett and his wife Maria Kanellis will be signing new contracts soon, Wrestlezone has learned.

The couple made the jump to Impact Wrestling in January 2016 after a successful run in Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling, which saw Bennett win both the ROH tag team titles and the IWGP tag team titles alongside Matt Taven. In their first year with the promotion, Bennett has won the X-Division Championship and worked several main event level programs, including a match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, while the former WWE Diva Maria has held the TNA Knockouts Championship.

While I’ve been told Mike and Maria will not have complete control over their bookings outside of TNA like a Cody Rhodes or Matt Hardy level talent does, Bennett will be honoring the independent dates he has already committed to, and has a list of promotions he wants to continue working for over the next year.

In all honesty, Bennett was good only when he feuded with Ethan Carter III. Not impressed by him as of now. Maria is better than him on mic for sure.

But still, let's see how he and her wife does in this year.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

I'm a little perplexed at the usage of Bennett. The "Miracle" gimmick fizzled out, but he's an entertaining performer. He just needs more personal feuds to work that last longer than two weeks.

It's good to see them another year with the promotion, though. Given the new ownership, I wonder if we might see some incarnation of the Kingdom show up in TNA this year?

 

[Fabulous Freebirds]

I am happy they are both staying. Bennett is a good heel and worker. Best heel in TNA.

 

[ShinChan]

I am happy they are both staying. Bennett is a good heel and worker. Best heel in TNA.

I disagree strongly with the bolded part.

It's like over rating Bennett. He isn't the best heel for sure. Eli Drake, Lashley and Ethan Carter III are a lot better than him as heels. Bennett isn't near Eli or Ethan at mic skills.

@IDR: I will keep my eyes on Bennett but I have been entertained by him only when he was in the feud with Ethan Carter III. Not to forget that he has been more engaged in storyline with his wife and Knockouts Division i.e the angle of Braxton Sutter, Allie and Laurel Van Ness.

 

[Lowdown]

The standout between the two has always been Maria (obviously), but this is no knock on Bennett. I can't really say that he's the best heel on the roster right now, though. He reminds me of his old "Prodigy" gimmick when he was in ROH. To IDR's point, he could use a shot in the arm, and perhaps a reunion with the Kingdom is what he needs, only maybe with him being the leader as opposed to Adam Cole. Remember, he didn't really shine until he broke away from the whole "Prodigy" deal. He should channel his darkside one more time.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Bennett isn't the best heel in IW—Lashley is. But Bennett is arguably one of the easiest to hate from a character perspective, and his ability to elevate feuds with solid mic work really, really helps him. When it comes to the old school "rat" style heel who cheats to win, cries to refs about "blown calls", and uses dastardly tactics, he's someone you can count on time and again.

 

[New Hot Fed]

Both are pretty annoying and I change the channel everytime they are on screen. Bad decision by Jarrett.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

So there is a report now on PWInsider that both Bennet and Maria are gone from TNA. Apparently TNA had them working on a date to date contract after their original deal expired late last year. They wanted to sign them to a more permanent deal, but it appears that Bennet and Maria both backed out at the last minute.

There is a rumor going around, and I say rumor because I've seen no concrete reports on it, that TNA is changing how they pay their employees and that part of the new contracts is that TNA/Anthem want 10% of all their wrestlers indie appearance fees. If true, I can see why they are having a mini exodus.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Yeah, confirmed here:

Two more big names have left TNA.

Mike Bennett and his wife, Maria Kanellis-Bennett, have parted ways with TNA Wrestling. This is according to Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com, who confirmed the news with multiple sources.

Their respective contracts expired late last year and they had been working on per appearance deals over the last set of TNA television tapings. Management had attempted to sign the two to new contracts and according to one source, had agreed to terms only to later inform TNA they would not be signing.

They are already done with TNA and will not be working this week’s television tapings in Orlando, Florida.

http://www.pwmania.com/two-more-stars-leave-tna

--

Jim Ross is predicting even more will leave, apparently citing that this is "the norm when creative management changes are made because it will always clash with someone that's been making the original ways work so well before the new bosses arrived".

 

[New Hot Fed]

Really fantastic news. Her screaming and his whole look/character/act was bland and horrible. I know a lot of this was due to Gaburick's bad booking/writing but still.

I think Bennett made it work early on when he feuded with EC3, he was the first one that beat Ethan clean and it created an interesting feud between the two. But beyond that, we saw no growth with Bennett. And I just hated the whole Allie storyline with Maria, it was the same crap over and over. Too much female soap opera crap. Just think: the storyline was prime to end at BFG, it would have been ideal for Allie to turn there. Instead TNA inserted Gail Kim in there so it became Kim vs Maria. So they held the blow off till last week! So something that should have happened in October they ended at the end of February. I never want to see Gaburick in creative ever again.

 

[ShinChan]

I'm damn happy that Bennett and Maria left TNA.

Bennett was only good when he feuded with Ethan Carter III. That was the highlight of his lackluster debut year in TNA.

Then, he played second fiddle to Maria in the storyline with Braxton Sutter and Allie which worsened the situation of Bennett.

I don't think that Bennett is as good as he's made out to be. Or maybe he wasn't given enough opportunities. God knows better.