Maria Kenellis-Bennett looks to change the landscape of women’s wrestling with Women’s Wrestling Army.
Her new all-women’s promotion has its first show this Sunday, May 1st from the Fete Music Hall in Providence, RI (tickets).
The veteran performer turned promoter spoke with SEScoops correspondent Ella Jay this week about what makes Women’s Wrestling Army so unique, the challenges of starting a company, plans to crown the first WWA champion and much more.
Below you’ll find the complete interview, as well as highlights from the half-hour discussion.
Maria says she was really nervous at first and questioned how the promotion would be received. There are already a lot of great women’s promotions out there, but she’s excited to give women’s wrestlers another place to work and show what they can do.
She’s been blown away by the reception so far. She’s received support from legends including Mickie James, Lita, Gail Kim, Christy Hemme and Renee Paquette.
Women’s wrestling has come a long way, but it’s still a male-dominated industry, if you look at television time, company executives, employees, camera people, etc.
She doesn’t consider herself a great wrestler, but she can be a great promoter. She spoke about legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick. He always focused on building a team, not just collecting talent. She shares that philosophy.
What is the most challenging aspect of starting a wrestling promotion?
Maria joked, “Flights. I hate flights! I hate them. (Laughs) Um, gosh, and luckily, Bobby Cruz has been amazing, he did all the flights. But, just figuring that situation out, because everybody’s got their own lives, you know, girls are coming in from here and there and everywhere, they’ve got shows the day before. Taya’s a champion, but she’s literally flying from Mexico to do our show on Sunday. So, that’s tough, the logistics of everything.”
Aside from coordinating travel logistics, Maria says it’s been a challenge to narrow down which talent they can work with.
“Beyond that, it’s controlling my own urge to have 50 people on the show, and realizing there is a budget and I cannot be like, ‘She’s great and I want her here!’ so that’s tough too. Bobby [Cruz] has to temper that a lot with me, of me wanting to get far too many people, and he’s like no, that’s not possible, so that’s really tough for me, and just accepting that it’s not gonna be perfect, we’re just going to do our best.”
Profit Sharing with Talent
Women’s Wrestling Army is unique in that it will be sharing profits from shows with talent.
“I didn’t want to own this company. I didn’t want to be a promoter. The only way I felt comfortable doing it was this way.”
Maria added, “Essentially, they own the success, they own the failures, they own their own bumps and that to me is the most important thing.”
She hopes this experiment will become a model that other companies can emulate.
“I really want this to be an example moving forward, that we can profit share with the talent, we can give them a piece of the pie and it will be successful.”
After the first show takes place this Sunday, they hope to release it for streaming purchase within a week. If their production team is unable to get the show edited and released by then, they will at least have a teaser video to show people what they have in store.
Aside from the live wrestling event, they’re also filming documentary footage to give fans an inside look at “how the sausage is made.”
Up for the Challenge
Right now, the focus is on the first even this Sunday. Eventually, they will crown a Women’s Wrestling Army Champion.
The first WWA show will feature champions from other promotions. Maria has no problem with the talent showing off the belts they’ve earned elsewhere.
When they do crown the inaugural WWA Champion, her goal is to hold a Tournament of Champions featuring women’s champions from other promotions.
Building a wrestling company is a tall order, but Maria Kenellis-Bennett is ready for the challenge.
“Will it be controversial and different? Of course, but I do hard things, that’s fine.”
– Maria Kenellis-Bennet
