It’s the old age story: Divas not getting enough TV time. In the past few weeks it has become something of a prevalent theme here at Diva Dirt with record-breakingly miniscule matches on Raw in March. We often wonder how do the Divas feel? Are they just as frustrated as us? Well, as a Diva who was there for five years, who better than Maria Kanellis to answer that question?
Speaking in a new interview with The Sun, Maria comments on the Divas being undervalued as performers and not getting enough time on television. Excerpt below:
“In the WWE I was a little bit stifled at times.
“I wasn’t allowed to do as much as I wanted to do. I had all these great, creative ideas and was constantly entering them into the WWE creative, but I couldn’t use a lot of them.
“The Divas weren’t given enough time, which I think is a horrible, horrible disadvantage that the girls have. I felt like I was held back — all the time.
“If you look back at Trish Stratus or Lita, or back in the day when there was Ivory or any of the women of the past, they got a lot more time than the girls do now.
“I remember watching a match with Gail Kim and Lita the match lasted 10 minutes. On TV. It wasn’t PPV or anything but they got 10 minutes.
“I wonder what would really happen if the Divas were given that much time.
“I don’t know if it’s that they think the Divas can’t sell tickets, but I truly believe in the Divas division and always will. I think they are missing out on a lot of talent right there.
“They’re not going to know what they are missing until it’s gone.”
Maria added: “That’s one reason I’m not sad they fired me. I got eight minutes of time on an MMA show to just talk to people and that was amazing. WWE never gave me eight minutes the entire time I was there.”
I don’t know what more I can add that we haven’t said a billion times before but you can definitely sense that Maria was frustrated while she was in WWE and if that’s the case, who knows how the current girls feel. I would expect it’s something along the same lines. You could try asking the Divas what they think but I’m sure you’ll just get the standard Kelly Kelly answer of, “I love my job!” Great to see Maria bat for and advocate for the Divas now that she’s no longer under contract and doesn’t need to be politically correct.
