10 Women's Wrestlers That Were Better Off Without WWE

4. Maria

Maria Kanellis
Ring Of Honor

An exceptional wrestling manager is hard to come by nowadays, but Maria is among an elite few that plays the part wonderfully. Her work in wrestling is night and day compared to where she was in WWE a decade ago, or at least what WWE had her doing on-air.

From acting as a ditsy backstage interviewer to an abused girlfriend of Santino Marella to managing Dolph Ziggler for a brief period, WWE never found the right role for her. I mean, her and Ziggler could have been an awesome pairing had they not portrayed Maria as clueless all the time. She was with the company for nearly five years and should have been more successful than she was, though her 2010 departure presented her with the opportunity to reinvent herself as a character.

In the years that followed, Maria mastered the art of true villainy in wrestling as the manager of her husband Mike Bennett, and combined with her natural beauty, she was the perfect package. She eventually took her talents to TNA, where she became easily one of the best parts of the program. Perhaps it worked out for the better that The Bella Twins reportedly nixed her return to WWE in 2013.

Contributor
Contributor

Since 2008, Graham has been a diehard pro wrestling fan and, in 2010, he combined his passions for WWE and writing when he joined Bleacher Report. Equipped with a master's in journalism, Graham has contributed to WhatCulture, FanSided's Daily DDT, Sports Betting Dime, and GateHouse Media. Along the way, he has conducted interviews with wrestling superstars like Chris Jericho, Edge, Goldberg, Christian, Diamond Dallas Page, Jim Ross, Adam Cole, Tessa Blanchard, Ryback, and Nick Aldis among others.