Mike Bennett finds extra motivation by having the support of the pro wrestling great who just happens to be his wife.
Speaking with Kevin Kellam of Sportskeeda, Mike Bennett was asked about working with Maria through the years. Bennett said that Maria helped prepare him for the pro wrestling spotlight and praised her mind for the business.
“It’s funny. The dynamic between me and Maria as opposed to like ten years ago, which, the fact that we’ve been doing this for 10 years still blows my mind, it’s entirely different. So back then, I was a very insecure, unprepared, all sorts of things that I wasn’t ready for the spotlight. So she was. So she was the person that was guiding me through this journey in pro wrestling. Because the level she was at when we first came together, she had a lot of worldly experience that I just didn’t have. So she was there to kind of show me the ropes of what I needed to do, and she was also there to help me out when I needed a hand or two.
“Now, it’s more of like this mutual respect thing, and when I see her across the ring from me or I see her by the apron, I look at her and I go, ‘Okay, there’s Maria Kanellis, who I consider one of the smartest, most brilliant minds in pro wrestling.’ She’s standing right there supporting me, so that gives me the motivation that I need to continue to move forward. That’s all I need to see. I just need to see her believing in my ability, and that’s the motivation that I go, ‘Well if she believes in it, then that’s all that matters.’ That’s literally where I’m at in my life, too, where I’m like wait, Maria Kanellis believes in me? Well, sh**, I gotta keep moving forward because I gotta prove her right. She’ll let me know when I suck too. It’s great.”
Mike said that one of the things he loves about Maria the most is how she gives him critical feedback and sees things from a different vantage point.
“In wrestling locker rooms, if you’re a veteran or whatever, you’ll come to the back and you’ll ask people what they thought. A lot of them will just kind of be like, ‘It was great. It was awesome. I loved it.’ She’ll look at me and even if I thought the match was one of my best, I’ll look at her and go, ‘What do you think?’ Instantly she gives me this face like, and I’m like oh, sh-t, there’s a lot coming right now, isn’t there. There usually is, but I love it because what she sees is the things that a lot of people don’t see. She sees mannerisms, she sees how you sell, she sees whether you should pick it up or slow it down. She sees how the fans are reacting and whether something’s working or not. I might think it’s working, and then from her perspective, she could be like yeah, that really wasn’t working as well as you thought it was.
“She’s also watching the entire match from ringside, so she gets an entirely different perspective, and truthfully, every single really, really good match that I’m like, I loved it, she’s found something to pick apart, but it makes me better. I know it’s coming from a real place because that’s what you do with people you love. You tell them, you’re like, that was great, but I think you have more to give. I think people could be like, oh she’s being too hard on you, or this and that, and I don’t agree with that. I think when you see something in someone that you care about, you try to pull out the very best in them. If there were things where she’s like oh, you shouldn’t have done that, then I go back and watch it, I’m like, but it was really working. I’d be like alright, maybe you’re not coming from a good place. But almost everything she’s said to me once I try again, it usually works, so I know she’s coming from a decent place.”
