Pro-wrestling superstar Maria Kanellis recently spoke with PWPonderings about the formation of the Women’s Wrestling Army, and provides details on the new promotion’s partnership with Drew Cordeiro and Women’s Wrestling Revolution. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On the formation of the Women’s Wrestling Army:
So, it [Women’s Wrestling Army] was all sparked by the fact that all of the women were coming up to Bobby [Cruise] and myself and saying, ‘You guys should start something’ and honestly, I don’t know how to run a wrestling company. I loved my job at Ring of Honor. I loved being able to go in and focus on the women and just worry about them, be Talent Relations and focus on producing and booking but, you know, you look around and there’s not a whole lot of opportunity for that and so, we had to create something and I wanted to create something very… very wrestler-friendly and so, a lot of the details haven’t came out yet but I think by the time this article comes out, a few more may have came into light but where this is going to be streaming eventually is going to be a profit-sharing platform. So, yes, of course Women’s Wrestling Army will make up for whatever was spent in flights and booking and all of that kind of stuff. But, there will be a profit-sharing percentile and I don’t know what that’s going to look like and it’s never been done before so I don’t have any examples or good examples to be like, ‘Oh! Check this out’ to know what this is going to be. But for me, because we’re in this position of now running a wrestling company, I want it to feel like the wrestlers were a part of it and their voices were really being heard and this is one way to do so, so for example, I have a Brand Army and it’s under my website and there’s several other women that have Brand Armies. There’s The IInspiration (Jessica McKay & Cassie Lee) or you’ve seen Taya Valkyrie, she has one. There’s several of us that do and it’s an exclusive content page and where our show is going to live is going to be, first, an exclusive content page so you can be a super fan of a women’s wrestling show and that’s really cool and on top of that, there will be exclusive interviews that will only live on the Brand Army page and you will also be able to see some documentary-style footage. So, we are blending every single thing last year with Ring of Honor and adding it to this streaming site. It will be under womenswrestlingarmy.com so you just follow the link like I’ve been sending everybody to and once that page launches, you’ll be able to subscribe and we’ll be doing two-to-three episodes a month and then on top of that, we will also be shooting documentaries and other exclusive content like photoshoots so, it’s a big undertaking but this is the only way I felt comfortable in doing it. But there’s also going to be more streaming websites that we’re gonna be a part of and no matter where we go, there is going to be a piece that is profit-sharing and that’s to hold me and Bobby accountable for what we’re doing and also to give the women their own product. It’s their bumps, it’s their bodies, it’s their residual damage so hopefully, cross my fingers, knock on wood, spin a few times, throw salt over my shoulder, hopefully, this will be really good and will really be profitable for everybody.
On Women’s Wrestling Army partnership with Drew Cordeiro and Women’s Wrestling Revolution:
Because of how much they’ve already done for women’s wrestling [is why Women’s Wrestling Army is partnering with WWR+]. You know, I’ve watched Drew [Cordeiro] and Beyond [Wrestling], I’ve watched them over the years give opportunities to women I didn’t really see out there. Lot of intergender matches, lot of different styles of matches, the platform, the YouTube following they were able to grow, the building itself. I walk into Fete [Music Hall] and I feel like I’m gonna fight someone and dance with them all at the same time and just like, I don’t know what it is about that building. I go in the bathroom, I think the bathroom’s awesome. It smells but like a bar, it is just — I don’t know. It’s just something about that building and when putting this show together, I think Bobby [Cruise] probably heard me say it a million times, ‘It has to be Fete, it has be Fete, it has to be Fete.’ So yeah, and the next one we’re looking at doing is Chicago and you know, I think that there’s just a vibe. There’s a vibe that this thing has to have and I hope we’re able to capture it. But Drew had the right vibe with WWR+ and has the right vibe with Beyond Wrestling and they are our partners through all of this. They’ve been tremendous so far. Will they be our partners moving forward? I don’t know. We gotta see how this first one goes. But I think what Drew does is great and what he does for women’s wrestling is awesome.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)