Maria Kanellis hopes to continue growing Women's Wrestling Army.
In addition to being an on-screen talent for IMPACT Wrestling, Maria also runs Women's Wrestling Army alongside Bobby Cruise. The promotion launched earlier this year and has featured talents such as Taya Valkyrie, The Hex (Allysin Kay & Marti Belle), Tasha Steelz, and many more.
Appearing on Women's Wrestling Talk, Maria detailed her goals for the company over the next five years, citing health insurance, higher pay, and sponsorships as a few objectives.
"I have a few. Health insurance. I would like to be able to provide health insurance, even if it's very basic health insurance. I would like to provide health insurance. The second one is, and this one is probably a little longer than 5 years, but we'll get there, I would really like everybody to make a million dollars a year. It's just, that's what I want. I want everyone's paycheque to be a million dollars a year. Why? Because they're worth it and because everyone should be able to pay for their family, pay for their bills. I just believe that wholeheartedly. You're going out there and killing yourself, why not? A lot of actors in Hollywood are on weekly television shows and they're making a million dollars per season, so you know what, I want to be able to provide that for wrestling too. Some of the more minor or smaller goals that I think are attainable within the next year or two is I want sponsorships that are beauty sponsorships and clothing sponsorships. All the things that wrestling hasn't done in the past, I want to be able to accomplish those things, whether it be Fenty or Skims or Kylie's makeup line. I want to be able to do those things within women's wrestling because our values of being empowered strong women are the same values of those companies and so why can't we do it? With that comes huge endorsement deals for all the women who are underneath the Women's Wrestling Army brand. I don't think it's ever been done in the way that I think it's possible, so those are some things that I would really like to accomplish. I'd also like to get us put on a major network or Netflix or a streaming that goes out to a much bigger audience. I love our deal with Pro Wrestling TV but I think we can expand it even more. I'd like to take our docu-series that we have going right now, combine it all together and take that to film festivals because I think the bigger story here is women's empowerment and inclusion and diversity and being able to tell those stories in a major way at a film festival and getting the attention of an even bigger audience because so many times the wrestling audience is so small compared to what's out there and having a documentary that tells a story about women and empowering women but also tells a greater story and that's being in a male-dominated industry. So those are my immediate goals, except for a million dollars a year which might take some time but we're going to get there. I think we can accomplish those things for sure," she said.
Women's Wrestling Army will hold its next set of tapings in Chicago, IL on November 4 and 5.
Kanellis recently joined Fightful's Grapsody podcast for an in-depth interview which can be seen here.
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