Maria Kanellis Discusses Her Goals for the ROH Women’s Division

– ROH talent Maria Kanellis was a guest on today’s edition of Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Maria Kanellis on her talks with ROH: “The time came where they called me and were like, ‘We have this idea for you’ and I was like, ‘Okay, I have an idea too. You guys don’t have a women’s division.’ They said, ‘that’s our idea.’ They had the idea of me coming in and producing a women’s division and I wanted to come in and produce a women’s division. Then, it was just timing. Once I knew that was happening, I was like, ‘Okay, this is what I’m going to focus on.'”

Her goals for the ROH women’s division: “I would really just like for it to not be like a special event every time women have matches, I would just like it to be part of the show. I would really like whole characters. We get into these boxes of ‘women can only be strong or only weak.’ I want to get out of that habit and really try to tell my girls to ‘tell me more of your story, let’s get it out there and more of the person you are because the person you are is amazing, it’s just a matter of letting everyone know.’ That’s another piece of it. Right now, we just have the Women’s World Championship. I would like to get a (Women’s) Tag Championship out there. I’d also like to have a (Women’s) Pure Division because pure wrestling is becoming such a huge thing as far as the men are concerned. I’d like to bring more of that with the women’s division, we have a lot of good women for that. I would like to have an all women’s show at some point that is a pay-per-view. We do have an all women’s right now with Women’s Division Wednesday, I want to keep that going. I’d like to have two or three matches a week rather than one match a week. There’s a lot of different things out there. The biggest thing, to me, is to make the women’s characters more whole and more well-rounded.”

Maria Kanellis on the women with the most well-rounded characters in ROH: “There are several women who are doing that. Trish Adora is fantastic. She has done a fantastic job or telling her story and also being a badass in the ring. She has a cause and she’s able to keep that out there while she’s building this amazing career. Willow [Nightingale] is probably one of the best promos out there because she’s just Willow. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking to her backstage or in the ring, that’s just who she is and it’s more real to me than it’s ever been as far as her promos. I really like that. I’m also trying to blend reality with wrestling. Not so much that it takes away from the matches, but to where, when you’re watching the show, it’s almost like you’re watching your Twitter or Instagram feed where it feels like the camera should be there and my camera operator who does the backstage segments is fantastic with that. It’s something we’re focused on.”