wrestling / News

Mike Bennett On Wrestling For 14 People During Pandemic, Mike & Maria On Their WWE Theme

March 14, 2021 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis

Mike Bennett’s return to the indies came at a tough time due to the pandemic, but he explained why he loved it in a new interview. Both Mike and Maria Kanellis joined the Angle Show to talk about their time after their WWE release in April, what they thought of their WWE theme song and more. You can check out highlights below:

Bennett on wrestling in front of 14 people during a show on his ‘I Miss Wrestling’ tour: “It was awesome. And I’m not even sugarcoating it, it was cool. Like, this whole tour has been awesome. I’ve had the experience — it’s been ups and downs, and lefts and rights, and different types of emotions. But at the end of the day, the emotion of just loving what I’m doing has always been there, which I haven’t felt in a long time. Just this idea of like, ‘I love professional wrestling.’ And whether there’s 14 people of 40,000 people there, I get to do what I love. And everyone’s making it like a big deal, like ‘Oh, he still went out there and he wrestled’ — there was never an option to me. That’s just what it was; you show up and you do your job and you leave … this is what I’ve been hired to do.

“I’d rather wrestling in front of 14 dedicated fans than 40,000 fans who are kind of like, ‘Ah, whatever, that’s the 205 [Live] guy we don’t really care about.’ I’d rather 14 die hard, dedicated diehard fans — because those are the people who care about you, and those are the people that matter. It’s like all of these people who talk crap about me and Maria, they don’t matter because they’re not our fans. Our fans matter. Not the people that like, you’re never going to be my fan, you don’t like me. I want to talk to my fans. Why? Because you invest in me, you care about me. So in turn I’m going to care about you. If 14 people show up in a snowstorm in blizzard conditions in Oklahoma City? Then I’m going to show up too, because those are my fans.”

Mariah on their WWE entrance theme: “I loved it. It was amazing! It literally represents us so much, because it’s like this ridiculous power ballad. And like, just the goofiness of it but the fun of it too. We loved it, and it could’ve been such a cool character. And it’s unfortunate we weren’t able to do it, but at the same time we’ll always have the theme song, you know?'”

Mike on the entrance theme: “I loved it, it was awesome. I still love it … All I want is when someone says what’s the greatest theme song. I want it to be Billy Gunn, ‘Ass Man,’ and then “Greatest Love.” Just those two … nothing touches ‘Ass Man’.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Angle Podcast with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.