Mike Bennett On the Positives Of His WWE Run and Release, Morale in ROH, Working With Maria

Mike Bennett discussed his time in WWE, his arrival in Ring of Honor, working with his wife and more in a new interview. Bennett was a guest on The Cut Pro Wrestling Podcast, and the show sent us some highlights and the full audio which you can see below:

On how his goals changed: “It’s one of those things where, you know, you chase a dream for so long. And then you have tunnel vision about getting to that dream getting to that dream. And for me, it was always WWE or bust. That’s what I dreamed up. That’s what I wanted to do. And I was fortunate enough that along that journey, I worked for Ring of Honor, I worked for New Japan, I worked for impact. And along that journey, I discovered that the dream that I wanted wasn’t what I thought I wanted. It was something entirely different. I wanted to be a pro wrestler I want I thought I wanted to be a sports entertainer. I did it and then went now this isn’t for me. I like the sport of pro wrestling.”

On his first run in Ring Of Honor: “Yeah, it’s one of those companies that fully supports this and I say this completely honestly and I will back this up to the day I die. Professional wrestling is the way it is right now. Because of Ring of Honor. Ring of Honor completely changed the game from 2002 on it has produced stars, it has produced not only stars but it has changed the way we view wrestling and it’s changed the style of wrestling. It has changed what pro wrestling is. If you look at any company, AWS, New Japan, WWE it is all completely littered with Ring of Honor guys Ring of Honor alum people that have come through that system. It’s just it is the staple I had the privilege of seeing Carrie silken at wrestle con a couple weeks ago, who was the owner of Ring of Honor before Sinclair took over. And like I gave him a big hug because he is the reason I’m here. He’s the reason so many guys’ careers have done what they’ve done. Ring of Honor has kind of set the groundwork for what is going to be popular and what’s going to be quindi in professional wrestling.”

On working with his wife Maria: “You know that she’s very important. What we’re doing, made this decision where Okay, she joined me in 2011 given it almost 10 years of this Mike Maria, together kind of presentation. Now we’re trying to see what we can do on our own. What can Mike Bennett do on his own? I know what Maria Callas can do on our own, she’s incredibly talented. And plus, she’s starting to slowly transition into this, this backstage role of taking over the women of the women’s division and Ring of Honor. And really focusing on that because in her head, she’s like, there will be a time Well, I will come on the screen and I will be needed on the screen. But in her head, she really is just focused on helping out the younger talent, the younger girls get to achieve what they want to achieve. And she knows that what’s best for me right now is to go and wrestle and just be Mike Bennett, the wrestler not offended and Maria the act. So that’s kind of where we’re at before it was pivotal. We were team sexy, we were Mike and Maria, we were doing everything and that is like all those memories so fondly, but there will be a time where we come back together. Obviously we’re married. We see each other every single day of our lives. But as far as a presentation on camera, we’re kind of taking it into two separate directions it’ll always be there everyone will always tell that when there’s Maria there’s Mike when there’s Mike there’s Maria but as far as what we’re doing now it’s kind of different.”

On the positives in his WWE Run: “I got to travel. Imagine I rested in Saudi Arabia, like I never thought that I would be. I got to do a European tour, WrestleMania I got two nice things. But for me, the biggest thing was and again this is going to sound like a slight at WWE and I know there are going to be some fans that take it that way. But it’s not getting to WWE taught me what I didn’t want in this industry. It taught me that. Okay, this company is for some people. It’s not for me. I want to be a pro wrestler. I want to focus on the sport of pro wrestling. I want to actually wrestle when I can. I want to have 15 2030 minute matches. I’m not looking to Be a television superstar. I want to be Mike Bennett, the pro wrestler, because at the end of the day, that’s why I got into the industry.”

On the positives of being released from WWE: “Yeah, you know, so it was kind of like it was one of those catch 20 twos because we got fired in the middle of a pandemic, which as a dad is terrifying, because you’re now unemployed. And it wasn’t just me, it was my wife. So now as a family, you’re unemployed. And your first thought is I have to provide, I have to provide for my children, no matter what, money’s not coming in anymore. What do I have to do? But as you start to get away from that, and get away from that scariness of it, you start to learn like, oh, okay, I still know what I’m doing. I had a career before this, I will have a career After this, I’m going to be just fine. And then you start to get excited when you start going to shows and you go to Ring of Honor, and you have matches, and your first thought is okay, well, I got to make sure we don’t do this, this and this, because so and so said, we can’t do this, this and this. And it’s written so we and you go Wait, no, you can have creative freedom. Wait. So you mean if I do this move, I’m not going to get yelled at the minute I walk through the gorilla position, all my god and the whole world just starts to open up and you start to get very excited about it. So for me, if I didn’t have kids getting fired, probably I probably wouldn’t light up. I’m so excited. Originally, I was like, Oh, god, I’m terrified. But then as you start to progress, and you start to come out of that fog, and that haze, you go, this is kind of awesome. I love this.”

On morale in the Ring Of Honor locker room: “You know, it’s it’s one of those things where at the very first start of it, your kind of like, this is weird, there’s no crowd, but then you start to kind of maneuver and navigate your way through these matches, and you learn like, okay, this is how I have to have this match. And this is how I have to do this. And if I just do this, I can keep the match interesting this way. And I shouldn’t do this, because then it’ll be too quiet. And I’ll come across as awkward. So you start to really navigate like pro wrestlers do in front of a crowd, you navigate with what works and what doesn’t work. And I just feel like even in the locker room, the guys are, there’s a lot of guys that are just so happy to be working right now. And there’s like, so many people are out of jobs, and so many people aren’t working. And for me, I know, I’m like, I’ll wrestle in front of nobody, if it means I have consistent work coming in, I don’t care. I think I’m talented enough to put on a good match in front of 20,000 people or put it in front of nobody. So I think it’s just one of those things where you just tighten up, you adapt, because you have to adapt.”