Mike Bennett on showing up to WWE "not in the best shape" when he was signed

Former WWE Superstar Mike Bennett has opened up on his time in WWE and recovering from addiction during his first years with the promotion.

During a recent episode of the Busted Open podcast, Bennett, previously known as Mike Kanellis in WWE, was asked by hosts Bully Ray and David LaGreca if he was playing the 'nice card' during his WWE career. Mike Bennett shared an interesting perspective of how he showed up to his dream job "not in the best shape":

"I love that question because I'm not playing the nice card, because here's the thing that I learned when I got sober, is you have to hold yourself accountable, ne of the big things I started doing is - there's this mantra that I kind of live by and it's, 'It may not be your fault, but it is now your responsibility'... And that's what helped me with my addiction. But just in general, I showed up at WWE as my dream job. It's what I always wanted to do, but I showed up not in the best shape. I showed up addicted to drugs." (h/t Wrestling INC)

"I showed up not ready to go, and so first impressions are a big deal, and if the first impression that Vince [McMahon] or anybody else got there was, 'Well, he had three months to sit at home before we brought him there, and he's not in the best shape of his life, and what has he been doing?' And then, 'Oh well, we signed this guy who is addicted to drugs. Well, maybe we need to look at our vetting process a little bit better.' And you add all those things together, and I think there's a percentage of the failures that fall on me." (h/t Wrestling INC)

Mike Bennett on enjoying the challenge of the angle with Maria Kanellis on WWE RAW

Continuing to discuss his career in WWE, Mike Bennett stated that it was his job to try and move his career forward in the company and work for a push from the executives in the promotion.

Mike Bennett even suggested that he enjoyed the challenge of trying to get over the angle where his wife, Maria Kanellis, would throw verbal assaults at him every week on Monday Night RAW:

"Even if you take it and you say, 'Maybe it's not all of me and it's all on WWE,' but still. I'm in this position now - but then again, it may not be my fault but it is my responsibility, so that's how I'm looking at it moving forward," Bennett said. "Now, was there bad creative along the way? Of course there was, but I tried to make the most of it. I tried to do the best I could with what I was given. I actually liked the challenge of that crazy RAW angle of submitting to my wife all the time. I was like, 'Let's see if we get something out of this because who knows? Maybe this could be the best thing that ever happened to me.'" (h/t Wrestling INC)

"So, yes, there's always - and Bubba (Bully Ray) you know this backstage, you have to push for yourself because there's nobody else that's going to push for you. If you're not fighting for yourself, if you're not going to Vince and telling him time, and time, and time again, 'This is why I deserve to be the top guy, this is why I deserve to be in the main event,' you're just not going to get it. Out of sight, out of mind, and there's so much talent in that company right now." (h/t Wrestling INC)