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What's the story?
After her return to WWE television was cut short for the best possible reason - giving birth to her first child, Maria Kanellis has been teasing a return to WWE television recently. But the First lady of ROH has hit the headlines again by stating she'd love WWE to bring back the Divas Championship!
In case you didn't know...
Maria Kanellis signed with WWE in 2004 after entering the Diva Search, making appearances at OVW, and working in more of a creative capacity with booking ideas, before being brought to Raw as a backstage interviewer and the host of KissCam.
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By 2005, Maria was wrestling on Raw, and proved her toughness when one of her fillings was slapped out of her mouth during a match with Trish Stratus.
Toughness is something that would be prominent in her first stint in WWE as she competed against Kurt Angle in singles action, teamed with John Cena against Edge, and Lita and was also on the receiving end of a Stone Cold Stunner when she criticised Steve Austin's movie The Condemned.
Kanellis also appeared on the Celebrity Apprentice, and after being released from WWE, went on to wrestle in Ring of Honor.
Maria Kanellis was even dubbed the First Lady of ROH shortly after her debut, working with Mike Bennett in ROH, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Impact Wrestling among others, with Maria competing alongside Mike in NJPW - the first time women had competed on the promotion in 13 years.
While in Impact Wrestling, Maria Kanellis achieved a first as a singles competitor, when she won the Impact Knockouts Championship. She held the title for 50 days, before losing it to Gail Kim. Kanellis was also the Impact Knockouts Division Commissioner.
Both Maria and Mike left Impact Wrestling in March 2017, and returned to WWE few months later in June at Money in the Bank, with Mike even taking Maria's name, debuting as Mike Kanellis.
Mike defeated Sami Zayn before taking a leave of absence, where it was later noted he battled drug abuse, and successfully overcame it.
Mike Kanellis hasn't been on WWE television for a while, but he has been working live events and dark matches while Maria Kanellis has been off TV due to pregnancy. The pair had their first child in April, but Maria is on the come-back trail.
The heart of the matter
Well, the term "Diva" has been mired in controversy over the past few years, and the word was completely killed in WWE when the Divas Championship was made defunct, and the new Women's Championship, of which there's now one for each show, was announced.
The Women's Revolution has saw parity become a more realistic aim than ever before when it comes to WWE, and the all-women's pay-per-view Evolution has also recently been announced - but Maria Kanellis has taken to social media to defend the term, and say the Divas Championship should return.
Maria also replied to a fan asking who her tag team partner would be if WWE Women's Tag Team Championships were brought to the fold.
Kanellis would then speak about how the "Divas" played a huge part in the Women's Revolution.
Kanellis doesn't suggest replacing the current belts though, but rather adding the Divas title to the roster.
And the former Impact and ROH star defended the notion that Divas weren't wrestlers.
Maria finally signed off with a statement about the title, and about how very few people appreciate it.
What's next?
Well, we could see Maria Kanellis back on television very soon!
What do you think about the Divas Championship? Would you like it to return? Let us know in the comments.
