Back at the beginning of March, around the time the Broken Hardys were bailing out, Impact Wrestling also lost the services of real-life married couple Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis. The couple spent the better part of four years working for Ring of Honor before moving to Impact in 2016, but they lasted just over a year in the former TNA.
Sources have told Wade Keller at the PWTorch that both Mike and Maria have signed with WWE and are expected to head straight to the main roster. This story was first reported by Sportskeeda. Keller’s sources indicate they’ll be Smackdown-bound, which would make sense given AJ Styles’ recent kinda-face-turn and the fact that Kevin Owens is really the only top-level heel the brand has. And he’s busy elevating that brand’s secondary title at the moment.
Bennett and Kanellis have been a tremendous heel act since their ROH days, and their act was always tailor-made for WWE. Bennett doesn’t work anything resembling the style that’s so in demand on the indies right now, and Kanellis is a known and proven main roster commodity. Since she’s more or less a pure valet and an integral part of Bennett’s gimmick, sending them both straight to the main roster makes sense for all involved. It’s not like NXT could benefit from their antics, anyway.
