Despite deleting profiles for Hurricane Helms and Paul Burchill who were also released yesterday, Maria is still listed on the SmackDown Superstars page and the Divas page. You can still visit her profile by clicking here.
If I had to hazard a guess, I’d assume that WWE won’t be deleting traces of Maria on their website until after The Celebrity Apprentice airs. The show airs on NBC and Maria’s appearance on the show is partly due to the synergy between WWE and NBC Universal which owns USA Network. The current season of ‘Apprentice’ was filmed last year and Maria is billed as being part of the WWE in all of the promotion. So again, just my theory but I’d assume they’ll wait till after they’ve cashed in on the cross-promotion to delete her profile.
If correct, it’s extremely shady and makes one wonder why they couldn’t just wait till after the show to let her go. It makes me question that much more whether her music ventures outside of WWE had something to do with it — maybe they don’t want her to use her WWE stardom as a platform to launch a music career. They weren’t exactly receptive of Mickie’s music career at first, resenting the fact she was doing something outside of their auspices but seemingly warmed to the idea after she got some mainstream press where she was billed as ‘WWE Diva’.
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23 Comments
as far as i know she can’t be on other tv program when
Celebrity Aprentice is airing.. so maybe this Released is only for that time
and then we are getting a Maria Return, just like we got when ashley on survivor
can somebody explain what was the point of giving this chick the diva of the year award ? maybe shes gonna come back after the shows done.
I really do wonder why they released her. They gave her the Diva of the Year award, they were starting something with her and Matt Hardy and she did really good in her promo with “Lay-Cool” and Mickie James. I don’t get it and she said she didn’t know about it until like an hour before it was announced. Maybe WWE was upset about her music career but they didn’t release Mickie for hers. I don’t understand.
And about Ashley coming back after Survivor I thought she was just “suspended indefinately” not released..IDK. :(
Surprised Maria is still listed on the SD page. I know the Divas page takes longer to remove because it’s more in-depth with the navigation bar and everything. When Candice got cut, her SD profile was removed quickly, but her Divas section took a couple days.
The only part of her release that makes sense is if they didn’t want to pay her the WresteMania bonus. But you’d think the publicity she’d generate from Celebrity Apprentice would make up for it.
It would have been more shocking/cruel/funny if WWE fired her the same week Trump fired her on Celebrity Apprentice.
They fired Hurricane?! NOOOOOOOOOOOO…..
It would have made more sense to release her after celebrity apprentice airs. WWE really didn’t have a role for her right now but one may have come up in a few weeks or months. I would be surpsised to see her go to TNA they have even less of a need for someone of her skills unless it’s the back stage interviewer positon Lauren filled. The role that Marie had in the WWE could be easily filled by someone like Tiffany or the Bella’s. The WWE really doesn’t use valea’s unless you count the role Natalia fills. The bella’s role lately has been arm candy for the guest hosts and an occasional ring appearance. With the guest host gimic rumored to be ending soon it is really seeming like Maria was the odd diva out as far as positions go. My biggest grip agains Maria has always been her wrestling ability and her inability or unwillingness to improve it. Michelle came out of the same diva search and is far ahead of Maria in terms of in ring skills.
Heres another though no one has considered. TNA is moving to Monday nights, TNA up until recently has made a point of emphasizing how much better their women wrestlers are than the ones in the WWE. With the WWE recently hiring more athletic diva’s like the ones recently showing up at FCW the WWE may be trying to de-emphasize the “looks pretty but can’t wrestle” diva’s in favor of ones who can put on a decent match.
Last though, Maria’s firing was a message to the rest of the talent both male and female not to put themselves ahead of the company. Mari’as biggest mistake may have been when she said she was a lot of other things first and down at the bottom of her list was “wrestler”.
“With the WWE recently hiring more athletic diva’s like the ones recently showing up at FCW the WWE may be trying to de-emphasize the “looks pretty but can’t wrestle” diva’s in favor of ones who can put on a decent match.”
*cough* As if WWE cares what people think anout divas and knockouts. Also the knockouts are no longer about quality wrestling (Hamada and Sarita rarely appear on the show), so that cant be a reason for WWE to fire her. If it really would matter for them, they would just use her as a valet and give Natalya/Katie/Gail a push. And since Maria was on Smackdown, they could’ve fired Kelly or the Bellas instead.
They are definitely keeping the profile up until after Celebrity Apprentice. It says on her profile, under the Celebrity Apprentice article, to “stay tuned for more Celebrity Apprentice coverage”.
I hate the WWE so much for doing these kind of things to people…but I love the divas so much, I have to watch.
Hahaha. I like what spiffy said. It would have been hilarious if they fired her right when Donald Trump does it on the show.
It is kind of shady if they are leaving her profile up to take advantage of her appearence on Celebrity Apprentice. The only reason that I can think of that they fired her is financial. She may have been making more money than they thought she was worth.
Also, I don’t think this is a work. If it was, they would have “fired” her on TV and made it part of a storyline. The fact that they didn’t points to her being gone fo good.
Chances are it has nothing to do with the company not wanting Maria to use her fame as a Diva in her music career. Maria wanted to do too much. She was a Diva first. Furthermore, Maria had goals outside of that. She wanted a music career and that’s a big mistake. The Diva had already left the show for the Apprentice. Leaving to work on her album would have been just another project away from the ring. And that’s not what the Diva is getting payed for. She is getting payed to work in the ring not on her album. So, releasing her would be the obvious response. Releasing her would allow her to work on that album that she has such hope in doing. Keeping her profile up has an obvious reason aside it. The company isn’t stupid. She’ll be on the Apprentice as a Diva and she’s marketing their company to viewers, who may or may not have heard of WWE before. So, more viewers. They’ll keep her profile up until the Diva gets eliminated from the show. Because after that her profile holds no use or value to them. She won’t be promoting their show anymore because she isn’t apart of it any longer.
Credit: PWInsider
“In what will be her first appearance since her release from WWE, Maria will be on Special Deliver with Sam and Dave (XM channel 202/Sirius channel 197) at 9PM tonight.”
Guess, we will learn more later today.
Mikas – I doubt Maria will tell us anything that we don’t all ready know. She was clueless as to why she was released. Meanwhile, it’s obvious that the company released her because she had too many projects going on outside of the company. I feel bad for the girl. I do. However, I think that it’s ridiculous to have so many goals outside of the company. She had just got back from an absence from the ring. Then, she started talking about an album. It’s like: how many breaks are you going to take away from the ring? Meanwhile, her career inside of the company wasn’t going anywhere aside from the typical love interests.
@baby she won a vote to become Diva of the year WWE didn’t give her it, it was an online poll
i dont believe the fans voted for her
Mikas, what site do you get your news from? You got that news quite early, mine just showed up now.
the hurricane, paul burchill, and now maria.? what in the flyin’ horse is going on.!? who’s next.? mickie, randy, or gail (again)…
i think its just them taking a while, actually. her picture was removed from the wwedivas scrollbar earlier today.
Like I said in the topic were she comments her release, I strongly believe that her profile is still there due to a publicity contract between WWE and The Apprentice.
If they have a profile for a video game character, it makes sense that they keep Maria as long as this Apprentice season airs. They have mentioned the show before her release, which kinda proves my point. They have a contract almost for sure.
I love Maria’s profile.. Fantasy is a great song ! i want to buy her album when it comes out. ! Soo sad that she’s not coming to UK for WWE tour.. WWE made big mistake.. !!
Btw, just to say that Maria’s Profile isn’t there anymore.