Michael Bennett — a/k/a Mike Kanellis — asks for WWE release

Mike Kanellis — real name Michael Bennett — asked for his release from WWE on Monday in order to regain his passion for professional wrestling.

In May, Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Mike and Maria Kanellis had signed new, multi-year contracts to remain with WWE. The negotiations came down to the wire, with numerous Tweets from the couple seemingly counting down the days until they could move on from the company.

Since then, the Kanellis’ have been seen both on 205 Live, WWE’s cruiserweight-centric show, as well as in main-roster storylines, mostly revolving around Maria’s pregnancy and her emasculation of her husband. Recently, there was a cuckolding-adjacent story in which Maria attempted to name other Superstars as the father of her child before she was mostly written off to attend to her actual, real-life pregnancy.

But all of these storylines appear to have come to an end on Monday, with Mike — real name Michael Bennett — requesting and apparently being granted his release from WWE. He announced it via Twitter:

https://twitter.com/RealMikeBennett/status/1183855911619776512

His statement reads, in part:

"Today I asked for my release from WWE … I’ve been with the company for almost 3 years and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity. However it is time for me to move on. I am only 34 years old and feel I have way to [sic] much left in the tank. Working 1 day a week is just not going to cut it for me … I quickly realized that bringing my work frustrations and misery home with me is not good for my family … Now that I am clean, sober and motivated, I want to have those 30 minute matches. I want to travel the world and wrestle in front of UK crowds, German crowds, Japanese crowds. I want to feel the love and excitement wrestling once gave me."

Mike and Maria came to WWE in 2017. Prior to that, Mike had spent time with Ring of Honor, New Japan and IMPACT Wrestling. Now, it appears he’s ready to do more traveling, take on new challenges in pro wrestling and find work that both keeps him busy and professionally fulfilled. So chances are, we’ll be seeing him hit the ring again somewhere soon.