Maria Kanellis doesn’t hate WWE, plus notes on WWE’s female roster, Okada, and Vice Media

– According to a recent report from Fightful Select, WWE is currently very confident in the female rosters on both Raw and Smackdown.

– While speaking with Tokyo Sports, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada revealed that he would like to see a Pro Wrestling World Cup featuring talent from NJPW, WWE and AEW. He said “It would be interesting to have a wrestling World Cup, it would be fun to have a big event on a global scale. We could have a tag team of Okada and Nakamura or Naito to fight for their country. If necessary I will go see Tony Khan and Triple H.”

– Maria Kanellis recently spoke with Ten Count and shared some details about her career after her October debut with AEW. In response to the question, Kanellis stated she has been the recipient of “a lot” of fan hate since then, despite maintaining positive industry relationships with her colleagues from her prior promotion, WWE (via Wrestling Inc). You can read a highlight from Kanellis and watch the complete episode below.

On her surprise at the vitriol aimed at her after appearing on AEW Rampage: “It was amazing really. I don’t hate WWE, and I had great conversations before we made our decision on where we were gonna go. My husband had great conversations before we decided where we were gonna go. I think that’s also the thing that people need to realize, too, is a lot of us keep great relationships everywhere. You know, Triple H and Stephanie [McMahon] sent huge baskets to our house full of all these kids’ gifts after both of my kids [were born].”

– Vice Media, the company behind Vice TV where Dark Side of the Ring airs, is reportedly restarting its sale process. CNBC reports that the media company is restarting the process after interested parties held off due to the initial price tag of $1 billion to $1.5 billion. The report notes that Vice Media is now expected to go for less than $1 billion, a major drop-off for a company worth $5.7 billion in 2017.

It was noted back in December that Vice would miss its projected revenue for 2022 by about $100 million, which could potentially impact its sales process. Vice had been in talks with Greek broadcast company Antenna Group at that time, but those talks stalled out in the past several weeks. Antenna is said to still be likely to be interested in buying the company in the restarted process.

Reps for Vice Media, Antenna, and Fortress Investment Group, one of Vice’s lenders who are driving the sale process, declined to comment.