Discussing her WWE release:
It definitely was heartbreaking and it was out of the blue for me. It totally blindsided me and I didn't see it coming. But, you know, hindsight is 20-20. Perhaps if I wasn't so passionate ... and I was out after the two surgeries on my knee, I had MRSA (severe bacterial infection) in my knee. And I was so gung-ho, I was fighting with the doctors and they're like, 'There's no way you're gonna make it back before WrestleMania,' and I'm like, 'I'm telling you, I'm gonna be at WrestleMania. Come heck or high water I'm gonna be there.' I shocked the doctors ... I had the two surgeries within one week and I walked around for two weeks with a PICC line in my arm, on IV and antibiotics every morning and every evening. And they were like, 'WrestleMania is three weeks away, there's no way you're going to be able to recoup yourself in order to be able to do this.' I'm so stubborn, if I set my mind to do something I'm gonna do it. I said I'm gonna be there and sure enough I was there.
I don't know, it's one of those things that I think I would've never cut out on my own because I did love my job and I loved WWE and I loved my fans so much that I would've given anything. And I intended to be able to do both, to still wrestle 250 days out of the year and, in the meantime, if we're in Savannah, Georgia, do the show that night and then maybe go to a bar and even if it's like a little acoustic set, do a mini-acoustic set afterward and then hit the radio stations the next morning ... I had this whole plan. So it kind of totally hit me out of left field, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise because now I can really concentrate on the music, and kind of cherry-pick when I'm gonna wrestle and what I'm gonna do and rebuild my plan of what I want to do and where I want to go.
About being condemned for pursuing interests outside of wrestling (like Maria) when Chris Jericho's career is unaffected by what he does in music:
I think it's a case-by-case feel. Obviously WWE knew everything I was doing, whether I was coming here to talk to publishing companies and look at different music and whatever, but Chris Jericho was already in a band before he came back to WWE. He already had "Fozzy" and they were already successful, and he was touring and releasing another album before he even came. So they come into the picture already knowing all that, fully aware of all that, and this was something I decided to do while I was still with the company. And perhaps it did feel that way, but in my mind as a businesswoman, that's what I had my degree in, and just as a marketing genius [joking/laughing] ... But it seemed like a no-brainer, like why wouldn't you want to capitalize on this and really push it and tap into a whole other market you wouldn't be able to get in touch with if it wasn't for an outside interest like this. So I don't really understand it, but Chris Jericho and I are totally different cases. Not only just because I'm a female and he's a male, but he already had that coming into the picture.
Interest in TNA Wrestling:
Well certainly I've entertained the thought and it's one of those things ... there has to be this beautiful marriage between the two. Obviously my music right now is in the forefront, and if there's a way to be able to do it and still ... you know, because TNA's schedule is certainly less demanding, maybe what, 100 dates out of the year? Obviously it would give me a lot more time, but it would also give me that platform to be able to be there for my wrestling fans and hope that they would support me with my music. It's been really awesome because all the feedback from my fans has been amazing. Of course they wanna see me in the ring, they wanna see me wrestle, but they've been really supportive and there's been a lot of positive feedback for the album, even reviews from Country Weekly and in the country music world it's gotten a lot of positive feedback. So, if it's right, it'll be right and it'll happen. But it's gotta be the right fit, that's all.
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