About Mike & Maria Kanellis’ booking on the July 1 Raw...

There was certainly a lot of eyebrow raising material from Mike & Maria Kanellis’ surprise appearance on Raw last night (July 1). A lot of that has been attributed to new Executive Director Paul Heyman, who is known in part for “edgier” material like Maria referring to husband Mike as her “bitch” while challenging Becky Lynch & Seth Rollins to a mixed tag match. Kanellis begging out of wrestling in that match by announcing her pregnancy, and that it came as a surprise to Mike, is also reportedly the start of a long-term angle - another Heyman priority.

Maria’s line about getting Becky Lynch to impregnate her when she wants a third kid was just a combination of the two, I guess. Anyway... some interesting back story has come that may be driving all of the above, too.

Both Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer and PWInsider’s Mike Johnson report that Maria is in fact pregnant. Johnson goes on to say that the couple did not inform WWE about the pregnancy until after signing five year contract extensions with the company.

You may recall that Maria also announced her first pregnancy shortly after she and Mike debuted for WWE at Money in the Bank in 2017. That, and Mike coming forward about a painkiller addiction in between their debut and the pregnancy announcement, drew the couple a considerable amount of flak online. This will probably lead to more of the same.

If Meltzer’s speculation is correct, Kanellis would appear to be sticking around to further a “who’s the daddy?” angle this time, which may mitigate some of the criticism and jokes.

But it’ll also invite others. Which makes us wonder if the presentation of Mike as a figurative and possibly (in story) literal cuckold has anything to do with their bosses not being thrilled with the Kanellis’ timing.

And we probably won’t be alone in wondering.