Recently Cathy Kelley made a surprise return to WWE television. During her previous time with the company, Kelley served as a backstage interviewer for the NXT brand.

She left WWE back in February 2020 to pursue other opportunities and ventures. After leaving the company, Kelley pursued other passions and interests. Notably she wrote a movie and other scripts. But one thing she was sure to do during her absence, is she always stayed in touch with WWE.

While sitting down with the YouTube show The Big Thing with Kristian Harloff she said “I always stayed in touch with Stephanie and Hunter, they knew all the projects I was working on, and they made it very clear that the door was always open. Then, it just kind of happened.”

Explaining what brought about her return Kelly said “I just sent him [Triple H] a birthday text, and that’s kind of what snowballed everything for me coming back. It turned from a text into a Zoom call with Stephanie and the conversation kept on going, it was the right time and right opportunity.”

Why Was WWE Appealling To Cathy Kelly Again

The new regime change behind the scenes seems to have had an influence in Kelly’s return. “Working for them was very appealing. They’re both the epitome of what great leadership looks like. To get to work for them is great. Hunter just cultivates such a fun environment where it’s really enjoyable to be backstage and do your job.”

Now on the red brand as a backstage interviewer on WWE Raw, Kelly is a welcome return to the team. When she was asked if that was something she requested, to be on Raw upon her return, she replied, “That was the offer.”

But as Cathy Kelly explained, that wasn’t all Stephanie McMahon and the WWE offered. “When I talked to Stephanie, she knew some of the other ventures I was working on, and she said, ‘Do you want to come back as a writer? Do you want to come back as a liaison to WWE community and do a lot of events?”

Cathy Kelly continued, “She also offered me training to do commentary, which I love that she believes in me for that. One of my goals was to always be on either Raw or SmackDown as a backstage interviewer. When that offer came through, that was something I was really excited about.”

She was part of kick-off shows for “Premium Live Events” and other WWE digital content shows during her previous time with the company. In the interview she mentioned that she hoped to be able to keep doing a variety of content for WWE. Keep an eye on WrestlingRepublic.com to learn more updates and news on Cathy Kelly.

(H/T Credit – www.fightful.com)

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5. WWE Releases More Backstage Employees & ‘Merges’ Media Departments

Over the past month WWE have released a long list of in ring talent from the promotion, including big names such as Samoa Joe, The IIconics and Andrade, just to make a few. Over the past week, WWE made several NXT releases including Velveteen Dream, Brandi Lauren and Drake Wuertz. However unfortunately these cuts have now spread to behind the scenes employees in the company as well.

According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, WWE have made the decision to merge the Advanced Media Group and TV Departments including social media and WWE.com

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson has added to this revealing that the Senior Vice President of Production, Brian Pellegato, and Executive Vice President of Advanced Media Group, Jaylar Donlan, were among the names released from the company.

Johnson also reported that the divisions which have been folded together will be overseen by the Executive Vice President Of Television Productions, Kevin Dunn, who historically hasn’t had the best of relationships with talent in the company, including some higher up figures.

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Allison of Wrestling Republic can also confirm that there had been a feeling of major stress among employees of the graphic design departments in WWE over the past couple of years due to the high workload they were given, so the fact some have now been released and the departments have been merged is extremely worrying considering there was concern the workload was too much before the cuts.

Former WWE on screen host Cathy Kelly, took to Twitter following the releases to show her displeasure with the releases, and claiming the people released didn’t get nearly enough credit for what they did.

my brain can’t comprehend and my heart is fucking breaking for all my friends. along with being great humans, everyone behind the scenes at wwe digital worked their asses off to build a huge money making brand and don’t get near the credit they deserve

— Cathy Kelley (@catherinekelley) May 25, 2021

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