The naked truth about Maria

By TIM BAINES - Ottawa Sun

Link: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2008/03/22/5076081.html

Maria Kanellis was autographing copies of the April edition of Playboy, with 10 pages and the cover devoted to the WWE Diva.

And from the back of the room, she heard a voice, yelling: "Boop!" She smiled ... it was her father.

"Still daddy's girl," said Maria. "When I was a little girl, I used to say boop, just like Betty Boop, so that became my nickname.

"Playboy had been asking me to appear since I was 18 or 19 ... when I was the Hawaiian Tropic girl. But I told them I wasn't ready to do it," she said. "They approached me again and I turned them down again, but WWE came to me two weeks later and said it would be good for me to do it.

"I talked to my sister and my family and decided the time was right."

For that, her fans are thankful. And they're happy to see her develop in the ring.

"I'm a baby, I'm still learning," she said. "I'm getting more and more confident each time out there."

This on-camera role is something she's been preparing for for a long time.

"When I was about three, I used to do interviews in front of a mirror with a toothbrush," she said with a laugh. "It prepared me.

"This is a total dream. It's such an amazing place to be. I'm so scared I'm going to wake up from the dream and none of this will be there."

Credit: A1 Wrestling Newsletter