Maya World has become one of AEW’s most closely watched figures in the women’s division, with her recent work alongside opponents such as Athena and current AEW Women’s World Champion Mercedes Mone helping sharpen both her profile and her standing in the company. Those names carry special significance for World, who has identified both performers as important influences on her decision to pursue professional wrestling.
But the wrestlers who inspired her to enter the industry were not necessarily the same wrestlers who made her fall in love with watching it as a child.
Looking back on her earliest favorites, World named two very different WWE personalities: Kelly Kelly and The Undertaker. The answer also reflected her affection for the broader WWE Divas division of that era.
“My favorite first favorite wrestler was like Kelly Kelly, Undertaker, you know what I mean? I watched them. They just didn't inspire me to wrestle. But I love Kelly Kelly, that was my girl. And all the Divas, honestly. She was my favorite, but I loved the whole Divas division.”
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World’s comments draw an important distinction between fandom and inspiration. A wrestler can be the performer a fan looks forward to seeing every week without necessarily being the person who makes that fan envision a career between the ropes. In World’s case, Kelly Kelly was a formative favorite, while her later admiration for wrestlers including Mone and Athena would become more directly connected to her own path in the business.
Kelly Kelly’s Place In A Defining WWE Era
Kelly Kelly arrived in WWE during a period in which the company’s women’s programming was widely identified with the Divas brand. She debuted on WWE’s ECW program in 2006 and quickly became a recognizable member of the roster. Her presentation, charisma and prominence on television made her a familiar face for young viewers who were finding their own entry points into wrestling at the time.
For World, that visibility clearly mattered. Her praise was not limited to Kelly Kelly alone, as she stressed that she enjoyed the full Divas division. That era featured a large collection of distinct personalities and rivalries, and Kelly Kelly’s place within it made her especially memorable to World.
Kelly Kelly’s most notable championship moment came in 2011. After unsuccessfully challenging Brie Bella for the Divas Championship at Over the Limit, she received another opportunity on the June 20 edition of Raw. This time, Kelly Kelly defeated Brie Bella to win the Divas Championship, securing the only title reign of her WWE career.
The victory marked the culmination of a major push for Kelly Kelly that year. Although her time as champion was relatively brief, the win remains a defining achievement from her run with WWE. She held the Divas Championship until October 2011, when Beth Phoenix defeated her at Hell in a Cell.
Kelly Kelly departed WWE the following year after her release. However, her connection to the company did not end there. She has made intermittent appearances for WWE in the years since, maintaining a presence for fans who remember her original run. She reportedly signed a Legends Deal with WWE in 2025, further formalizing her association with the company.
The Undertaker’s Cross-Generational Appeal
The other name World offered, The Undertaker, underlines just how broad her childhood wrestling tastes were. While Kelly Kelly represented the women’s division that World enthusiastically followed, The Undertaker was one of WWE’s defining attractions across multiple generations.
The Undertaker’s decades-long career made him a constant point of reference for wrestling fans of vastly different ages. His supernatural presentation, longevity, signature entrance and major-event history created an aura unlike almost anyone else in the industry. For a young viewer, he was the kind of larger-than-life performer who could make wrestling feel bigger than a standard sports contest.
World did not frame either Kelly Kelly or The Undertaker as the central reason she became a wrestler. Instead, she described them as her earliest favorites—the acts she watched and loved before her relationship with wrestling evolved from fandom into ambition. That is a meaningful difference, particularly for a performer now competing at a high level in AEW.
Many wrestlers have similar stories: childhood favorites create the initial attachment to the product, while a different generation of talent provides the example that makes a future career feel attainable. World’s answer places Kelly Kelly and The Undertaker in the former category, while Mone and Athena have been more closely associated with the latter.
World’s AEW Momentum Continues
World’s reflections arrive as her own profile has risen in AEW. Her work against Athena and Mercedes Mone has put her in the ring with two of the most accomplished wrestlers associated with the current women’s landscape. Athena has established an extensive championship legacy, while Mone currently holds the AEW Women’s World Championship.
Facing performers of that caliber provides a major showcase for any wrestler, but it carries additional weight when those opponents are also people who helped influence a performer’s journey. World has cited both Athena and Mone as instrumental inspirations, making her recent AEW experiences more than simply high-profile matches or programs. They also represent a professional intersection between the wrestlers she looked up to and the career she has built for herself.
That evolution is especially striking when placed beside her memories of watching the Divas division. World was a young child when Kelly Kelly began appearing on WWE television through ECW in 2006. By the time Kelly Kelly’s Divas Championship pursuit reached its peak in 2011, World was around nine years old. The performers she watched then helped shape her earliest sense of what wrestling could be, even if they did not directly cause her to lace up boots herself.
Now, World is positioned within a different chapter of women’s wrestling, one in which the opportunities, match structures and spotlight have continued to change. Her appreciation for the Divas division does not need to be viewed as a contradiction of her admiration for modern trailblazers. It instead shows the continuity of wrestling fandom: one generation of stars captures a child’s imagination, and later generations help define the competitor that child may become.
Fandom, Influence And A Full-Circle Career Path
World’s answer also pushes back against the idea that every wrestler’s formative fandom must be judged only through the lens of technical style or direct career influence. She simply loved Kelly Kelly and the Divas division. That emotional connection is often where wrestling fandom starts.
Kelly Kelly’s appeal to World was personal and immediate. “That was my girl,” World said, a concise description of the bond fans often develop with their favorite wrestlers. It is the kind of loyalty built through weekly television, memorable entrances, championship chases and the feeling of having a particular performer to root for.
For World, The Undertaker occupied a different but equally recognizable space as an iconic attraction. Together, the two names paint a picture of a young fan who was drawn to wrestling’s wide range: the Divas division she followed closely and one of the business’ most enduring legendary characters.
As World continues to gain momentum in AEW, those early favorites remain part of the story behind the wrestler she is today. Her career may have been more directly inspired by figures such as Athena and Mercedes Mone, but her earliest viewing memories belong to Kelly Kelly, The Undertaker and the Divas Era she remembers so fondly.
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Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.