As a Pro-Wrestler, your lifespan in the business is on borrowed time. One day you may be good to go and a star on top of the world. The next minute, you could get hurt and it all could be over with. It’s how you handle things that make you different from the fallen before you.
Sadly, another person in WWE has to say goodbye after yet another injury. Funny man Santino Marella told a Canadian crowd during a house show in Toronto that he had to call it quits and retire as an active wrestler effective immediately.
Santino suffered his third neck injury, and as we’ve noticed recently with Daniel Bryan, neck issues are no joke. In fact, they are serious issues that need to be treated with the utmost care. Santino has missed time in WWE due to neck issues in the past, but this time around, the neck seems to be worse than before. Therefore, WWE felt that he simply could no longer compete in the ring.
Santino did say that he planned to stay on with WWE as an on-air character until his contract ends, but he would not be back in the ring sadly.
Most knew that the writing was on the wall for Santino already. In fact, rumors of his retirement surfaced months ago. Santino has an MMA studio open in Canada and has to spend a lot of his time there. The rest of the time is spent with WWE.
A lot of people would be surprised to know that Santino is actually trained in several fighting styles and could have been a good MMA competitor. However, his love of entertainment led him to the WWE and where he is today.
While Santino has had a lot of success in his WWE time, and is most likely set for life, he loves to entertain the WWE fans. This is why he has stayed on for as long as he has.
Santino became a fan favorite in his time due to his comedic ability. He was a bad guy off and on in his career, but still was getting laughs in the role. So much so, WWE was forced to make him a face or good guy just so they could see what more they could do with him from a comedic perspective. While Santino made a fool of himself often for comedic reasons, WWE rewarded him for it. Santino is a multi-time WWE Intercontinental Champion. Marella has also won the WWE Tag Team and US Championships.
While it appears Santino will say goodbye when his contract is up, we do know that he is still going to be used on TV. It’s how much that we do not know as of yet.
Santino plays an Italian character on TV, but he is not Italian. In fact, Santino is a Canadian and does not even have a funny accent that we hear on TV. Rather, the Santino guy is just a character. This is why Santino decided to announce his retirement from the WWE in Toronto as it was a hometown sort of thing for him. He said that he was proud to be a Canadian, and he was sorry he could not compete for the live audience in Toronto.
Again, while Santino is retiring from Wrestling in WWE, that does not mean the character is going away right now. Due to the fact that Santino can do so well as a comedy character, WWE can still have a use for him in several facets. So, expect to see him on RAW each week going forward until his contract is up.
[IMG Credits: Google]