Santino Marella Reveals The One Thing He Asked When He Joined IMPACT Wrestling
Santino Marella had a very specific condition he needed fulfilled before joining IMPACT Wrestling.
On January 13th, at IMPACT’s Hard To Kill PPV, wrestling fans were shocked to see Santino Marella appear for the first time in years. After the initial surprise died down, Marella revealed that he was the new “Director of Authority” (i.e. on-screen authority figure) for IMPACT going forward.
But his work with IMPACT did come with conditions. Speaking on The Dave Van Auken Show, Santino Marella explained that when his daughter is cleared to wrestle again, he wants to be involved in whatever she’s doing.
“I did talk to Scott in the beginning and said, ‘one of the only things I ask is that when my daughter is able to be called up, I’d like to do something in the ring with her.’ He’s cool with that.”
Marella’s daughter wrestles under the name Arianna Grace and has been sidelined with an injury since October 2022.
Santino Marella spent most of his wrestling career in WWE, which is where he got his ringname. After leaving WWE, Anthony Carelli, the man behind the gimmick, made odd appearances on the independent scene, at conventions, and in IMPACT. But during that first stint with IMPACT, he was under his real name and not the Marella gimmick.
That has of course since changed after WWE gave up on the trademark and Carelli was able to grab it for himself.
h/t Fightful for the transcription