WRESTLER OF THE DAY: SANTINO MARELLA

[Rev Ray]

Santino was fine as the WWE's prominent comedy guy.  When he was a heel, he was sort of in that teflon position when they would feed him to everyone (Austin, I think Piper, etc) and he'd still be over.  I thought he and Beth had great chemistry as Glamarella.

 

Of his segments, I think this is probably his best.  He's coming off a win over Sheamus and tries to make nice with him by having a tea party with him in London.

 

[Brian Kenny]

I'll be one of the first to admit that WWE "comedy" is usually the drizzling shits. But I think Santino is one of the few guys that were consistently hilarious. Well except for the Santina crap, that was awful. Also, I agree, casual fans seem to love the guy. If you don't like his comedy gimmick, you can always pretend he had this gimmick in the WWE.

 

 

[Tim Evans]

 

 

 

I'm a huge fan of Santino. Especially when he was with Maria and Beth. I even liked parts of the Santina bit. Easily one of the more entertaining guys in WWE.

[Web Conn]

Vs Kevin Nash

[cool arrow]

I'll be one of the first to admit that WWE "comedy" is usually the drizzling shits. But I think Santino is one of the few guys that were consistently hilarious. Well except for the Santina crap, that was awful. Also, I agree, casual fans seem to love the guy. If you don't like his comedy gimmick, you can always pretend he had this gimmick in the WWE.

 

 

It's amusing that he ended up teaming with Kozlov, the guy they gave said gimmick to.

[Spritenaut 32]

Man, anyone who hates on Santino has a black stain on their hearts.

 

Untrue,  I hate Santino so much my entire heart is black and crusty.

 

Seriously, I'd much rather watch a couple hours of Konnan moving in slo-mo and throwing his shoe than a Santino segment.  In all seriousness, Santno may be mu least favorite WWE guy of the past 15 years or more.  Think how much ground that covers.

[BEN!]

I liked hiding behind his woman, sandwich stealing, refusing to watch Steve Austin movies, overconfident bumbling idiot heel Santino.

 

I've got no time for sock pulling out of his drawers, fingerpoking for clean wins, bumbling idiot babyface Santino though.

[Matt D]

[Spontaneous]

So weird to think back to the post-Mania 23 Raw and he debuts by rolling up Umaga.

[RIPPA]

So weird to think back to the post-Mania 23 Raw and he debuts by rolling up Umaga.

 

It wasn't the RAW after Mania - it was a few weeks after. And it was Bobby Lashley dragging his corpse onto of Umaga and then helping pin him.

 

But yeah - we probably should post it

 

 

God I forgot about his hideous back tattoo

[RIPPA]

Finally found a match

 

[Matt D]

I bet three are some pretty decent Santino/Koslov tag matches out there to be honest. I'm not going to go looking for them though.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Santino was fine as the WWE's prominent comedy guy.  When he was a heel, he was sort of in that teflon position when they would feed him to everyone (Austin, I think Piper, etc) and he'd still be over.  I thought he and Beth had great chemistry as Glamarella.

 

Of his segments, I think this is probably his best.  He's coming off a win over Sheamus and tries to make nice with him by having a tea party with him in London.

 

I like Santino and all, but Kozlov ruled that segment, and he hardly said anything.

[Matt D]

[Jingus]

I freaking love Santino and I'm not remotely ashamed to admit it.  Hell, "admit it"?  I BRAG about it.  That guy makes me laugh my ass off.  Yeah, comedy is subjective and all that bullshit; but seeing the majority of this thread reminds me of those old DVDVRs where the boys would be bitching and moaning about how terrible Sakura Hirota is, and I'd just be pitying them for apparently being forced to watch wrestling in an alternate hell-dimension where Hirota was not the hilarious little ray of self-consciously incompetent sunshine that she is here on planet Earth.  

 

 

As for his matches: who gives a shit?  He's a COMEDY WRESTLER.  The rules work different for those guys.  He ain't supposed to be a hairier Daniel Bryan, he's supposed to be a taller Hornswoggle.  And even THEN he sometimes manages to deliver some shockingly-good goods, like in the aforementioned elimination chamber match.  And he uses all kinds of wacky judo throws and shoot-ish moves you wouldn't necessarily expect from a goofy comedy gimmick, in between plenty of other fun unique offense that nobody else does.  

 

I'm dead serious about this point.  All the people whining that Santino sucks in the ring: why?  What, EXACTLY, is he doing WRONG in there?  And don't come back with some mealy-mouthed "well, it's not any One Thing, he's just not very good" vagueness.  Gimme some goddamn reasons, and something bigger and more inherent to his entire career than "well see this one video, he totally blows that spot at the 2:19 mark".  

 

 

 

 

Santino was the first guy in a long time to remind Americans that comedy had a place in pro wrasslin'.  Anything that brings rage to the eyes of the WRESTLING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS~! faction makes me happy.

 

There are two guys I feel that do comedy better than anyone else in US wrestling: Archibald Peck and Chuck Taylor. 

So?  That's got nothing to do with JT's point, which is fundamentally correct.  Santino is a full-blown comedian in a company which is usually stacked full of part-time comedians, something that the fans hadn't seen (consistently) in long years.  

 

Also, he's got one MASSIVE handicap that Archie and Chuckles don't: he's not just amusing himself, or the fans, or the boys in the back.  He has to amuse VINCE.  Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the guy who's infamous for having one of the worst senses of humor in the entire business.  And his whole crew of similarly-humored yesmen.  It's a fucking miracle that Santino has managed to last this long, in an atmosphere which is so legendarily dismissive and condescending towards comedy-themed workers.  Santino has always succeeded (with a foreigner gimmick, to boot) in the very same company that took one look at Colt Cabana and decided to change his gimmick to Jewy Von Jewman.  That's a HELL of an accomplishment.  

 

 

Also, is anyone else in the entire company more gleefully willing to stooge and show ass than Santino is?  In an era where everyone's always so goddamn concerned about constantly looking like a tough guy (because Captain Trips is the biggest mark for "toughness", gotta copy what the boss likes!) Santino is perfectly willing to do shit like that self-elimination in the battle royale.  Most of his comedy skits and super-squash losses, if applied to other guys, would feel like the office is punishing them in that infuriating "we don't like this actor, so let's make their fictional character look like shit!" way that they do.  

 

But not Marella!  He looks like he LOVES doing that shit.  This is a guy, when you go "okay, what I want you to do is get all dragged up as your own twin sister, never admit the gimmick is a work, and then have all these 89-pound Divas just beat the SHIT out of you", his response is "...FINALLY, someone else had my same idea!"  And I absolutely cannot hold any hatred for anyone who so willingly works with so many women in such an awesome fashion.  People bitch about Emma being "saddled" with Santino; yeah, cuz those runs that Maria and Beth had with him just RUINED their careers, right.  Hell, I wish whenever he does really retire, he ends up managing an entire stable of every one of his ex-girlfriend characters in SHINE or somewhere like that.  

[Spontaneous]

So weird to think back to the post-Mania 23 Raw and he debuts by rolling up Umaga.

 

It wasn't the RAW after Mania - it was a few weeks after. And it was Bobby Lashley dragging his corpse onto of Umaga and then helping pin him.

Wow I completely misremembered that one. That was... bad.

[cubbymark]

I freaking love Santino and I'm not remotely ashamed to admit it.  Hell, "admit it"?  I BRAG about it.  That guy makes me laugh my ass off.  Yeah, comedy is subjective and all that bullshit; but seeing the majority of this thread reminds me of those old DVDVRs where the boys would be bitching and moaning about how terrible Sakura Hirota is, and I'd just be pitying them for apparently being forced to watch wrestling in an alternate hell-dimension where Hirota was not the hilarious little ray of self-consciously incompetent sunshine that she is here on planet Earth.  

 

 

As for his matches: who gives a shit?  He's a COMEDY WRESTLER.  The rules work different for those guys.  He ain't supposed to be a hairier Daniel Bryan, he's supposed to be a taller Hornswoggle.  And even THEN he sometimes manages to deliver some shockingly-good goods, like in the aforementioned elimination chamber match.  And he uses all kinds of wacky judo throws and shoot-ish moves you wouldn't necessarily expect from a goofy comedy gimmick, in between plenty of other fun unique offense that nobody else does.  

 

I'm dead serious about this point.  All the people whining that Santino sucks in the ring: why?  What, EXACTLY, is he doing WRONG in there?  And don't come back with some mealy-mouthed "well, it's not any One Thing, he's just not very good" vagueness.  Gimme some goddamn reasons, and something bigger and more inherent to his entire career than "well see this one video, he totally blows that spot at the 2:19 mark".  

 

 

 

 

Santino was the first guy in a long time to remind Americans that comedy had a place in pro wrasslin'.  Anything that brings rage to the eyes of the WRESTLING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS~! faction makes me happy.

 

There are two guys I feel that do comedy better than anyone else in US wrestling: Archibald Peck and Chuck Taylor. 

So?  That's got nothing to do with JT's point, which is fundamentally correct.  Santino is a full-blown comedian in a company which is usually stacked full of part-time comedians, something that the fans hadn't seen (consistently) in long years.  

 

Also, he's got one MASSIVE handicap that Archie and Chuckles don't: he's not just amusing himself, or the fans, or the boys in the back.  He has to amuse VINCE.  Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the guy who's infamous for having one of the worst senses of humor in the entire business.  And his whole crew of similarly-humored yesmen.  It's a fucking miracle that Santino has managed to last this long, in an atmosphere which is so legendarily dismissive and condescending towards comedy-themed workers.  Santino has always succeeded (with a foreigner gimmick, to boot) in the very same company that took one look at Colt Cabana and decided to change his gimmick to Jewy Von Jewman.  That's a HELL of an accomplishment.  

 

 

Part of the charm of Peck and Taylor is that in independent wrestling, SUPER SERIOUS was all the rage and was something that helped differentiate ROH from WWE at the time with "hardcore fans". The work Peck and Taylor do so engaging and hilarious that they can getting even the most jaded SUPER SERIOUS motherfuckers to play along with their antics is a true testament to their caliber. Could Santino make an invisble grenade work? Probably not. But Chuck Taylor does. Can Archibald Peck get a faux MMA fighter to be a great comedy character? He sure did. Santino quickly ditched it because it wasn't so good. 

 

While you suggest it's Vince who must have found him hilarious doing a foreign character for him to have had as long a job as he did, I'd argue Jinder Mahal or Runjin Singh are just as good at being "comedy characters" than Santino, or he thought of them in such a manner. 

 

Yes, Santino has shown a lot of ass, and in the end if you're not going to be a superstar, you should try to do your best to put guys (or gals) over when you're looking at the lights. So that's to be commended. But as for your other Diva examples, neither Beth or Maria are in the company anymore. Should we put the blame on Santino? Probably not. But it didn't help them in the way you seem to imply it's helping them.