Santino Marella Recalls When He Marked Out When Meeting Edge [Video]

TheSportster

By Lorenzo Tanos

Published Jun 5, 2018

Before he joined WWE, Santino was an indie wrestler and he shared a story about when he first met Edge and Christian, who were established WWE stars.

via ign.com

Back when he was still an active wrestler for the WWE, it was rather hard to take Santino Marella seriously. He was, after all, a comedy wrestler who spoke in an exaggerated, fake Italian accent, despite having been born and raised in Ontario. Now that he’s long retired as a pro wrestler, and no longer connected with the WWE, he’s more often known by his real name, Anthony Carelli, and free to reminisce about his days breaking into the business without having to play up his comedic character. That’s what he did in the most recent episode of his podcast, as he talked about the time he first met one of the greatest tag team pairings in WWE history, Edge and Christian.

Speaking on Wednesday’s episode of Behind the Lights, which airs every Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET on Impact Wrestling’s Twitch, Marella recalled being new in the wrestling industry and being amazed at how big Edge appeared in person, standing about 6’5”, or more than half a foot taller than he was at 5’10”. As quoted by Wrestling Inc., Marella also had a funny story to relate about how he excitedly introduced himself as a wrestler, and essentially “marked out” while talking shop with the would-be Rated R Superstar.

“I timed it, so he's having a drink [of water] and he gets up and I'm like, 'Hey, what's up man?' and I go, 'I'm a wrestler too.' [Laughs] He's like, 'Oh, that's cool man!' I said, 'Yeah, let me ask ya, when you speared Jeff Hardy off the ladder in the ring...did you practice that?'" [Laughs] It was a real 'mark out' moment, he remembers it, he laughs at it."

While Edge went on to become one of WWE’s biggest Superstars of the 2000s, winning multiple tag team titles with Christian and racking up 11 world title wins before his career abruptly ended in 2011, Marella was mainly used in the mid-card, where he alternated impressive feats such as US and Intercontinental Championship wins with those where he lasted only 1.9 seconds in the 2009 Royal Rumble before getting eliminated, and worked in a tag team alongside the floundering Vladimir Kozlov.

Marella memorably retired from in-ring competition at a house show in July 2014, cutting a promo where he switched from his trademark faux-Italian accent to his natural one as he thanked the hometown crowd in Toronto, and was released by WWE almost two years later in May of 2016.

Although he started wrestling a bit later than his peers, there's no doubt that Santino Marella had a long and memorable run in the squared circle. We're definitely looking forward to hearing him share more interesting and funny stories from his career in upcoming episodes of Behind the Lights.