Longtime WWE comedy talent Santino Marella aka 40-year-old Anthony Carelli retired last month after a third nasty neck injury made it unsafe for him to continue his wrestling career. Having debuted only a couple of years before signing with WWE, Carelli had very little experience outside of the company, although apparently his mixed martial arts experience extends to a 6-1 record in Japan prior to entering professional wrestling. Running a Russian shoot fighter gimmick in developmental, his arrival on the main roster couldnt have been more different, as he debuted to defeat the monster heel Umaga for the Intercontinental championship in his first appearance. Almost immediately moving from an underdog babyface character to a comedy heel persona, Carelli would remain a comedy character for the majority of his WWE and wrestling career. When he wrestled, it would generally be to lose two-minute squash matches or to win three-minute comedy matches, usually with his signature move the Cobra (a throat strike while wearing a sock puppet). The majority of Santinos most memorable moments would not be in wrestling matches, but in backstage skits and in-ring promos, his natural comic timing and cod-Italian accent making him probably the most successful comic performer in a wrestling ring in the last two decades. If youre unsure as to what on earth Santino Marella is doing on a list like this, then remember that it takes a talented worker to appear to be a bumbling amateur: to bump perfectly and with unerring timing with every move. You dont get to be the top promotion in the worlds top comedy performer for a full seven years straight without some significant ability and theres always that magical five minutes at the end of the Elimination Chamber match in February 2012 against Daniel Bryan to silence the naysayers.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
