8. He Fought In Mixed Martial Arts
Santino is one of the toughest guys in WWE, but if you watched WWE programming in the last decade you probably wouldn't know. He only had one professional MMA fight that he lost in Japan. He's also got a background in Judo. Last year he opened the Battle Arts Academy gym in Toronto to train people in judo, MMA, wrestling and whatever else they might be interested in. Here's how he
explained it when asked if he wanted to be a MMA guy in WWE: "If I was selfish yeah I would love to kick some butt and take some names after and demonstrate some of my Judo throws and my submissions and stuff like that. But the people really need to have a good laugh and they really need some entertainment. I believe it was the Rolling Stones that said, 'You cant always get what you want, but youll get what you need.'" It's a good point that he makes because he made a good living as Santino. However, there's a whole side to him that the WWE Universe never got to discover and it makes you wonder if he could have been more successful if he was booked as more of a serious MMA wrestler.