50 Absolute Worst Things WWE Has Done In The 21st Century
37. Santino Marella Becomes “Miss. WrestleMania” (2009)
Santino Marella usually was somebody who did comedy well in WWE circles. His mispronunciations of various wrestler names ("John Chay-na") had people tittering, and his actions next to the strait-laced Beth Phoenix worked a treat. Sadly, even the best players have at least one bum note to their name. Santino's "twin sister" Santina counts as Marella's 'worst of' contender.
The pesky gimmick just wouldn't go away once Santino introduced it heading into WrestleMania XXV. Keen to win the 'Miss. WrestleMania' battle royal, Marella dressed up as his so-called twin and ended the night with a tiara. This was bargain basement stuff, folks. The kind of dramatic Diva rubbish that made it impossible for anybody to take women's wrestling in the company seriously.
At least Candice Michelle looked like she was having a great time celebrating with Marella.
Not to get too po-faced, but let's look at the facts. WrestleMania is the biggest platform WWE provides every year. The women's division was already being downplayed by virtue of a stacked battle royal field, and now here comes somebody who isn't even part of it to scoop all the glory and turn everything into a lame joke. A man is 'Miss. WrestleMania'! Oh how they laughed.
Vince McMahon surely thought this was comedy gold. Normally, when it came to Santino, he was right. Not in the spring of 2009 though. As aforementioned, the Santina gimmick plagued WWE programming and pay-per-view for a while longer. Marella also brought it back to become one of the most random entrants in the 2020 women's Royal Rumble match.
How kind of him...