WWE: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Santino Marella

8. The Boris Alexiev Gimmick Came By Accident

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de0_N6Xb4_U In OVW, Santino first achieved success with the Boris Alexiev gimmick. Alexiev was portrayed as a Russian MMA-style shoot fighter that would come out and absolutely destroy his opponents in quick fashion with submission holds and very stiff strikes. Santino is on record saying that he had to personally apologize to several of his opponents before their matches began, telling them that they weren't going to enjoy what he was being booked to do to them. It almost didn't happen, though. When he began training in OVW, Rip Rogers (former wrestler and OVW trainer at the time) just began calling him "Boris" for no reason. He continued calling him that, telling Santino that his name was now going to be "Boris" from now on, never really giving a reason why. That's when the idea for a Russian shoot fighter came to him, and together with Paul Heyman, who would go on to become the head booker and writer for OVW, they created the Alexiev gimmick and delivered it to OVW television.