Glorifying The Worst - Santino Marella

[PunksNo1Fan]

Episode 2 of my Glorifying The Worst moves onto Santino Marella as suggested by Next Jericho. We are solely talking about the Marella character here, not Alexiev.

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Just looking at the man shows that he's either gonna be
A) A dodgy character
B) Rather humorous, yet no true wrestling talent.
Now, a uni-browed Italian "Stallion" like Santino may make you think that he's instantly gonna be crap, yes? BUT, I kid you not, he's had a decent set of achievements since his 'debut' in the WWE.

Marella was handpicked by Estrada/Umaga to fight Umaga for the IC Title on Raw, in a No-Holds Barred Match. With the help of Bobby Lashley, the bumbling idiot won the title. This title he managed to hold for 3 months, yes 3, before dropping it to Umaga.
He's been beaten by almost everyone on the roster, including Beth Phoenix. However, when Santino became IC Champ for the SECOND time, they became a team known as "Glamarella".
He then again, lost the title to William Regal, which according to Santino "With a knee to the head that should've been illegal".
He was also eliminated from the Royal Rumble in 2009 in 1.9 seconds, the shortest ever time spent in Rumble.

After this, he managed to drop to a new low, by becoming "Santina" Marella, Santino's Twin Sister. "She" became Miss Wrestlemania, and fought matches with Vickie Guerreo, only then to disappear off the radar after being fired by Donald Trump.
He attempted to begin a Team with Vladimir Kozlov, who at first said no to the offer, but on July 19, they became an official Tag Team. Then on Monday Night Raw, Santino showed that he'd been learning some new moves from Kozlov, leading to him using the Cobra, possibly one of the worst finishing moves ever, to pin Justin Gabriel and become the new Tag Team Champions.

So here we have Santino Marella. Granted, he's not great, but we can see that there is a lot to actually glorify about him. He's becoming a good in-ring wrestler in the WWE, even though we know he has the skills. He's actually held more titles than his character deserves AND he's hilarious most of the time. What else is there to glorify?
Have your say.

 

[Next Jericho]

Well thank you PunksNo1Fan for accepting my choice for this thread.

I am going to glorify Satino because he is funny in the ring every night or tries to be. I think Satino is funny because off the segments he does with Vladimar Kozlov and others witch just make me laugh a lot off the time. I think Satino is also funny because off his Italy accent makes his jokes just seem funny. I recently thought Satino was funny when he called Sheamus a Ginger on national tele-vision because Sheamus is meant to be a tough guy and Santino made fun off him.

Here it is [YOUTUBE]9RgLU4hALQw[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Dave]

Honestly, Santino Marella had every chance of being a great and legitimate superstar. When you look at him, he has all the attributes that would put him in a decent position on the Raw or Smackdown roster. Even with him being an immigrant in the country and the company, he still had every chance. Look at what Eddie Guerrero accomplished. Although Santino doesn't have anything near the grace or athleticism as Eddie did, it still shows you what people fro outside of the US could accomplish.

That being said, Santino's career is far from over. He likely has his best days ahead of him and he has never been far from the public eye, which is saying a lot for a glorified “comedy jobber”. He has some in ring talent and the fact that he has held a couple of championships to his name too. What you could say for him, is that he has defined his own character and he seems to finding his feet on Raw these days. In fact, I would say that his recent work has been his best and although he might forever be seen as the comedy portion of Raw every week, that doesn't mean that he cannot carve out his own place in history. Just like everyone else on the Raw and Smackdown rosters, any sort of push from the management and we will be talking about him as if he is the next coming of The Rock.

His past has been turbulent and he has divided the fans on more than one occasion. However, recently, his character has seemingly been taken a while lot more seriously and if he can manage to keep his momentum going, could you not see another IC Championship reign on the cards? Or a US Championship reign?

Santino has all the talents to go far, all he needs is some faith from the higher-ups and we wont be speaking about him as if he is the worst thing to happen to the WWE. Lord knows, the winds of change seem to be already blowing in his favour in recent weeks.

 

[Davi323]

Did it occur to anyone that Santino is exactly where he wants to be? Not every wrestler spends their career pining over a world championship. Some guys do it just because they enjoy it. I have a strong feeling that Santino is funny because Santino wants to be funny. Some guys don't want to be king, some guys want to be the court jester. Adam Sandler doesn't give a shit that he won't ever win any Oscars for best actor. He knows he isn't DeNiro or Anthony Hopkins. Santino knows he isn't one of those guys too...but he enjoys what he is doing, and as long as it is cool with him, it should be cool with us.

 

[Hardcore Murphy]

He is a very entertaining man, he would have his own TV show if it was up to me. His promos are very funny and he shows loads of charisma. And the fans love him. IMO there is more which is good about him than bad.

 

[Dave]

Did it occur to anyone that Santino is exactly where he wants to be? Not every wrestler spends their career pining over a world championship. Some guys do it just because they enjoy it. I have a strong feeling that Santino is funny because Santino wants to be funny. Some guys don't want to be king, some guys want to be the court jester. Adam Sandler doesn't give a shit that he won't ever win any Oscars for best actor. He knows he isn't DeNiro or Anthony Hopkins. Santino knows he isn't one of those guys too...but he enjoys what he is doing, and as long as it is cool with him, it should be cool with us.

As I once heard Stone Cold Steve Austin say, "If you are not in this business to carry the belt, then I don't know why you are. It means everything to me”.

Personally, I don't buy the defence that Santino is right where he wants to be. When he made his début in Italy, the sky could have been the limit for Santino. However, the way he was brought into the business meant that he was very limited in what he could do. Right from the first moment, he was being painted into a picture that he probably would never escape. From his first match, when Lashley was the one to put him over Umaga, his career was a joke. Luckily for him, they has a lot of charisma and has made it work for him.

I guess that is the best thing you could say about Santino. He was brought into the WWE with not a hope in hell of being a legitimate contender for the top accolade. Yet, he has managed to turn the opinions of the fans and the management into something a lot more positive. I must say that I hated him at one point. His skits were pathetic and he didn't seem to have any sort of place in the company. Right now though, he seems to have changed all that and his position in the company looks far more secure.

Getting back to the original point though. Anyone who is in that company has aspirations of being the man who everyone wants to beat. If you are not that motivated, you wont make it. It's that simple.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Just because Santino is used in a comedy/ jobber role at the moment does not necessarily mean he will never challenge or even win the world championship. Jeff Hardy, Edge, DDP and (most recently) the Miz all started in very weak positions and the very suggestion that any of them might be world champ would have caused much mirth. Don't be surprised if Santino should reach the same heights somewhere down the line - he has the crowd in the palm of his hand and Cena should take notes on how to put people down.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Santino is hit and miss with me. Sometimes, he's annoyed the every loving crap out of me and I'd want nothing more than to swing a shovel as hard as I possibly can right into his face. There are other times in which I think he's legitimately funny and downright endearing to watch.

Santino is someone that is pretty decently over with your average fan because, as I said, a lot of average fans find him funny and even sweet really. He's a likeable guy that comes across as relatively harmless. When it comes to his work in the ring, Santino is someone that honestly does have genuine talent. He has good athletic ability, he's had extensive training in martial arts and honestly knows a lot about submission wrestling. But, Santino has been primarily a comedic character and that overshadows just about everything else.

I've heard people compare Santino Marella to the Honky Tonk Man in the past but I think that Santino is head and shoulders above HTM. In my view, HTM is nothing more than a glorified Elvis impersonator with no real athletic ability and mediocre skills inside the ring. I couldn't take the guy seriously, even though the WWF mostly wanted fans to take him as such in spite of his ridiculous character. Santino is a straight up comedic character and nobody is expected to take him seriously, though he's still overall far more entertaining than HTM in my eyes.

Santino's career is far from over and I do sometimes wonder if the WWE will ever try to do something serious with him. Stranger things have happened but I think that Santino might well be typecast now and I do think that there are lots that simply wouldn't give Santino a chance if he stopped the comedy act.

 

[Ferbian]

Santino is an odd guy really. I would've never really put him among the "worst" to glorify considering some of the other talent that WWE has presented in the past, or currently for that sake. Compared to guys like Zack Ryder, Santino definitely have much more to offer and is much more entertaining.

However, I guess for the sake of glorifying him I do believe that treated properly he could be a more important addition to the mid-card than a "comedy wrestler" which he is. He's been both a comedy jobber, as well as a comedy champion as of late. He's used for the sake of being used to entertain, while realistically Vladimir is the "power" behind the tag team - To put it simple, Santino is the Chris Jericho / Miz of Jeri-show / ShowMiz.

Either way, he's funny and entertaining to watch. So with a little bit of a proper booking, he could definitely prove to be fairly great in the mid-card at least. Maybe even grow to the point where he could be a one time challenger for the world title, just maybe.

 

[Davi323]

As I once heard Stone Cold Steve Austin say, "If you are not in this business to carry the belt, then I don't know why you are. It means everything to me”.

Personally, I don't buy the defence that Santino is right where he wants to be. When he made his début in Italy, the sky could have been the limit for Santino. However, the way he was brought into the business meant that he was very limited in what he could do. Right from the first moment, he was being painted into a picture that he probably would never escape. From his first match, when Lashley was the one to put him over Umaga, his career was a joke. Luckily for him, they has a lot of charisma and has made it work for him.

I guess that is the best thing you could say about Santino. He was brought into the WWE with not a hope in hell of being a legitimate contender for the top accolade. Yet, he has managed to turn the opinions of the fans and the management into something a lot more positive. I must say that I hated him at one point. His skits were pathetic and he didn't seem to have any sort of place in the company. Right now though, he seems to have changed all that and his position in the company looks far more secure.

Getting back to the original point though. Anyone who is in that company has aspirations of being the man who everyone wants to beat. If you are not that motivated, you wont make it. It's that simple.

Santino isn't Stone Cold Steve Austin. Just because Steve Austin believes something, doesn't mean everyone else does. Going back to my acting analogy, it would be like Al Pacino saying everyone who doesn't win a best actor award is a chump. Do you really think the Brooklyn Brawler had high hopes of being the WWF champion, that he would be the guy to dethrone Hulk Hogan? How about Lanny Poffo? Barry Horowitz? You trying to tell me those guys genuinely thought that they deserved a title push? Bullshit. They knew what they were, and they knew what they weren't. Growing up dreaming about winning the championship is fine and good...but most wrestlers will never reach that goal. Its a pipe dream for most. Maybe some are just more realistic about their place than others. I think Santino sees his size, knows he isn't going to be believable as champ over Orton, Cena, Taker, etc, so he found a niche. Anthony Carelli is naturally a funny guy, he found something that works for him.

 

[LSN80]

Santino is extremely over, and in doing so, he's helped elevate Vladimir Kozlov and the WWE Tag Titles. For the first time since ShowMiz, the tag titles are interesting once again. Much of this is due to Santino. Have you heard the crowd's response to him just when he's in the ring? He's universally cheered. When he and Kozlov defend the titles, you genuinely want to see him win. Why? Because you want to know what he's going to do next. He's not devaluing the tag titles with his humor, he's making them relevant.

Santino is legtimately funny. While i hadn't found him quite as entertaining since he turned face, his comedic antics as a heel were gold. He seems to have re-captured the magic that he had as a heel recently, as evidenced in the Tea Party that he held for Sheamus. Sheamus could barely hold back his own laughter during this segment. There's room on a show for someone like Santino, one who genuinely makes you laugh and is so charismatic at the same time.

Santino's not a bad wrestler. While he doesn't have the credibility or believability to become a main event player, or even a serious contender for a mid-card single's belt, he's not lacking in skill. He sells extremely well and maximizes his moveset, however limited. As a guy whose considered to be 'filler' on the show, he's got some talent within the ring.

WWE has maximized Santino's strengths, which has made it easy to hide his weaknesses. He was up against it from the beginning when he won the IC Title from Umaga due to Bobby Lashley. But as he developed as an on-screen character, his natural charisma, intelligence and humor began to shine through. He plays the simpleton role to a 'T'. WWE had maximized this, and he's remained relevant and enjoyable to watch in small doses for almost 4 years now. He's a success to be sure.