Santino Marella recalls working as Santina.
At WrestleMania 25, Santino Marella would enter the Miss WrestleMania battle royal, and shockingly come away with the victory as 'his sister' Santina. Santina would stick around for a couple of months after WresteMania, defending his Miss WrestleMania win several times.
While speaking to Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Santino recalled working as Santina, remarking that it was originally only supposed to last one night.
"Santina was funny because it was only like three months, but there was so many memorable moments crammed into three months. It was supposed to be one night, but again, it tickled the funny bone of the right person, and it ended up lasting for three months. But I tell you what, I got a lot of respect for the makeup process that girls go through, it’s like an hour. The fake lashes are hard. It's no joke, your face is burning from makeup and stuff. Yeah, they go through a lot."
Santino was then asked about how the gimmick was created, referring to his story with Beth Phoenix at the time.
"Well, the storyline with Beth Phoenix was that I was an insecure boyfriend. She was the alpha in the relationship, and I was desperately trying to show that men are better athletes. So by dressing up as a woman and winning the battle royal and then revealing, Ha, I'm a man, I just won the women's battle royal, therefore men are better athletes. That was the idea. And then it was just executed so well that it stuck around for a while."
Santino is currently the authority figure of TNA programming, and has made several appearances in WWE NXT.
