Fightful recently conducted an interview with former WWE superstar Santino Marella, who spoke with the publication about a wide range of topics, including his thoughts on returning to the ring, how he would love to do commentary, and how he’s still dealing with some neck issues after years in the business. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Why he doesn’t see himself making a full-time return to wrestling:
Well, once I opened Battle Arts, you’re there seven days a week, right? So it wasn’t even much of a choice. I was coaching, taking my judo athletes to tournaments on the weekends, putting on shows, kid’s birthday parties. I was working seven days a week, actually. I was doing some commentary for the World Judo Tour and helping out with [Destiny] and stuff like that. So anyway, I ended up being more busy than I ever was in WWE and so that was one of the reasons. Then COVID happened and so now I have business partners. So the load is a lot lighter and I moved up north. So now that I’m able to come out and go do some stuff. The stuff I go do now, I have fun again.
Says he occasionally wrestles for fun, but his full-time days are behind him:
No, I don’t really have a whole lot of interest in wrestling too much, to be honest. I enjoy doing commentary and maybe in the future you’ll see me somewhere as a color commentator, producer or something like that. My wrestling days are definitely behind me in terms of a career. I do it for fun. But I’ve got two small kids at home and I’m staying home and enjoying that as much as possible.
On his back and neck issues:
Yeah, I had neck surgery. No, I don’t wrestle very much, to be honest. Recently it’s been a lot of local Canadian stuff. I do like to get out and do stuff in Canada. I couldn’t do this on a full time basis, that’s for sure. I have back issues and neck issues. But I am pretty meticulous with my rehab—sorry, ‘pre-hab.’ A lot of stretching, hydration, inversion, strengthening my neck. I train like twice a day. Health is wealth, right? I just want to be as healthy as possible.