Santino Marella Gives His Thoughts On His Daughter’s Name Change in NXT

In an interview with Fightful, Santino Marella gave his thoughts on his daughter Bianca Carelli going by the name Arianna Grace in NXT. Here are highlights:

On Arianna’s recovery from injury: “Interesting enough, when you have surgery, everyone’s recovery is not the same. She seems to be doing exceptionally well with regards to her recovery. Sometimes it’s a genetic thing with regards to inflammation, range of motion. The hardest thing with any injury is your mindset and its devastating being away from something you’re passionate about and you’re working really hard at. But it’s a waiting game now. She’s hitting the rehab and we’re hoping come the spring, she’s back at it. It’d be nice to come back. Any time you’ve had time away when you make that initial comeback, it’s a nice moment, I think she has enough momentum from where she left off at NXT that it’ll be a meaningful comeback and she’ll have a good experience.”

On her name change: “I wasn’t in the meetings. Of course, I kinda thought they were gonna [use a different name]. They did it a few times. Guys like Bray Wyatt and Curtis Axel and they don’t give their parent’s surname sometimes. But I guess it’s okay because she can make a name for herself.”