Santino Marella Recalls Nearly Winning the WWE Championship, Talks Ronda Rousey’s Promos

– Santino Marella did an AMA on Reddit discussing a variety of topics covering his career. Highlights are below:

On nearly winning the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber 2012: “There wasn’t any formal talk about [my character winning the belt]. I always thought there would be a special, one-night-only moment type of thing where I would win the belt. However, some people think that Vince almost changed the finish on the fly after hearing the crowd’s reaction that night. [I prefer] Elimination Chamber [over the Royal Rumble moment] because I was one count away from being Heavyweight Champion. At Royal Rumble, I was one person away from the main event of WrestleMania. Either one would have been pretty good to achieve!”

On Santina Marella not being at WWE Evolution: “My sister Santina was in fact at Evolution. But security wouldn’t let her in the building. They thought she was a fan trying to work her way in.”

On Ronda Rousey’s promos: “Ronda’s promos are better than most people give her credit for, because she’s speaking quite honestly rather than in character. She could study somebody like an evangelist with regards to cadence, timing and how to conduct a large audience.”

On Jim Cornette: “As a person, his actions speak for themselves. He’s not very well respected by many people. As a personality in the business, I thought he was entertaining. The situation at OVW was his error. He can defend it all he wants, but he knows that he was in the wrong. I’m completely over the situation, I don’t like to carry around any ill feelings for anybody.”

On whether John Cena had an erection during his mixed tag match alongside Trish Stratus against Santino and Beth Phoenix: “I cannot confirm nor deny he had an erection. But I’ve seen some pictures that allude to such.”

On the origins of the Cobra: “A Japanese guy once showed me how to do the Cobra in the bar in Saitama, Japan. We were sitting around drinking and he wanted to show me this trick he does with his arm. I thought it was funny at the time, and basically forgot about it for several years. It was like he planted a seed. Then one day it popped back into my head, I used it in a match and the Cobra was born. I didn’t realize it at the time, but over the years nobody really kicked out of it! That’s why everybody went nuts at Elimination Chamber. Only Sheamus had ever kicked out of it without the cobra sleeve, and Daniel Bryan was the first to kick out of it with the sleeve.”