"I thought 'maybe Vince is going to change his mind'" - Santino Marella on almost becoming WWE World Champion in 2012
Most of Santino Marella's career is best remembered by fans for his comedic moments. However, WWE fans still reminisce about the moment he nearly became world champion in 2012.
In 2012, Santino Marella was involved in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match in that year's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. The bout featured then-champion Daniel Bryan defending his championship against Marella, Big Show, The Great Khali, Cody Rhodes, and Wade Barrett.
The match would come down to Bryan and Marella, where Marella would hit Bryan with his popular Cobra Strike finisher. He would come within seconds of scoring a three-count victory over the future leader of the Yes Movement. Unfortunately, for Marella, Bryan would kick out and force Marella to submit to his Labell Lock.
In an interview with The A2theK Wrestling Show, the former Intercontinental Champion reflected on how the moment impacted his career. He noted that he can't think of anyone else in WWE history who is most remembered for "almost" grabbing the brass ring:
[11:47- 12:31] "Yeah it’s funny, one of the things I'm most known for is coming a fraction of second away from being the world champion... I was talking with Pete Dunne, and now they actually call it the “Santino spot”...Everybody around the world who was watching that pay-per-view thought “oh sh*t, this guy is gonna win it”, and we got everybody. We got everybody!" - Santino Marella
Marella would go on to say that the moment was so powerful that he believed there was a chance that Vince McMahon would call an audible on the fly. He even noted that former WWE official and referee Mike Chioda felt the same way:
[12:34 - 13:00] - "Man even at the end when he had his finishing move on me, and I was fighting out of it, I swear I still thought there was a chance, you know? ...Mike Chioda was in gorilla and he was watching Vince and he was like 'man, I swear he was this close to calling it on the fly and changing it'…it would have been crazy.”
In case you missed it, you can check out the NXT results here.
Santino Marella's daughter, WWE NXT star Arianna Grace, is currently recovering from an injury
Back in October, 2nd generation WWE superstar Arianna Grace announced that she suffered an ACL injury and would require surgery to repair it. Earlier this week, Grace updated WWE fans on her recovery. She posted a video of herself working out and made it clear that she cannot wait to get back into the ring.
"25 days after surgery, I'm working as hard as I can to get back to what I love. It's not easy but I'm giving it all I got! #aclrecovery," - Arianna Grace, Twitter
The 27-year-old star joined WWE in the summer of 2022, and last wrestled on the October 4th edition of NXT LVL Up. It was there that Grace was injured during a tag team match against Fallon Henley & Sol Ruca.
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