Santino Marella Reveals How He Was Able To Keep His WWE Ring Name, Fans Demanding WWE HOF Induction, Cobra vs. Mr. Socko
Santino Marella appeared as a guest on the June 2, 2025 episode of the wildly popular INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the TNA Wrestling authority figure explained how he became the TNA Director of Authority, why he was allowed to keep his WWE ring name after leaving the company, the infamous Cobra vs. Mr. Socko spot with he and Mick Foley, as well as fans demanding him to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview sent to us by Chris Van Vliet where Santino Marella touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On becoming TNA’s Director of Authority: “Scott D’Amore kind of asked me if I was interested a few times, and it’s just timing wasn’t right. Then coming out of COVID, I’m like, you know what? I think it’s time. Everything kind of lined up, talked to my wife and we went back in. So anyway, I got a call from Robert Evans, who was one of the writers at the time, and he had this vision of the Director of Authority. We started talking about that FBI kind of [look]. In the beginning, I was wearing tactical pants, and I had like an FBI jacket, which someone scooped up. I don’t know [who it was]. We had some TNA shows at Battle Arts back in the day, and during cleanup, someone scooped it. So, yeah, it was one of one. Then we switched to the tracksuits, which came in super handy, it’s one of our sponsors. But being able to wear a uniform on a weekly basis, it just saves so much decision-making. What am I going to wear? I have a uniform. I wear the tracksuit with the badge, it’s good for now.”
On being able to keep his WWE name: “So that was actually almost bigger news than me appearing on TNA, was the fact that I was Santino Marella. So in 2021, I imagine the COVID confusion or whatever, there were people getting fired and hired, and it seemed like it was team Hunter and team Vince, and they were changing regimes or whatever. Somebody didn’t renew the trademark. So Scott D’Amore, as a habit, because if he’s getting a former WWE guy, he kind of checks the trademark to see if they’re available, because he has to get creative and come up with a name. If it’s not Fandango, it’s Dango or something that’s legally not going to be too close to the intellectual property. He checked, and all of a sudden he goes, damn, Santino Marella is available. So he bought it. It’s not as simple as you can just buy it and it’s yours. There’s a case that they created the character, they developed the character. It’s still on their library. I mean, there’s still tons of Santino stuff in the library. But when it’s library use, I think it’s not considered like current use, because it’s from a library. So they sent an email or a phone call to Scott, and they say, ‘Yeah, you’re using our intellectual property.’ And Scott’s like, ‘Actually, I own the trademark.’ So they’re like, ‘Let me get back to you.’ It’s kind of sitting there for a while. Then they filed an extension to the time they can appeal it, and then when Scott was no longer with TNA, Ariel [Shnerer], in hopes of having a good relationship with WWE, kind of just gave it back to them. So they own it, but I’m not sure if a part of the deal was we’ll give it back to you but can we use it? And we’ve been using it.”
On the Cobra vs. Socko spot with Mick Foley: “It was funny, because I kind of pitched the whole thing to him, and he was so giddy during my pitch, he was loving it. Anyway, I wanted to do the whole back into each other, a couple of gun fighters in the Wild West, and then kind of turn and then see each other, and kind of get ready. We didn’t time it out, but it took us the exact same amount of time to put our respective socks on, and then we kind of did that. It was perfect timing. Then we circled, there was other guys in the ring, but everyone just kind of got small. You can see Big Show just watching and enjoying it. And yeah, then we did the battle. We were supposed to do a little more. You know like in movies, wizards will have rays kind of hitting each other, they’ll go back. We were supposed to kind of do that across the ring but Cody jumped in a little early, and I was like, we had more planned. But anyway, it was still memorable, because people understood immediately what was happening. Oh, damn, It’s sock versus sock, and he’s the right guy. That was actually probably one of my most fun things.”
On fans calling for a WWE Hall of Fame induction in the future: “Well, it depends what you go to wrestling for. If you want macho tough guys, and some people just don’t like comedy, they want to see slobber knockers each and every match. It’s pretty polarized. I think the vast majority of people appreciate the comedy, but there are people that they have no place for comedy.”
