Professional wrestling legend and former two times WWE Intercontinental Champion Santino Marella who is also a former WWE United States Champion recently talked about his famous finishing maneuver The Cobra and revealed the backstage reaction when he first started doing it.
Santino Marella is mostly treated as a comedy wrestler in WWE and he is considered as one of the best comedians in professional wrestling history. He is also one of the highest achieving comedians in WWE history who won multiple mid card championships in the promotion.
Santino Marella Remembers Backstage Reaction To The Cobra
One of the most famous things about Santino was his finisher which is famously known as The Cobra. Just like him, the move was also a comedy move and it had no impact whatsoever. He used to wear a sock and hit his hands on the face of his opponents, like a snake bite.
Selling the move was even more awkward for his opponents. But in spite of being a comedy move, it was pretty famous and sometimes he did the Mandible Claw too. Santino is currently active in Impact Wrestling and he is playing his famous WWE persona in the promotion.
Santino Marella who is also a former WWE United States champion recently spoke to Chris Van Vliet where he talked about his famous finishing maneuver The Cobra and revealed the backstage reaction when he is first started doing it. He said;
“I was in Japan, for most of 2004 I was living in Japan. After the shows there, we all go to the bars and restaurants. There was a gentleman named Carl who was friends with my coach Mr. Ishikawa and he was just sitting at the table and he showed me this thing where he transforms his arm into this little kind wooden puppet type thing.
“I remember looking at Mr. Ishikawa and going ‘I don’t get it, what is that?’ He was like ‘Oh, it’s just a funny thing he does.’ He made me try it and the next time I saw him he’s like ‘Do you remember how to do it?’ and that was it. It was just a little funny thing between us.
“I’m guessing about five years later, I believe it was in Atlanta. I was wrestling either Chavo or Carlito, I said ‘Hey, I’m gonna try something during my comeback.’ So it’s like jab, clothesline, punch or whatever and then I stop and do the transformation to my arm and hit him and he turns away into a schoolboy. Without seeing it on TV, the audience immediately laughed. Cena, I always sat beside Cena, I came back through the curtain and he was like ‘I would keep that if I were you, that was funny.’
“I was doing it only on live events and then one I go to TV and Ricky Steamboat was my producer. I was wrestling Zack Ryder and [I was] going over with the Cobra, Vince wants to see the Cobra. I’m like ‘Vince knows about the Cobra?’ He was like ‘Yeah, he reads the reports.’ But the Cobra was crazy.
“Like in three weeks, really quickly, I would gesture for it and I would see in my peripheral vision the entire arena jumping up and I’m like ‘Really?’ Okay, they like it, I mean I didn’t find it that spectacular, but they loved it. I think we did it for a year without the sleeve and then we introduced the sleeve.”
H/T and transcribed by Fightful