page_title: Santino Marella
section_title: Intercontinental Champion and various alliances (2007–2009)
hierarchical_section_title: Santino Marella / Professional wrestling career / World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE / Intercontinental Champion and various alliances (2007–2009)
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Santino Marella and Maria at en:WWE Raw. en:Bradley Center, en:Milwaukee, Wisconsin, en:September 24en:2007. Taken by me.
context_page_description: Anthony Carelli is a Canadian professional wrestler, sports analyst, web series host, trainer, former mixed martial artist and occasional actor. He most recently worked for Impact Wrestling under his real name. He is perhaps best known for his 11-year tenure with WWE where he wrestled under the ring name Santino Marella. He is the founder of Canadian martial arts and professional wrestling training facility Battle Arts Academy.
  Anthony Carelli is known for his humorous gimmick as Santino Marella, an Italian stereotype, often being involved in comedic segments, having several on-screen relationships with fellow wrestlers, as well as being crowned "Miss WrestleMania" at WrestleMania XXV disguised as "Santina Marella". His character won Carelli Wrestling Observer Newsletter's award for Best Gimmick in 2007 and 2008. During his time in WWE, Carelli won the Intercontinental Championship in his debut. He is also a former WWE Tag Team Champion and United States Champion. Carelli won four championships in WWE before retiring from professional wrestling in 2014.
context_section_description: Anthony Carelli debuted as Santino Marella (an homage to WWE Hall of Famer Robert "Gorilla Monsoon" Marella) on the April 16, 2007 episode of Raw from Milan, Italy. He was presented as a fan that Vince McMahon selected as an opponent for Umaga as a fan. The unknown Marella scored a surprising upset, and won the WWE Intercontinental Championship with an assist from Bobby Lashley. The next day, WWE.com posted a profile on Marella, saying he was an Italian national who moved to Canada as a child and returned to his native country a few times each year to visit family. The profile claimed that he moved to the U.S. to pursue a wrestling career with WWE.
  Shortly after winning the Intercontinental title, Marella feuded with Chris Masters, narrowly retaining the title in his first defenses. On July 2, he dropped the title to Umaga, after defeating him on June 24, at Vengeance: Night of Champions, by disqualification.
  Marella then began a gradual heel turn and became increasingly jealous of his girlfriend, Maria. Over several weeks, they appeared together in a series of segments on Raw, including two "game show" skits, hosted by General Manager William Regal, which resulted in retired wrestler Ron Simmons winning a date with Maria, to Santino's dismay.
  Marella began a publicity campaign against the WWE Films production, The Condemned, as its DVD release neared. He was eventually confronted by the film's star, Steve Austin, who argued the film's merits before delivering a Stone Cold Stunner to Marella and hosing him and Maria with beer. During the Austin angle, Marella repeatedly mocked him and his catchphrases in humorously broken English, starting a new comedic trend in his gimmick.
  After a short angle with Jerry Lawler, which included Lawler hitting his signature fist drop maneuver after Marella lost a match to the returning Chris Jericho on the November 26 episode of Raw, Marella formed a tag team with Carlito.
  Around this time, Maria was offered a photo shoot for Playboy magazine. After unsuccessfully persuading her to decline it, Marella tried to sabotage the cover unveiling (an in-ring segment of Raw), causing Maria to dump him. At WrestleMania XXIV, Maria had a "Playboy BunnyMania Lumberjack match". Santino interfered near the end of the match, pulling Maria off of a pin, and was punched by Jerry Lawler. After the match (which Maria's team lost), he was clotheslined by guest "Master of Ceremonies", Snoop Dogg. The next night on Raw, Maria wrestled Marella. Seven other women ganged up on him, and held his legs apart for Maria to headbutt his testicles and pin him. This ended their feud.
  Marella and Carlito then feuded with Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes over the World Tag Team Championship. During a title match between them, Roddy Piper distracted Marella, who was then pinned. This sparked a rivalry with Piper, which included a confrontation on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
  On the July 14, 2008 episode of Raw, Marella lost to Beth Phoenix, who had answered his open challenge. On the next episode, after he lost another open challenge to the returning D'Lo Brown, Marella and Phoenix kissed, both looking confused afterward. Over the next few weeks, they became a parody of a "power couple", soon called "Glamarella" (a portmanteau of Phoenix's nickname, "Glamazon", and "Marella"). At SummerSlam, they wrestled Intercontinental champion Kofi Kingston and WWE Women's Champion Mickie James in a mixed-tag match with both titles on the line. Phoenix pinned James after hitting her finisher, the Glam Slam, giving Marella his second Intercontinental championship.
  Marella then sought to become the "greatest Intercontinental champion of all the times" by beating The Honky Tonk Man's record 64-week reign. Over the weeks, a "Honk-A-Meter" graphic informed viewers of his progress during his matches and segments (at one point Marella even used a "Honk-a-Perfect-Mountie-Meter" comparing his reign to the combination of The Honky Tonk Man, Mr Perfect and The Mountie's reigns). At Cyber Sunday, Marella was disqualified in a title match with The Honky Tonk M
caption: Marella with Maria
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