WWE Superstar Study: Analyzing the State of Santino Marella's Character

Santino Marella is the WWE’s resident goofball. 

He’s been the company’s most consistently funny performer for much of the last few years now and is primarily a comedy character. But his comedy has gotten him so over with the fans that he’s now the United States Champion. 

So, just how did Santino get to holding a mid-card title? And where is he going from here? 

Well, let’s take a look with this week’s Superstar Study. 

Where He’s Been 

After legitimately injuring his shoulder in a car injury in September 2011, Santino Marella returned in October of that year, but quickly found himself jobbing to a number of upper mid-card and main event stars. 

In January 2012, Santino became SmackDown GM Teddy Long’s assistant after defeating Drew McIntyre in singles action. He would go on to team up with Yoshi Tatsu and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan in two separate tag-team matches against WWE Tag Team Champions Epico and Primo, but his team lost both matches. 

Moving on from that brief tag-team stint, Santino won a battle royal on the Feb. 17 edition of SmackDown to earn a spot in the blue brand’s Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship, replacing Randy Orton, who couldn’t participate because of a concussion. Santino did not win the match, but he eliminated Cody Rhodes and was the last person to be eliminated. 

At this point, Santino had gotten over big time, and he was given a United States Championship match on the March 5 edition of Raw by Long, who was in control of Raw for that night. Santino beat Jack Swagger to win his first-ever US title and then successfully defended it against Swagger in a Steel Cage match on SmackDown later that week. 

Santino’s success helped him be named the captain of Team Teddy for the Battle of the GMs at WrestleMania 28. Unfortunately for Santino, his team lost after Eve interfered and allowed The Miz to hit Zack Ryder with the Skull-Crushing Finale. 

The next night on Raw, Santino successfully retained the US Championship once again, this time beating Swagger and Dolph Ziggler in a Triple Threat match. 

Santino would also successfully defend his title in the pre-show YouTube match at Extreme Rules when he pinned The Miz in singles action. 

Exceeding any and all expectations when he became the United States Champion, Santino’s comedy has made him one of the most over US Champs in recent history, although many have criticized him for even further devaluing the title due to his comedy-style matches. 

Where He Is Now 

Santino has recently teamed up with Ryder on a number of occasions (including on this week’s SmackDown), but that hasn’t turned out to be more than a temporary thing. 

Following Extreme Rules, Santino had a brief “rivalry” with Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes before Over the Limit, in which he teamed up with CM Punk to beat Rhodes and Bryan in tag-team action on Raw and then beat Rhodes in singles action on SmackDown. 

But since Over the Limit, Santino’s real rivalry seems to be with Ricardo Rodriguez, after the two kicked off a feud on last week’s SmackDown, when Santino tried to help Ricardo roll his Rs when introducing Alberto Del Rio. 

Santino would go on to defeat Ricardo on last week’s SmackDown in a comedy match, but he lost in less than a minute to Del Rio on this week’s Raw. 

The WWE has paired up its two funniest performers in a bit of a rivalry, one that appears to be just getting started. 

Where I Think He’s Headed 

Santino is ridiculously over right now, so he’s a guy who can easily job on a consistent basis because he’s not meant to be taken particularly seriously. 

The problem is, he’s holding the United States Championship, which means that every loss even further devalues that title. Conversely, any time he beats another mid-carder in singles action, it makes that guy look weak, too. 

I think Santino is going to continue getting a high-profile comedy role on TV, but given that he hardly defends the US title these days and that that belt doesn’t seem to be a priority to the creative team, I could see him randomly dropping it sometime soon. 

How did Santino win the belt? By randomly being placed in a title match on Raw. 

That should be how he loses it as well, especially given that John Laurinaitis is in control of both Raw and SmackDown. 

Since the WWE doesn’t seem to care to build up a legitimate feud for Santino (and really can’t, because he’s a comedy character), I think he’s going to be randomly forced to defend his United States title on an episode of Raw and lose it. 

Who will he drop the belt to? I’m honestly not sure, but you have to think that any mid-card heel—especially one who has a past history with Laurinaitis—could take it from him. 

It could actually be Ricardo, but I don’t know what the WWE wants to do with him and if creative is willing to put him in the ring full-time. 

I doubt Santino vs. Ricardo will get a PPV match at No Way Out, and there really aren’t a ton of mid-card heels that Santino could drop the US title to. 

A returning Mark Henry? A repackaged Tensai? Swagger? 

I don’t know, but once Santino’s little feud with Ricardo concludes (or perhaps even during it), I wouldn’t be shocked to see him drop the US Championship but stick in a similar role to what he’s currently doing. 

Where I Think He Should be Headed 

Count me among the people who think that Santino is a great character, but that he needs to lose the United States Championship because he’s, unsurprisingly, turned it into a joke. 

I’d keep this Ricardo/Santino rivalry going, and book it to where Santino and Ricardo start slowly becoming enemies-turned-friends. 

You can keep the feud going for a while, and have Ricardo beg Laurinaitis for a United States Championship shot on Raw. But Laurinaitis can say that he already has Santino’s next challenger lined up on that show, and in walks some mid-card heel, who faces Santino for the title later that night. 

Whoever the heel is will beat Santino in dirty fashion to win the title and then lay a brutal beat-down on Santino after the match. Out comes Ricardo, who gets in the face of the heel and screams, “Hey! That should have been my title!” 

The heel attacks Ricardo, they start brawling, and then Santino gets up, sees what’s going on and helps Ricardo in his fight with the heel. 

Just like that, you have Santino and Ricardo working together in what would basically be a face turn for Ricardo. The two could then unite as a face tag team. 

This would accomplish a number of things: Getting the US title off of Santino, turning Ricardo face (he’s already getting face pops anyway), giving the tag-team division another tag team, etc. 

I think that a Santino/Ricardo pairing could rival, if not top, what Santino and Vladimir Kozlov did comedy-wise, and it would give some much-needed depth to a slowly progressing tag-team division. 

As much as I like Santino, I think he’s best served in a pure comedy role rather than as the holder of a mid-card title, so perhaps pairing him up with Ricardo would prevent him from destroying the credibility of the US Championship. 

Final Thoughts 

Santino is phenomenal at what he does—there hasn’t been a comedy character in years that’s as funny as he is. 

I definitely think that he has a spot on the WWE roster and should be on TV on a consistent basis. I just have to question how the WWE uses him. 

He is a comedy character first and foremost, so anytime he beats a fellow mid-carder or holds a mid-card title, it’s going to diminish that title’s value. 

Santino should be a mid-carder and should provide us with some comedic relief every week. But he could be used better in a role that isn’t quite as important as his current one.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.