Shattered Dreams: A Look at WWE's Santino Marella Sitcom That Never Happened

WWE's Big Show is set to star in an upcoming sitcom from WWE Studios and Netflix, appropriately titled The Big Show Show.

According to WWE.com, this will be the first project under the new partnership between WWE and Netflix, and it will also mark the first time a WWE Superstar gets to star in their own sitcom. However, Big Show is not the first to try his hand at something like this.

Back before the WWE Network launched in 2014, the company was trying other ways to diversify itself. It has released several movies under the WWE Studios banner but never made many attempts to produce any television shows outside of its weekly wrestling programs.

Enter Santino Marella. In 2010, the Milan Miracle had been with WWE for a few years, and he had firmly established himself as the top comedy character in the business.

He had formed relationships with both Vladimir Kozlov and Beth Phoenix, and WWE was looking to bring their chemistry to the small screen with a sitcom.

That's right, folks. WWE almost made a situational comedy with Marella, Kozlov and Phoenix, which sounds like WWE's version of Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place, which honestly sounds awesome.

WWE.com confirmed the news and revealed a few plot points. Santino would have been the star, The Glamazon would have been his girlfriend and Kozlov would have played his best friend.

Marella spoke with IGN's Matt Fowler about the show back in 2010: "In two weeks, we're filming the first few episodes of the new Santino Marella sitcom. The first season will air on WWE.com and after that, we'll try to get it to network television."

Unfortunately, the show never aired on WWE.com or any television channel despite having filmed at least a couple of episodes before scrapping the idea. 

Marella said the show wouldn't be based around wrestling and even compared it to one of the most popular sitcoms of all time.

He said it would be: "Kind of like Seinfeld with myself. Phoenix is my girlfriend on the show and my best friend is Kozlov. It will be done on the two-and-a-half days that we're off the road and at home. Home for the show is Tampa, Florida."

Anyone who watched Santino's career in the ring knows he has great comedic timing and a willingness to make himself look foolish for the sake of entertaining his fans.

"I was always the class clown, the comedian," he said. "And combine that with 20 years of grappling and you put that together and you get Santino."

The saddest part about all of this is how we never got to see what Kozlov's potential was as a comedic actor. We knew he could wrestle, and his run as a babyface proved he could make us laugh, but that is completely different than acting in a sitcom.

This also could have been Phoenix's chance to become a breakout star had the show been successful. She would have been much different from the standard leading lady in a 30-minute comedy due to her muscular physique.

Had she been a hit with the character, it could have opened a lot of doors for different kinds of actors to land similar roles. 

Marella runs a wrestling and MMA school called Battle Arts Academy in his home country of Canada (yes, he is from Canada, not Italy), but had this show proved to be a success, he could have called Hollywood home. 

WWE has since branched out into television with reality shows like Total Divas, Total Bellas and Miz and Mrs, which all come across as scripted as any sitcom anyway.

What some people might not know is Kozlov ended up opening up a production company after leaving WWE and has been steadily acting for several years.

WWE did a "Where are they now?" video on him two years ago, and he talked about how WWE gave him a platform for what he is doing now, such as appearing in movies like John Wick. 

As for Phoenix, the acting didn't bite her like it has her husband, Edge. She has been working on her commentary skills recently along with appearing on many of WWE's pay-per-view panels.

All three of the potential stars for the failed project have gone on to have successful lives outside the ring, but it would have been awesome if they were able to make a successful television show.

Maybe, if we're lucky, WWE will try another 30-minute comedy someday for the network. 

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Which current WWE Superstars would you like to see get a shot at starring in a sitcom?