The man who portrayed Santino Marella wants to make a return to wrestling as a commentator, but he wants to use his real name instead of continuing his WWE gimmick.
Anthony Carelli recently spoke with Back Sports Page and talked about his desire to return to professional wrestling in a new role. Carelli had previously retired due to injury in 2014 but healed up and later returned to the ring for a few sporadic appearances since 2017. Now, Carelli says he would like to continue in the business but he’d like a run at broadcasting, and he wants to make a run as himself because he feels like the opportunity is out there.
“I do want to go back into the business but as a commentator. I would have to be Anthony Carelli because I don’t want to do commentary as Santino. I think there are going to be opportunities for me post-COVID with one of the major companies. I always want to go to WWE first because they changed my life and I’m loyal, but if they don’t have an opportunity, I’ll go somewhere else.”
In regards to originally stepping away from the wrestling business, Carelli said he was OK with things at the time. He said he never realized he wouldn’t enjoy being a ‘celebrity’ and looked forward to just being ‘Anthony’ again.
“At the time, it was okay. I was totally at peace with stepping back and being a regular person. When I first started with the WWE, one of the things I didn’t anticipate not liking was kind of being a celebrity. I used to hate it when my friends would introduce me as Santino Marella from WWE, so I was ready to go back to being Anthony from the neighborhood again.”
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