Cody Rhodes learned the hard way that messing around with Santino Marella backstage was a terrible idea. The former WWE Champion revealed that a little friendly wrestling with Santino turned ugly when Marella got so angry that he picked Cody up over his head and slammed him onto a four-wheeler. And Cody admits he was lucky he didn’t land on concrete.
During an interview on the Double Coverage Podcast, Rhodes opened up about the wild backstage incident from their earlier WWE days. While most people remember Santino for his ridiculous comedy routines and the Cobra, Cody made it clear that the guy behind those antics was someone you absolutely didn’t want to mess with.
“I had one moment with — I don’t think people realize, and I mentioned it on my podcast. Santino Marella is a judo star. I mean, an absolute — we only knew him as this comedy [act]. But he was a killer in judo and in mixed martial arts and when he was in OVW that’s the gimmick he was doing was Boris.”
The trouble started when Cody and Santino, who regularly traveled together and were good friends, began messing around in the locker room. What started as some harmless grappling quickly became a competition, and Cody actually managed to take Santino down. That turned out to be a mistake.
“So he was he was somebody that we joke around a lot because I rode with him, and we had fun, and one time we got into this little like, you know, he’s getting the Russian two-on-one and we’re starting you know when you start pushing on each other that this is going somewhere, and I got lucky and he shot in on me and I sprawled and I got lucky and I stuffed the shot and then I shot in on him and I took him down to his back and we’re in the locker room. This is no big deal. This is two points in wrestling. Whatever.”
Santino apparently wasn’t thrilled about getting taken down. Cody explained that he knew he wasn’t a better martial artist than Marella, but that didn’t stop him from getting the upper hand for a moment. Unfortunately for Cody, Santino responded by taking things to another level.
“It’s not — I’m not better at martial arts than Santino. But he was so angry that he picked me up over his head right as we came up, and he slammed me on a four-wheeler hard case in the back. And thank God he slammed me on that. Otherwise, I would have hit the cement.”
And this wasn’t something that happened with nobody watching. WWE legend Arn Anderson was right there when Santino sent Cody flying. Rhodes recalled that everyone in the room immediately understood things had gone too far. For Cody, that was all the convincing he needed to never try anything like that again.
“And I remember Arn Anderson and him; we were all in the room, and we all saw it happen because we were the only ones in there. And we all kind of realized like that that right there I, I get it. Thank you. I understood. I will not be engaging in any of this horseplay any further. That was the only time I ever had it. I’ve never had a situation in the ring where I’m like, ‘God dang,’ or had to like grab someone. Thank God. I’ve never had to, like, sink a leg in on anybody.”
This wasn’t Cody’s only memorable experience with Santino, either. As Ringside News previously covered, Rhodes once recalled how joking about Santino’s physique turned into a humiliating bodybuilding contest at a WWE WrestleMania afterparty. John Cena and JBL got involved, Santino ended up winning, and Cody later called it one of the worst nights of his life.
The two clearly have quite a history together, but getting launched onto a four-wheeler might take the cake. Cody walked away without the situation becoming something much worse, although he certainly got the message. Santino might have played a goofball on WWE television, but behind the scenes, his legitimate fighting skills were no joke.
What do you think about Santino Marella losing his temper after Cody Rhodes took him down backstage? Did Cody get lucky that things didn’t turn out worse? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
