Stacks Escalates Santino Feud With ‘She Calls Me Daddy’ Line on TNA iMPACT

Stacks took his feud with Santino Marella somewhere deeply personal on the January 1, 2026 episode of TNA iMPACT, delivering a line that immediately overshadowed everything else said in the segment.

The moment came after Arianna Grace appeared alongside Team NXT and finally explained why she turned on her father. With Stacks standing at her side, Grace laid out years of resentment and made it clear she was done living under Santino’s name. Grace addressed the perception around her image and why she felt invisible. She then explained how deeply rooted the issue was for her.

“The perfect pageant. Princess. Daddy’s pride and joy. Put her own father down. Why would she do that? I’ve lived in my father’s shadow my whole life. Every smile I give. Every match I win. Every interview I do. No one sees me. They see Santino Marella’s daughter.”

Grace said the breaking point came when she quietly disappeared from TNA television — without even being told. She revealed how she found out she had been removed.

“You want to know when I realized something needed to change? When I disappeared off TNA TV and he didn’t even tell me I wasn’t needed. You want to know how I found out? I called travel for my flight information. And they said, ‘You’re not booked.’ Just like that.”

Grace framed it as part of a long pattern. She closed by making her stance clear.

“That’s how I found out that my dad had no place for me. And sadly, that wasn’t the first time he’s chosen all of you over me. Every single time. I was the perfect daughter. I needed to carve this path for myself. I’m not sorry for who I am. I am done seeking approval. From here on out, I stand by Stacks, and there is nothing you can do about it.”

That’s when Stacks took the mic — and turned the situation from emotional to incendiary. He addressed Santino directly and dropped the line that instantly became the headline.

“Hey, Santino. She might have been your little girl, but she’s my girl now. And sometimes she even calls me daddy.”

The remark reframed the entire angle in one sentence, pushing the rivalry past authority issues and straight into provocation and humiliation. With Grace openly rejecting her father and Stacks leaning fully into the tension, this story now feels far more personal than professional.