Santino Marella made an indelible mark on WWE during his run with the company due to his knack for humor and ability to put on decent matches inside the ring. And though Marella’s full-time run in WWE ended in 2016, another member of his family is now carrying on the family’s legacy. Marella’s daughter, Arianna Grace, is currently assigned to WWE’s developmental brand, “NXT.” Unfortunately, Grace suffered a torn ACL and meniscus in her knee in early October and has been out of action since.
“Yeah, she’s twelve weeks out of surgery and she’s progressing really well. She’s running and [doing] high knees and some plyometrics,” Marella told “The Dave Van Auken Show.” “So, she’ll be back. She’s a megastar in the making. She was identified from a young child and that’s actually one of the reasons I became a professional wrestler because professional wrestling and movies seemed to be connecting at the time with WWE Films. And she’s like a movie star, my daughter is a future A-list megastar, and I know it sounds weird coming from her dad but everyone in ‘NXT’ absolutely loves her. She’s a blue-chip stock, you know, when it comes to the mic skills, she’s the best maybe in all of WWE right now. And she won school speeches and debates, and [was a] student of excellence, and [did] acting, and she did hosting of TV shows and all of that stuff. She’s perfect there. She’s big, she’s like 5′ 8″ and strong, and she gets wrestling.”
As for Santino, news recently broke that he has signed with Impact Wrestling to portray the on-screen Director of Authority.
If you use any quotes in this article, please credit “The Dave Van Auken Show” with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.