Santino Marella Wants Daughter To Wrestle Top WWE Star

Santino Marella may be known for his hilarious performances in the 2000s and 2010s, but nowadays the retired wrestler has embraced his role as the father of WWE's next potential female star. Marella's daughter, WWE's Arianna Grace, joined his former employer's developmental "WWE NXT" brand in early 2022 after a short stint on the independent circuit. Grace got her first win in August, but was quickly sidelined with a knee injury in October, from which she's still recovering.

But so far, Marella says his daughter has continued to impress in WWE. On "The Dave Van Auken Show," the longtime WWE star doubled down on his belief in his daughter, and claimed she'll one day be one of the headlining stars of the women's division. "Two, three years from now she's going to be a top dog in the division," Marella predicted, before telling a story about how he pitched 14-time world champion Charlotte Flair having a match with Arianna one day.

At "Ric Flair's Last Match" last summer, Marella said he "had a couple drinks" and told Charlotte she needs to wrestle his daughter. Marella said that Charlotte also "came up to me and goes, 'I love your daughter, I love what she's doing, we watch her.' "Marella went on to add that he's always receiving compliments about how his daughter is progressing when he visits the WWE Performance Center, where young wrestlers train for "NXT." "When I go to AEW or Impact or WWE, everyone is always just commenting on my daughter and how she's doing and that they watch her," Marella said. "There's a lot of focus on her. Everyone's keeping an eye [on her], because everyone knows what she's capable of, so it's good man. It's all about her now."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Dave Van Auken Show" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.