10 of the most controversial wrestlers of all time

Hulk Hogan as WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
Hulk Hogan as WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

#7 Santino Marella

Santino Marella, aka Anthony Carelli
Santino Marella, aka Anthony Carelli

Santino Marella had perhaps the absolute best WWE debut OF ALL TIME. During a Monday Night Raw which happened to be taking place in Italy, the Italian-American was a 'plant' in the crowd, and was picked to take on Umaga for the Intercontinental championship.

Marella was allowed to cleanly defeat Umaga, who had been on a tear as a monster heel. However, any momentum Marella enjoyed was quickly doused as he evolved into a comedy character.

Marella would eventually be released from WWE, but that's not the controversial part. That actually came about recently, when Marella made some backward thinking comments about intergender wrestling.

Santino seems worried that women are going to get into fights with men in real life because they see women wrestling men on television. Needless to say the comments have landed him in hot water in the court of public opinion, and it remains to be seen if he can weather this controversy.

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Edited by Kingshuk Kusari
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