Arn Anderson reveals why WWE "missed the boat" on Santino Marella

Arn Anderson believes that WWE could have done a lot more with Santino Marella. On the latest edition of his podcast, Anderson discussed Marella's WWE career and said that he was someone who could have been pushed a little more than he was. Anderson also discussed what he thought when he first saw Santino perform and how he changed his initial thoughts on him:

He was destined to go nowhere until he came up with this character. The first time I saw it, I almost hit the ring and beat him up myself because I hated it so bad. But I stepped back and talked to a couple of guys that night that I trusted their opinions, and they said ‘Give this guy a chance because this guy really has a grip on this character’.

After about the second night of watching this, I was absolutely rolling because you had to just accept the fact that this guy has found his niche and is 360 degrees from where it was prior to this. He was so entertaining and was so much fun. That’s another guy I think they might have missed the boat on – he should’ve got a little bit bigger push and it was hilarious. It was just accepting something I wouldn’t have come up with – I couldn’t have pictured that guy in a thousand years. But he did, and he made it work, and he was very successful with it. H/T: 411Mania

A brief look at Santino Marella's in-ring WWE career

Santino Marella made his WWE debut in 2007 on an episode of RAW in Milan, Italy. Marella was presented as a fan Vince McMahon picked out of the crowd to challenge Umaga for the Intercontinental Championship.

In what was a massive shock to everyone watching, Marella beat Umaga with help from Bobby Lashley to win the Intercontinental Championship. Marella went on to become a two-time Intercontinental Champion during his WWE career and aslo held the United States Championship as well as the Tag Team Championship.

Santino announced his retirement at a house show in 2014.