Former WWE champion pays tribute to Toby Keith

A former WWE Superstar recently reacted to the passing of legendary country music singer Toby Keith, sharing a heartfelt tribute. The star in question is Santino Marella.

The iconic musician passed away on February 5, 2024, at the age of 62, after his battle with stomach cancer. He was diagnosed with the illness in 2022. Toby Keith followed WWE and even appeared on an episode of RAW in 2010.

During Keith's appearance on the red brand, Santino Marella was one of the superstars to share the screen with the musician. The former Intercontinental Champion even sang one of Toby's songs in front of him. Later the same night, Toby Keith came out to support Marella during the latter's match against Sheamus.

Santino Marella recently took to X/Twitter to remember the deceased singer and pay his heartfelt tribute. He reshared a tweet featuring a picture of Marella and Toby Keith from the latter's appearance on WWE television:

"Fun times indeed, rip," he wrote.

You can check the tweet below:

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Santino Marella believes his daughter is ready to make her WWE main roster debut

Santino Marella's daughter, Arianna Grace, is an integral part of the NXT roster and has been putting in great performances since her return from a knee injury in September 2023.

During his appearance on Busted Open Radio, Santino Marella praised his daughter for her incredible work ethic. The veteran performer believes Grace is ready to make her move onto the main roster. However, he further stated he would like her to stay in NXT for another year:

"She's funny and she's entertaining and her work rate is, she's coming off the injury, her in-ring wrestling is good, man," Marella said. "She's a very hard worker. It's reversed. A lot of kids, they get the moves, they want to do all these moves, and then they learn the character stuff later. She learned the character stuff first because she just naturally had that, and now she's really fine-tuning the wrestling. Her level of wrestling now is good enough, she could get called up tomorrow and she’d be fine. I don't want her to, I'd like for her to simmer for another year, but it's awesome watching her."

Arianna Grace is one of the many second-generation wrestlers signed by WWE NXT, including Bron Breakker, Ava Raine, Charlie Dempsey, Von Wagner, and Brooks Jensen. It will be interesting to see when these young talents move onto the main roster.

Which NXT talent are you the most excited about? Sound off in the comments section below.