Anthony Carelli (born March 14, 1974) is a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Santino Marella. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he works as the on-screen director of authority. He also previous appears in partner promotion WWE, on its NXT brand. He is the founder of and instructor at Battle Arts Academy, a martial arts and professional wrestling training facility in Mississauga, Ontario, and the official ambassador of Judo Canada. In addition to being signed to TNA, Carelli also works with various professional wrestling promotions in the independent circuit including Joe Cazana Promotions, Great Lakes Championship Wrestling (GLCW), and Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling (MLP).
He is best known for his 11-year tenure with WWE. Carelli made his WWE debut during a live episode of Raw from Milan, Italy. Under the character of Santino Marella, a fan selected from the audience, he defeated the Intercontinental Champion Umaga, winning the title in his debut match. During the following years, he would win the Intercontinental title one more time, the United States Championship once and the WWE Tag Team Championship once. He was also involved in a storyline where he worked as Santina Marella, Santino's twin sister. Carelli was released from WWE in 2016. After his WWE departure, he opened Battle Arts Academy and worked for Impact Wrestling under his real name. In 2017, he made sporadic matches on the independent circuit, as well as occasional appearances in WWE. In 2023, Carelli made his return to Impact, now under the TNA banner and performing under the Santino Marella name and gimmick. In 2025, with WWE and TNA having a partnership between the two promotions, Carelli returned to WWE on its NXT brand.
Carelli is known for his humorous gimmick as Santino Marella, an Italian stereotype, often being involved in comedic segments, having several on-screen relationships with fellow wrestlers, as well as being crowned "Miss WrestleMania" at WrestleMania XXV disguised as "Santina Marella". The Santino Marella character was awarded Best Gimmick in 2007 and 2008 by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
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Early life
Anthony Carelli was born on March 14, 1974 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. He is of Italian and Métis descent. His paternal family emigrated from San Fili (in province of Cosenza), Calabria to Canada. Carelli attended St Basil's Catholic Elementary School, and later Philip Pocock Catholic Secondary School and Concordia University. He trained in judo at the age of nine and also competed in high school wrestling, winning the Region of Peel Secondary School Athletic Association (ROPSSAA) Tournament, back-to-back as a junior and a senior.
Professional wrestling career
Independent circuit (2002–2005)
Anthony Carelli started his career on the Ontario independent circuit as Johnny Geo Basco, debuting with a disqualification win over Xhibit in the opening match of a Ring Wars show in Orangeville, Ontario, on August 17, 2002. In the second half of 2004, Carelli wrestled four matches for Battlarts in Japan, as Johnny Geo Basco. By this time he also competed in mixed martial arts, in which he claimed in 2006 to have a 6–1 record, although only one fight is confirmed.
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
In 2005, Anthony Carelli (as Johnny Geo Basco) began training at Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), a developmental territory for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). At an OVW television taping In July, during a storyline where he was supposed to act afraid of The Boogeyman, but instead laughed, Anthony Carelli was shouted at and slapped by Jim Cornette, OVW's head booker and co-owner. This incident led to Cornette being fired as OVW booker by WWE.
Under OVW's new booker, Paul Heyman, Anthony Carelli adopted the gimmick of Boris Alexiev, a Russian shootfighter/mixed martial artist. On October 29, he lost his debut OVW match, teaming with Aaron Stevens against Chet the Jet and Chris Cage. Alexiev made his TV debut on April 12, 2006, managed by his "comrade", Mr. Strongko and defeating Mo Sexton. He was booked to dominate opponents with stiff strikes and submission style wrestling. He had a 10-second win over a wrestler named Dewey. He signed a developmental contract with WWE on August 11, 2006, and continued training in OVW.
On January 24, 2007, Alexiev won the OVW Television Championship from Mike Kruel, who was defending in place of champion Eddie Kraven. He lost it back to Kruel on February 7, and regained it from him on March 14. Three days later, he dropped it to Shawn Spears. He was called up to the WWE roster a month later.
Anthony Carelli debuted as Santino Marella (an homage to WWE Hall of Famer Robert "Gorilla Monsoon" Marella) on the April 16, 2007 episode of Raw from Milan, Italy. He was presented as a fan that Vince McMahon selected as an opponent for Umaga. The unknown Marella scored a surprising upset, and won the WWE Intercontinental Championship with an assist from Bobby Lashley. The next day, WWE.com posted a profile on Marella, saying he was an Italian national who moved to Canada as a child and returned to his native country a few times each year to visit family. The profile claimed that he moved to the United States to pursue a wrestling career with WWE. Shortly after winning the Intercontinental title, Marella feuded with Chris Masters, narrowly retaining the title in his first defenses. On July 2, he dropped the title to Umaga, after defeating him on June 24, at Vengeance: Night of Champions, by disqualification.
Marella then began a gradual heel turn and became increasingly jealous of his girlfriend, Maria. Over several weeks, they appeared together in a series of segments on Raw, including two "game show" skits, hosted by General Manager William Regal, which resulted in retired wrestler Ron Simmons winning a date with Maria, to Santino's dismay. Marella began a publicity campaign against the WWE Films production, The Condemned, as its DVD release neared. He was eventually confronted by the film's star, Steve Austin, who argued the film's merits before delivering a Stone Cold Stunner to Marella and hosing him and Maria with beer. During the Austin angle, Marella repeatedly mocked him and his catchphrases in humorously broken English, starting a new comedic trend in his gimmick. After a short angle with Jerry Lawler, which included Lawler hitting his signature fist drop maneuver after Marella lost a match to the returning Chris Jericho on the November 26 episode of Raw, Marella formed a tag team with Carlito.
Return to independent circuit (2017–present)
On June 17, 2017, Marella announced that he would come out of retirement for one last match for Destiny World Wrestling, which operates out of his Battle Arts Academy facilities, on August 27. Marella had announced that he would be teaming up with Alberto El Patrón against RJ City and Stone Rockwell. In light of El Patron's legal troubles, he was announced to be replaced in the match by Chavo Guerrero Jr. After the match, Marella formally announced the end of his in-ring career.
In July 2019, Marella returned to the ring at a Battle Arts Academy show, wrestling in an MMA inspired gimmick. On September 14, 2019, he appeared live in Josh Barnett's Bloodsport II as himself, Anthony Carelli.
Impact Wrestling / Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2017–2019; 2022–present)
On November 5, 2017, Carelli appeared in the audience for Impact Wrestling's Bound for Glory event. Carelli, still collaborating with Impact Wrestling, co-hosted Behind the Lights program on Twitch. On July 23, 2018, he appeared at an Impact Wrestling television taping in the corner of Dustin Quicksilver (representing his Battle Arts Academy). Quicksilver lost to Austin Aries after Carelli threw in the towel on his behalf. Following this, he got in a confrontation with Aries, resulting in Carelli hitting Aries with a low blow.
On March 5, 2022, Carelli returned to Impact Wrestling for their Sacrifice event, doing commentary alongside Tom Hannifan and Matthew Rehwoldt for the Impact World Championship main event between Moose and Heath. On January 13, 2023, at Hard to Kill, Carelli made his return under his previous ring name Santino Marella, performing as the on-screen Impact Director of Authority. On the April 6 episode of Impact!, Marella was mysteriously attacked backstage. With Sami Callihan being suspected behind the attack as part of his initiation into The Design, Marella teamed up with Dirty Dango and Impact Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry on April 16, at Rebellion, to face and ultimately defeat the Design. On the May 18 episode of Impact!, it was revealed that Dango was Marella's assailant.
At Victory Road September 13, 2024, Marella appeared on-screen with his daughter, the NXT and the now renamed Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) liaison Arianna Grace, for the first time in their career. On the May 29, 2025 episode of Impact!, Marella teamed with Grace for the first time, where they lost to Robert Stone and Victoria Crawford in a mixed tag team match. At Against All Odds on June 6, Grace accompanied Marella in his match victory against Stone for the TNA Director of Authority position in Grace's final appearance for TNA.
Return to WWE (2025)
At NXT Vengeance Day on February 15, 2025, Marella made his on-screen return to WWE as the TNA Director of Authority in a segment with NXT General Manager Ava, and again on May 27th to announce a title match between Mike Santana and new TNA World Champion, Trick Williams.
On the July 22, 2025 episode of NXT, Marella interrupted a promo by NXT North American Champion Ethan Page to announce that he would challenge Page for the North American Championship the following week. On July 29, Marella wrestled his first WWE match in 11 years under the Santino Marella character against Ethan Page, but was unsuccessful in winning the title.
Other endeavors
Early in his professional wrestling career, Carelli trained and wrestled at the original Battlarts in Japan. He, along with kung fu practitioner Steven J. Wong and fitness magazine publisher Terry Frendo, opened a 15,000 square foot multi-use facility and gym in Mississauga, Ontario called 'Battle Arts Academy' in September 2013. It is for general strength and conditioning, as well as for training in mixed martial arts and professional wrestling taught by the original Battlarts founder, Yuki Ishikawa. In 2015, Carelli trained athletes from Venezuela for the Panamerican Games 2015.
In 2014, Carelli and his partner Dan Garneau founded and sponsored Canadian junior ice hockey team, Milton Battle Arts Cobras. The team was part of World United Hockey League.
In November 2016, Carelli joined the Sportsnet 360 Aftermath panel as an analyst. On May 2, 2018, Carelli debuted the weekly show Behind the Lights, alongside co-host, Destiny World Wrestling owner George Iceman on the official Impact Wrestling Twitch channel.
Being a Shodan for more than 30 years, Carelli is the judo instructor in Battle Arts Academy. Aside from being a commentator for the International Judo Federation, he was named Judo Canada's first official ambassador in November 2019.
Personal life
Carelli has a daughter from his previous marriage to Petrina, Bianca, who works as professional wrestler under the ring name Arianna Grace. Carelli married bikini fitness competitor Anna Babij, in November 2015. Carelli is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario.
Carelli has had multiple neck surgeries in his career. The disc at his L4 and L5 is also very thin.
Championships and accomplishments
Judo
Ashai Annual Tournament (2017) - Bronze
Professional wrestling
The Baltimore Sun
Newcomer of the Year (2007)
DDT Pro-Wrestling
Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship (1 time)
Ohio Valley Wrestling
OVW Television Championship (2 times)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI ranked him No. 60 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2012
World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE
WWE Intercontinental Championship (2 times)
WWE United States Championship (1 time)
WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Vladimir Kozlov
Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal (2009)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Gimmick (2007, 2008)
