
I finished listening to episode #327 of the rant. It was a good episode as they usually are. If you haven't listened to it then quit being lazy and go listen to it before I come after you.
One of the topics that was discussed during the episode was about the time table that has been created so that the chance for a heel turn is as close as it's ever going to be for John Cena. I would have to agree that the small window for Cena to turn heel is the small window within the next two years depending on how they do the story angle. There are so many ways that they could go about doing it there should be no reason why it doesn't land perfectly. After I finished that episode I started to wonder if there was any other wrestlers that could be turned either heel or change their gimmick all together so that their stock in the company and the universe would increase ten fold. I could have done the easy thing and picked an obvious choice like Dolph Ziggler, but what would be the fun in that. lol So give myself a challenge I wanted to find a wrestler that has spent majority of his time with WWE as a face and figure out how to increase his stock in the company.

The wrestler that is being the main focus in this episode is none other than Santino Marella. In 2003 Santino debuted at Ontario Indys as Johnny Geo Basco. If you look at video #1 you can watch one of the matches that shows that he has the ability to wrestle a regular match without all the goofball antics. I will admit that he was a little green in the match but he still showed a lot of potential to carry on a regular match. What people are not aware of is the fact that he is not that bad at doing MMA type matches. I don't think he is UFC level good but I think he is good enough that I think that he is being underutilized right now. If you watch video #2 you will see him doing a match were he is starting to shake off the green. He still is not as good enough to meet the major leagues standards of talent. He does show the potential to make a good name for himself if given the right kind of push and training in the big leagues.
In the OVW he made a decent promo as an Russian MMA fighter set out to destroy everyone in their path. Even though the promo isn't as polished as we are use to seeing from WWE but it does go to show that he is fully capable of cutting a good promo. If the promo had the production team that WWE had the possibilities would be endless. Video #3 is a video promo he made when he was debuting as Boris Alexiev. Anyone that would rather watch him as the Santino gimmick than the Boris gimmick need to get their heads examined. While the Santino gimmick may provide comedic value but he provides no real threat to any wrestler or titles on the roster. In fact he is looked at as a joke. How can you take someone serious when you have the company’s top guy referring to the gimmick as a joke in video #5. You can not take him seriously.

This little fact can be fixed many of ways since people tend to get over little squabbles when there is a serious injury. You could have her come back trying to investigate the mystery behind the attack. I would have Santino come back around the same time she is about to mysteriously get attacked by the person responsible for the attack. I would have him suffer from amnesia the entire time so he has no clue who it was that attacked him. This would make it more interesting for him to investigate it. Santino has a decent voice that would be able to pull this off so that it's believable. If you watch video #6 you can hear even though he has a raspy voice for some reason you can still hear that he has the voice that would be able to pull it off. It also sounds strange to hear him talk without the goofy accent. Well since WWE has a habit of not wanting to do things that I think would make for good story line for wrestlers that have been pushed down to the low cards as enhancement talent. I know a cool storyline such as this will never happen.
Well that will be this issue of the Chopping Block and I want to thank you for taking the time to checking it out. If you have any comments or questions do not hesitate to comment on any episodes and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Thanks
Iron Man
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