Santino Marella Discusses The Origins Of The Cobra, Says John Cena Encouraged Him To Keep Doing It

Santino Marella discusses the origins of The Cobra.

Throughout the history of professional wrestling, there have been many iconic moves that get a ton of fan reception, even if they aren’t really high impact moves. Some maneuvers that come to mind include The Rock’s People’s Elbow and John Cena’s Five Knuckle Shuffle, two moves that most fans will go crazy for if they see them live.

Although the move is quite controversial, many fans at one point did love Santino Marella’s Cobra strike. There are some hardcore fans that might see the move as too gimmick based, but there are plenty of casual fans that loved the move in its prime.

In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Santino went into detail about the origins of the move and how he borrowed it from a friend in Japan.

“I was in Japan, for most of 2004 I was living in Japan. After the shows there, we all go to the bars and restaurants. There was a gentleman named Carl who was friends with my coach Mr. Ishikawa and he was just sitting at the table and he showed me this thing where he transforms his arm into this little kind wooden puppet type thing. I remember looking at Mr. Ishikawa and going ‘I don’t get it, what is that?’ He was like ‘Oh, it’s just a funny thing he does.’ He made me try it and the next time I saw him he’s like ‘Do you remember how to do it?’ and that was it. It was just a little funny thing between us. I’m guessing about five years later, I believe it was in Atlanta. I was wrestling either Chavo or Carlito, I said ‘Hey, I’m gonna try something during my comeback.’ So it’s like jab, clothesline, punch or whatever and then I stop and do the transformation to my arm and hit him and he turns away into a schoolboy. Without seeing it on TV, the audience immediately laughed. Cena, I always sat beside Cena, I came back through the curtain and he was like ‘I would keep that if I were you, that was funny.’ I was doing it only on live events and then one I go to TV and Ricky Steamboat was my producer. I was wrestling Zack Ryder and [I was] going over with the Cobra, Vince wants to see the Cobra. I’m like ‘Vince knows about the Cobra?’ He was like ‘Yeah, he reads the reports.’ But the Cobra was crazy. Like in three weeks, really quickly, I would gesture for it and I would see in my peripheral vision the entire arena jumping up and I’m like ‘Really?’ Okay, they like it, I mean I didn’t find it that spectacular, but they loved it. I think we did it for a year without the sleeve and then we introduced the sleeve.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Marella discussed his daughter Arianna Grace, who wrestles for NXT. To learn more, click here.

Marella recently noted that he wants to see JTG and PJ Black join the ranks of IMPACT Wrestling. Fans can learn more by clicking here.

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