Santino Marella is one of the funniest wrestlers in WWE. There was never a dull moment with him on the screen. He even had a hilarious arsenal of moves, with the Cobra being the cherry on top. The over-the-top move saw the former Intercontinental Champion wear a snake shaped sock on his hand and then hitting his opponent with it. The move is iconic and the WWE universe has John Cena to thank for it.
Also read: The Rock Once Called John Cena An “Idiot” Who Has “Confidence” During Their Iconic Real-Life Rivalry
The Cenation Leader saw Santino performing the move during a live show and immediately asked him to keep the move. Santino did as was asked of him, and the move took a life of its own. So much so that Vince McMahon himself asked him to perform the move on television.
John Cena encouraged Santino Marella to continue using the Cobra
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Santino recalled performing the move for the first time during a live event. The audience in attendance laughed at what they were seeing. He walked back through the curtain, only to find John Cena, encouraging him to keep doing the move.
“I was wrestling either Chavo or Carlito, I said ‘Hey, I’m gonna try something during my comeback.’ So it’s like I stop and do the transformation to my arm and hit him. Without seeing it on TV, the audience immediately laughed. I came back through the curtain and he (Cena) was like ‘I would keep that if I were you, that was funny.’”
Santino only performed the move on live events. The first time he performed the move on TV was for his match against Zack Ryder. He was informed by Ricky Steamboat that he was going over with the Cobra, because Vince wanted to see it.
Santino expressed surprise to know that Vince knew of the move, to which Steamboat replied saying:
“Yeah, he reads the reports.”
Only two people have kicked out of the Cobra!
Despite being mostly a comedic wrestler, the Cobra was a very well protected move. So much so that only two people have ever kicked out of the move. Daniel Bryan and Sheamus.
To be fair to Santino, he attacked Sheamus with the Cobra without wearing his snake sock, so you can argue that the move was only 50 percent strong. So technically, Daniel Bryan is the only wrestler to have ever kicked out of the move.
But the move would not be what it became without all the other wrestlers giving it their all to sell for the move. A special mention goes to JTG.
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