AUDIO: Santino Marella Praises Paul Heyman, The Divas, More

Here are highlights and the audio of an interview with Santino Marella via Ring Rust Radio:

On what he’s looking forward to at Payback: “I really want to see the Shield vs. Evolution, for me, because this is a real classic story of the old champions that are past their prime and the new up-and-comers and somewhere theirs paths have to cross, somewhere one was going to be better than the other and it all was going to shift and change. Now? Is it maybe 2 years from now? That’s what I am really curious to see.”

On his favorite personal match/angle/moment in WWE: “It’s very difficult for me and I often tell people that the best moment is yet to come, but I believe winning the United States Championship was very nice, Elimination Chamber was very special for me, defending my US Title in a cage vs. Jack Swagger was cool; I had never been in a cage match before, to have just one moment; maybe wrestling in Italy.”

On incorporating his MMA background into future matches: “For my matches maybe not because my character is established but for the future and young talent, I believe this is the way the business should go because of the growth of MMA and people are becoming more savvy when it comes to submissions and takedowns and things like that. Before, when we said that wrestling was real we didn’t have to work so hard, but now that we acknowledge that it’s entertainment we have to be very realistic and that is the style we teach at Battle Arts Academy in Toronto.”

On getting the name “Marella” as an homage to Robert “Gorilla Monsoon” Marella: “When they told me, immediately I realized it was an honor and a privilege and it did put some pressure on me to deliver the goods, so to speak.”

On working with different Divas over the years: “If you know how to use them then of course you have a synergy and if you don’t know how to use them it can be a waste of time. I have been with very different women, for example, Maria was very delicate, more like a model, Beth Phoenix was very strong, Emma is very funny and Tamina was like an amazon. So you have to know how to incorporate them and it all depends on how the personalities mingle.”

On training under Paul Heyman: “Paul Heyman is like a wrestling genius. His input weighs a lot for me. In training, he was observing me and he pulled me aside and said I have an idea for you and he heard about my background and we became more selective and it was very good and it was very fun. I believe the people that watched, they believed 100 percent so we did our job, you know.”

On how involved he is with his character decisions: “In the beginning, it was more regionalized, then it was a collaboration, and now I have more freedom for input. They give me a skeleton, and say ‘you need to say this, this and this, but in your way’ and I come up with what I want to say.”

100% DIRECT LINK (PHOTO): Santino Marella’s**SMOKIN’ HOT** Daughter! OMFG – **MUST-SEE-NOW**!!!