Santino Marella Training for In-Ring Return

Former WWE wrestler Santino Marella seems to be working towards a return to the ring. Marella has been retired from in-ring competition since 2014 after a series of neck surgeries put him out of action. He continued to appear for the WWE in 2015 but was released from his contract in May of 2016 after not being used in months after an aborted comeback attempt.
The former Intercontinental champion is said to be training to compete for his own version of the Battlearts promotion in Japan. Santino runs the group out of his own gym in Ontario Canada and was trained in the original promotion’s gym in Japan during his early years as a wrestler and MMA fighter.
Santino was trained in Judo at a young age and began to work for the WWE in 2005 in Ohio Valley Wrestling where he was famously slapped by owner Jim Cornette that year that lead to Cornette’s firing. Santino later adopted the Boris Alexiev gimmick of a Russian MMA style fighter. He debuted as Santino Marella in 2007 and was portrayed a fan out of the crowd who scored an upset victory over Umaga to win the Intercontinental title in what was called The Milan Miricle. During his run with the WWE he would hold the Intercontinental Title twice, the WWE tag team title with Vladimir Kozlov, the United States Title, and even the title of Ms. Wrestlemania after winning a battle royal at Wrestlemania 25 under the guise of his “twin sister” Santina.