Santino Marella Details Life-Changing Lesson Learned From WWE HOFer Dusty Rhodes

Santino Marella's WWE debut memorably had him run into a match against Umaga as a planted fan picked by Vince McMahon, crowning him as the new WWE Intercontinental Champion.

By now, fans know the whole segment was a work, but according to Marella in an interview on "What Do You Wanna Talk About? With Cody Rhodes," WWE HOFer, and Cody's father, Dusty Rhodes had a major role to play in getting him to that point. 

"[Dusty Rhodes] taught us this lesson; I implemented it one month later, and it changed my life," he recalled.

Marella then told the story about indie wrestler 'Fearless' Jack Bull once not believing that Dusty was calling him and losing out on an opportunity because he admitted that he couldn't really drive a motorcycle and declined to learn how to, which 'The American Dream' used to turn into a lesson for all his students. 

"And he said, 'Look, if they ever ask if you can do anything, the answer is yes. And then you better learn how to do it,'" Santino remembered.

WWE eventually called him and asked him if he could speak Italian, and while he might have Italian descent on his father's side, he never learned the language extensively. Marella did not let this get in his way.

"I said a couple of lines, because I used to listen to this tourist tape and I'd memorized a couple of lines – really, super basic – and they were like, 'Okay, that sounds good,'" he claimed.

To apply Dusty Rhodes' lesson, Marella claims he quickly downloaded eight Italian lessons onto his iPod and tried to learn Italian on his flight, which later prompted him to actually learn Italian. 

"I actually got my Italian citizenship after I became 'Santino.' I really just dove into the culture. My dad's from Italy, but yeah, talk about learning a lesson and implementing it immediately," he noted. "If that didn't happen? I might have said, 'No, not really that well.' Crazy."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "What Do You Wanna Talk About? With Cody Rhodes," and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.