Santino Marella surprised TNA fans in more ways than one when he made his return to the company as an authority figure.
At TNA Hard to Kill 2023, Marella introduced himself as the Director of Authority. Along with fans being happy to see the former Intercontinental Champion back on TV, many were also surprised to see Marella return under his WWE persona.
Aside from exceptional circumstances, many former WWE stars have rebranded themselves when debuting in another company, such as the former Dean Ambrose now wrestling as Jon Moxley in AEW, and the former Zack Ryder now competing under his real name Matt Cardona on the independents. The reason for this is because WWE own the trademarks for most of its previous talent along with the current stars. However, according to Marella, his name was available.
Santino Marella Explains How He Was Able To Use His WWE Name
While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Marella stated that former TNA President Scott D’Amore discovered that the Santino Marella trademark was available, so he bought it:
“So that was actually almost bigger news than me appearing on TNA, was the fact that I was Santino Marella. So in 2021, I imagine the COVID confusion or whatever, there were people getting fired and hired, and it seemed like it was team Hunter and team Vince, and they were changing regimes or whatever. Somebody didn’t renew the trademark. So Scott D’Amore, as a habit, because if he’s getting a former WWE guy, he kind of checks the trademark to see if they’re available, because he has to get creative and come up with a name. If it’s not Fandango, it’s Dango or something that’s legally not going to be too close to the intellectual property. He checked, and all of a sudden he goes, damn, Santino Marella is available. So he bought it.”
Continuing, the TNA authority figure stated that although D’Amore owned the trademark first, it was later given back to WWE following discussions:
“It’s not as simple as you can just buy it and it’s yours. There’s a case that they created the character, they developed the character. It’s still on their library. I mean, there’s still tons of Santino stuff in the library. But when it’s library use, I think it’s not considered like current use, because it’s from a library. So they sent an email or a phone call to Scott, and they say, ‘Yeah, you’re using our intellectual property.’ And Scott’s like, ‘Actually, I own the trademark.’ So they’re like, ‘Let me get back to you.’ It’s kind of sitting there for a while. Then they filed an extension to the time they can appeal it, and then when Scott was no longer with TNA, Ariel [Shnerer], in hopes of having a good relationship with WWE, kind of just gave it back to them. So they own it, but I’m not sure if a part of the deal was we’ll give it back to you but can we use it? And we’ve been using it.”
Marella noted that although WWE owns the trademark, there have been no issues with him using it to his knowledge.
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Featured image: TNA
