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Vince McMahon once considered booking Santino Marella to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Elimination Chamber 2012.
Daniel Bryan retained the title against five opponents in an Elimination Chamber match six weeks before WrestleMania 28. Marella was one of WWE’s most popular babyfaces at the time and came close to defeating Bryan towards the end of the match.
Speaking on Rene Dupree’s Cafe de Rene podcast, Marella said veteran referee Mike Chioda witnessed McMahon’s reactions backstage during the match. According to Chioda, the WWE Chairman may have changed the finish if the 34-minute contest lasted longer.
"Chioda was in Gorilla," Marella said. "He’s looking at Vince, looking at the screen. This is his opinion. He goes, ‘If I [Marella] was fighting for five more seconds, Vince would have called an audible and changed it,’ because he was going ape s***. ‘This is good s***! Oh my God, look at this!’ He was going crazy. It [possible win] was right there, man." [3:33-3:55]
Marella worked for WWE between 2005 and 2016. He won the Intercontinental Championship twice and United States Championship once, but he never held a WWE World Championship.
Vince McMahon’s WrestleMania 28 plans would have changed drastically
Had Vince McMahon made Santino Marella the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Daniel Bryan’s 18-second loss to Sheamus at WrestleMania 28 would likely not have happened.
While Marella would have liked to win one of WWE’s most prestigious titles, he feels that losing the match perfectly suited his character:
“Vince can do that [last-minute match changes]," Marella continued. "Maybe the thought was entering his mind but he didn’t say it, and then by the time I tapped he didn’t have chance to say it… We were this close, this close, but that’s part of the attraction to the character. Life sometimes you get this close. It’s not always a fairytale ending.” [3:55-4:22]
Marella also said in the interview that Bryan is the only person to ever kick out of his Cobra finisher. The kick-out occurred in the closing stages of the Elimination Chamber match.
Please credit Cafe de Rene and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
