Santino Marella And Damien Sandow Come Out Of Retirement At The Same Indie Event (Photos)
Former WWE Superstar Santino Marella took to Instagram last night to reveal photos from his recent return to the ring. Santino worked a "Pancrase-style match" with Randy Bynoe and picked up the win at the recent Battle Arts Pro Wrestling show in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. This was the official start for the promotion, which is affiliated with Santino's Battle Arts Academy and Battle Arts MMA promotion.
Santino dedicated the match to his brother, who passed away last year. He wrote, "I dedicated this match to my brother Pasquale that passed away 10 months ago, he never missed a show."
It looks like they may be building to a Santino vs. Bynoe rematch, but there's no word yet on if Santino will continue wrestling for his promotion because he has been retired. He is set to return to WWE TV for Monday's RAW Reunion special.
The first Battle Arts wrestling show also saw the ring return of former WWE Superstar Damien Sandow, who is now going by "The Dao" Aron Stevens. Stevens had also been retired until Saturday, and had been focusing on his acting career. He recently announced on social media that he was working a "Millennial Slayer" gimmick for his return to the indies.
Stevens defeated Timothy O'Connor in his return match at Battle Arts. He took to Instagram and commented on his return, writing, "Oh pro wrestling, how I missed you ! I was victorious in my first contest after 2 1/2 years. Very talented young man @irish_oconnor . However, when I was 19 or 20 , And I saw an advantage I capitalized . This is what I want to fix. No weakness, no entitlement, no mercy."
Santino and Sandow appear to be good friends these days. As seen below, Sandow was busted open during his match and Santino was the one who fixed him up backstage after the match.
Below are several social media posts related to the recent ring returns, including Santino's entrance video that he released before the match. You can use the arrows to scroll through the Instagram photos:
@courtneeyyg first ever wrestling show saw @AronsThoughts was shocked by him. #milenialslayer yet he is a milenial pic.twitter.com/d64bTpaGpD
? Britishgoose (@jjq84) July 14, 2019
That is Aron Stevens btw aka Aron Rex aka Damian Sandow https://t.co/OFTlQeCmxL
? Santino Marella (@milanmiracle) July 16, 2019
Damn I thought I posted this last night. This is the entrance video for my fight tonight, still strange to see my real name but this is a real as it gets. AND my back is pretty good today so we're all systems go! Bell time is 7pm #DonKolovArena #Mississauga @BattleArts_PRO pic.twitter.com/9J13BDRCxl
? Santino Marella (@milanmiracle) July 13, 2019
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Aron Stevens (@thearonfiles) on
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Santino Marella (@themilanmiracle) on
Cool post match shot from @AndreaKellaway photography this past Sat, check out my Instagram (@themilanmiracle) for a match summary, @BattleArts_PRO #mississauga #prowrestling #toronto #prowrestler @BattleArtsMMA #ImpactWrestling #WWE also check me out on #RAWReunion this Monday pic.twitter.com/uF2kxWmvU1
? Santino Marella (@milanmiracle) July 19, 2019