My dad was four time WWE champ now I’m Miss Universe star fighting for my dream after ACL heartbreak
Arianna Grace didn’t grow up with the kind of shadow most second-generation wrestlers battle against.
Today’s WWE is full of performers carrying family torches – a tale as old as time.
Dominik Mysterio followed Rey into the ring, Charlotte Flair continued the Flair line, Bron Breakker emerged from the Steiner family, and The Usos carried the Anoa’i dynasty into a new generation – just to name a handful.
Grace, however, grew up with something stranger – or funnier at least: the shadow of Santino Marella.
Why breaking her father’s shadow became WWE star’s first battle
One of the most popular and family-friendly figures of his era, the man who won four titles in WWE did so with a sock puppet, a cobra strike and some of the most chaotic comedy the company ever produced.
For Bianca Carelli – the real name behind the poised, pageant-bred NXT star – that legacy was both a gift and a burden. Her father was beloved, recognisable and adored by millions.
At the outset was a strait-laced competitor – winning the Intercontinental title on his first ever Raw outing – before his sensational comic timing and natural charisma helped take his career in an entirely different direction.
His daughter, however, wasn’t chasing laughs. She wanted to wrestle.
Long before she stepped into the Performance Center, Grace had already crafted an identity. She had competed in beauty pageants, reached the Miss Ontario stage, and represented Canada in national competition.
Santino realised early that his daughter wasn’t riding anyone’s coattails. In fact, he insisted she didn’t. Speaking to Chris Van Vliet earlier this year, he was adamant she wasn’t one to take the easy route.
“She’s something special,” he said. “She was identified from a young child as just exceptional with regards to her speech, her presence. All she had to do, in my opinion, was be the hardest worker in the room, and she became the hardest worker in the room.”
That work ethic was tested almost immediately. Grace failed her first WWE try-out, a moment Santino remembers as far more than a simple setback.
“Her dream was crushed, and she had to build herself back physically and mentally,” he admitted.
When the call finally came in early 2022 confirming she had earned her WWE contract, it felt like a second chance she had carved entirely for herself.
Her momentum was building. The Beauty Queen persona clicked on NXT television. Her presence – measured, elegant, perfectly controlled – was the opposite of everything fans associated with the Marella name, but that was arguably the point.
How injury and ambition reshaped her fight for the future
Then came the injury, freakish in its nature – during a routine 2022 training session. The diagnosis was horrific: a torn ACL, torn meniscus, sprained MCL.
In her own words to Wilde On: “It snapped… I felt like a big pop.” It was a devastating blow for any athlete, let alone one whose resolve had already been tested.
Still, she battled back once more. Within a month, she was up and running again – or walking at least – writing on Instagram: “Finally get to sleep with my knee brace off [and] can walk without crutches.
“Still get sore very easily and my knee is not 100% but of course every day is better than the one before it and for that, I am grateful.”
By 2023 she was back on television, reshaping her career once again – WWE allowing her to compete in the Miss Universe Canada competition in the interim.
Working alongside Santino in WWE – via TNA – was something neither of them expected to happen so early, and when it finally did, Grace spoke about it with the mixture of disbelief and gratitude only a second-generation wrestler truly understands.
“I never thought it was actually going to happen this early in my career,” she said. “It was like a surprise blessing. Seeing my dad at work – it’s not work – because I love my job.”
That’s probably just as well – her job, as is that of any second-generation star – tougher than most as she seeks to break the mould of a family predecessor and rise on her own.
Her story doesn’t fit the usual mould of wrestling royalty. She isn’t a Rhodes, a Hart or a Flair. She is the daughter of a champion who made fans laugh – a lot – something that seems far from the object of her WWE character.
There’s every chance she’ll make it, too – carried by the resilience that pulled her through a failed try-out, a brutal injury and the weight of expectation.
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