Santino Marella has re-signed with TNA Wrestling, according to an announcement from the Johnny I Pro Show. Contract length and terms have not been revealed.
The former WWE Intercontinental Champion has served as TNA’s on-screen Director of Authority since January 2023, booking matches and stirring up trouble on Thursday Night iMPACT. Keeping him in that chair matters because he has been at the center of the show’s power struggle this year. Daria Rae arrived on the January 15 AMC premiere and declared she could do his job better. Marella was later suspended, then reinstated on April 30 after Indi Hartwell came to his defense, and in May he announced Hartwell’s own return on television in a storyline that ended with her re-signing with TNA. Those were storylines. This deal is the real-world version.
It also preserves one of the main bridges in TNA’s partnership with WWE NXT. His daughter Arianna Grace has been the liaison between the two brands since September 2024, and Marella appeared at NXT Vengeance Day in February 2025, his first WWE television appearance since the 2020 Royal Rumble.
The Johnny I Pro Show is also where Marella said in March 2025 that TNA management had asked whether he wanted one more in-ring run. He said he hoped to team with Grace in a mixed tag at WrestleMania, while acknowledging that WWE owns the rights to the Santino Marella character. Whether this new agreement includes any in-ring work has not been revealed.
TNA’s most recent pay-per-view was Bound For Glory in Tampa, and Marella remains the figure who books the matches on its weekly show.