Just three days before his pitch, Anthony Di Maria, a second-year student in Humber’s Bachelor of Film and Media Production program, gathered all the information he felt was needed to pitch his documentary idea and get it approved.
Or at least he thought.
Di Maria, a lifelong fan of professional wrestling and judo practitioner under Anthony Carelli, best known as Santino Marella from his time spent with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), planned for his documentary pitch to be centred around Carelli, his career in wrestling and his other ventures into martial arts.
Professional wrestling has always been a major part of Di Maria’s life, with his dad exposing him to it as a kid.
“I’ve probably got over 500 wrestling figures, just from when my dad was young, and now me collecting them since I was a kid. So, it’s always been a part of me,” Di Maria said
Little did Di Maria know he was about to get information that would push his story of Carelli to become a necessary tale to tell.
Carelli, of Mississauga, began his career as Johnny Geo Basco in a bout in Orangeville, Ont., in 2003. He then travelled to Japan as Joe Basko and dabbled in mixed martial arts. After a stint in the Ohio Valley Wrestling circuit, where he fought as Boris Alexiev, he debuted in WWE Raw in Milan as Santino Marella, a fan sitting in the stands.
Marella eventually became U.S. champion, played a heel in bouts and had success in tag-team matches, winning bouts with the Cobra manoeuvre.
The Cobra became Carelli’s signature move, wearing a sock on his right arm with an image of the deadly snake. He now operates a mixed martial arts gym, Battle Arts Academy, on Tomken Road in Mississauga.
The documentary, titled Rise of the Cobra, had always been Di Maria’s dream project. It was obvious to Di Maria this story needed to be told when he found out Carelli got into wrestling as a single father to build contacts to help pave the way for his daughter’s future career in the entertainment industry.
“It didn’t take too much changing, it was just adding it into there, and it made the story that much stronger,” Di Maria said.
When pitching the project for the course, students were asked to provide their title for the documentary, along with pictures, the premise of the story, and why they were specifically the right person to tell the story at hand.
When it came time for Di Maria’s pitch, he knew that while the premise of a single father providing a better life for his daughter, who is now following in her father’s footsteps by making the leap into the WWE was strong, he needed to show it was possible to pull it off.
“I made sure to let them know that I have access to all of this stuff, and I had the ability, and all of it was possible,” Di Maria said.
When his pitch was approved by professors, Di Maria had to make sure he had the right team to be able to tell the story how he saw it best.
“I wanted people who were passionate about this topic as well, and who also could do the job good,” Di Maria said.
“It was basically looking at who my options are and choosing. And everybody so far, they've been doing the work, getting stuff done, they’ve been incredible.”
Di Maria’s production team was finalized, with Matthew Sagadore as his cameraman, Kiera Wolfe as producer and Stephanie Johnston on sound. Along with the main squad, Di Maria and his crew have received lots of support to ensure his documentary is as polished as possible.
He said the on-location filming process has so far been efficient and collaborative.
“When we’re doing interviews, at the very end, I’ll look at them and ask if there are any questions you think I should add, or do you have any questions for the subject?” Di Maria asked. “It’s been a great process, I love the crew I have, and I’m so happy I got the one I did.”
Then came aligning the pieces of the documentary together, which Di Maria said was rather easy for him to accomplish.
“Carelli is a personal family friend and he coached me,” Di Maria said. “So, I told him this was the story I wanted to tell, this is what I wanted to do. I texted and called him and he said, ‘You just tell me what you wanna do when we’re doing it, and I will make it work.’”
Di Maria then said his connection with Carelli allowed him to get more wrestlers as a part of this project, such as Damien Sandow, Chris Masters and Beth Phoenix.
“Getting access to Carelli’s house, gym, other people, that was the easy part,” Di Maria said.
For Di Maria, Rise of the Cobra is his dream project, something that as a lifelong fan of wrestling and Carelli, was what he wanted to always do.
When asked about his future with documentaries and professional wrestling, Di Maria said that he’s hopeful for more projects similar to this one, along with future work within the wrestling industry at large.
“If I can get my name and face seen and get my foot in the door, then I’m willing to do that and make this,” Di Maria said.
“I’d love to do a bunch of more documentaries on wrestling and just that world around it, and it’s all about when that opportunity comes, and I’m going to try and make those opportunities come, and when that time presents itself, I’m going to try and take it.”
As of now, Di Maria is continuing his work on Rise of the Cobra and continues to navigate his way through a potential future in the pro wrestling business.
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