By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

With Santino Marella, it's often difficult to tell where the Santino character ends and the real Santino picks up in interviews off TV and away from an audience. With that in mind, Santino was interviewed by the Evening Chronicle in the U.K. to promote WWE's current European tour.

Santino says he has a special relationship with British fans because they appreciate his theatrics to the fullest.

"They appreciate the combination of comedy and athleticism, theatrics, body language, and also the classic wrestling," he said. "In other countries, the kids just want to see some moves or they want to see the good guys. Some places are violent, they want to see blood and they want to see beatings."

The "beatings" are part of being a wrestler, Santino says, but it takes complete dedication to understanding the mental and physical aspects of pro wrestling.

"First of all it requires discipline. Anyone can go have a match, but not everyone will be prepared to have a match," he said. "You have to train, start exercising every single day. And it's not just your body – you have to learn wrestling in your mind. You have to know what to do and you have to develop your skills mentally as well as having your body conditioned."

After that, it's being able to handle life on the road. "Then, when you have learned all that, you have to leave your family and go on the road," he said. "It means you are by yourself and have to spend hours and hours on the road driving to the next show. After that, it's off to the next show. Wrestling is a never-ending circuit."

Santino says his daily ritual is to fly into the town where they're having a show, find a gym on the GPS with the rental car, get in a work-out, get a tan and a massage, then arrive at the arena. He says the training is essential for keeping the belly fat off. "I like to train constantly because I'm getting a little bit older so if I don't it's very easy for me to get a little belly," he said.

And at the end of the day, he hopes to keep the Intercontinental Title to break Honky Tonk Man's record. "I want to beat the current record of 64 weeks and then I will be in the record books as the greatest intercontinental champion of all time," he said. "I love the way that sounds!"

Caldwell's Analysis: I can't read a Santino interview without hearing his accent in my head, so some of the lines are quite humorous, especially the line about preventing a belly. One thing about Santino that has been consistent in his interviews since becoming a TV star is that he is still focused on training hard despite the fact that his matches never last more than a few minutes on TV.

That's part of his judo background of being prepared, so whenever his character evolves into a more serious fighter (if that ever happens), he'll be able to make a transition based on years of training and preparation prior to ever setting foot in a WWE ring.

FYI: Santino will defend the Intercontinental Title against William Regal at Monday's Raw in Manchester, U.K. We are looking for live reports from WWE's U.K. tour, especially the TV tapings on Monday and Tuesday in Manchester for Raw and Smackdown, respectively.

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