By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

WWE wrestler Santino says WWE will be filming the first season of the new Santino sitcom this month at Santino's home in Tampa, Fla. with Beth Phoenix playing his girlfriend and Kozlov playing his best friend.

Santino says Kozlov has been slotted in the role to better market his character as WWE tries to turn him babyface on TV.

"I'm definitely friends with Vladimir. And in the developmental territory, we were a tag team. Years ago. Before the WWE," Santino told TV reporters, including IGN, last week. "He's just one of the funniest people I've ever seen in my life. He's becoming a babyface now. That transition's underway and hopefully the show will help that."

Santino said the show won't be a reality show, but more like an actual sitcom with each of the three wrestlers playing roles as if they were TV actors.

Santino also said he already presented a pilot episode to WWE management as he tries to transition away from being considered a wrestler to more of an actor.

"I think the transition will be easy. I'd say I'm more of an actor actually than a wrestler. I did a pilot already. When I presented it to the office, I did a pilot and it was really fun to do," he said. "It's a really natural transition for me."

IGN.com's story also detailed the original report from last week of the sitcom starting out on WWE's website before WWE hopes to pitch the show to network executives while also having an eye on having footage for the future WWE TV channel.

Santino also had some interesting quotes on trying to get other wrestlers to break character on TV when engaged in a talking segment.

"That's actually a personal goal of mine is to make everyone break character on TV by making them laugh," Santino said. "I've had a couple successes so far. Kane was a big one. John Cena was good. I made him laugh in Toronto on camera. I try all the time."

[Santino art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWE NEWS: Superstars SPOILERS - Results from Chicago Raw

WWE NETWORK: Monday, Oct. 12 Schedule - Raw pre-show, Sting DVD preview

WWE NEWS: Lana & Rusev reportedly engaged - follow the interesting 2015 timeline