Merced Solis (born May 10,
1953) better known by his ring name
Tito Santana, is an American
professional wrestler whose heyday
spanned from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, though he continues
to appear on the independent
circuit. He is best known from his time in the
World Wrestling Federation.
Competing almost exclusively in the WWF from 1979 to 1993, Solis
helped bridge the gap between the 1980s "
Rock 'n
Wrestling Connection" era to the 1990s "
New Generation"
era.
Career
Collegiate and Professional Football
Solis
played tight end for West Texas A&M University
. The team was quarterbacked by future
professional wrestler
Tully
Blanchard. After graduation, Solis was cut by the
Kansas City Chiefs during training camp.
He played one season for the
BC Lions of
the
Canadian Football
League, appearing in 13 regular-season games.
Early career
He worked briefly in the
National Wrestling Alliance
(NWA) and the
American
Wrestling Association (AWA) beginning in 1976 until he joined
the
World Wrestling
Federation in 1979.
World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment
1979–1980
He had his
first taste of WWF success in 1979 when he teamed with Ivan Putski to defeat Johnny Valiant and Jerry Valiant for the WWF Tag Team Championship
at Madison Square
Garden
in October 1979. The duo held the titles for
close to six months before losing to the
Wild Samoans in April 1980.
1983–1986
In 1983, he engaged in a lengthy
feud with Intercontinental
Champion Magnificent
Don Muraco. Santana
finally won the title on
February 11,
1984, becoming the first Mexican American
wrestler to win the
WWF Intercontinental
Championship. He quickly entered into a feud over the
Intercontinental Championship with
Greg
"The Hammer" Valentine.
Valentine captured it from Santana in
September 1984 in London,
Ontario
. Soon after, Valentine injured Santana's
knee and put Santana out of action for several months.
Santana returned at
WrestleMania, and in the opening match
defeated a masked wrestler known as
The
Executioner. Santana and Valentine went on to wrestle a
memorable series of singles and tag team matches with neither
gaining the upper hand. They wrestled in a variety of different
types of matches such as regular title matches,
No
Disqualification matches, and
Lumberjack
matches.
In July 1985, Tito Santana regained the Intercontinental Title in a
steel cage
match in Baltimore, Maryland. When both men tried to escape the
cage, it appeared that the champ would retain his title; Tito went
over the top while Valentine went through the door. However, Tito
was in a position to kick the door closed into "the Hammer" as he
tried to escape; he was able to climb to the floor and win the
match. Valentine proceeded to throw a tantrum and smashed the title
belt repeatedly into the cage, destroying it, which led to the
creation of a new belt design that would remain until 1998.
Santana
held the title for another seven months before losing it to
"Macho Man" Randy Savage in a
hard-fought match at the Boston Garden
. Savage would win the title by hitting
Santana with a foreign object, which led to a series of rematches
where Savage intentionally got himself disqualified in order to
keep the belt. This resulted in a series of no-disqualification
matches where Savage barely managed to escape with a win.
Between 1985 and 1987, Santana would also feud with
Terry Funk,
Dory Funk,
Jr., and
Butch Reed.
1987–1993
In August 1987, Tito Santana formed a tag team with former
AWA World Champion
Rick Martel named
Strike Force.
The team quickly won the Tag Team championship from
The Hart Foundation
(
Bret Hart and
Jim
Neidhart) in October. They successfully defended the titles
until
WrestleMania IV in March 1988
where they lost to
Demolition (
Ax &
Smash).
Due to a neck injury suffered by Martel shortly after WrestleMania,
the team was inactive until the
Royal
Rumble in 1989. In their WrestleMania match against the
Brain Busters (
Tully Blanchard &
Arn Anderson), Martel
turned on Tito during
the match, leaving Tito to face both opponents alone. His feud with
the newly
heel Martel
would last throughout 1989, with both men on opposing teams at both
SummerSlam and
Survivor Series and Santana defeating
Martel in the finals of the
1989 King
of the Ring tournament.
After the
Ultimate Warrior won
the WWF Championship from
Hulk Hogan at
WrestleMania VI and vacated the
Intercontinental Title, Santana took part in an eight-man
tournament to name a new Intercontinental Champion. Santana made it
to the finals, where he lost to
Mr.
Perfect. Following that loss, Santana occasionally teamed with
fellow
undercard fan favorite,
Koko B. Ware.
At the
1990 Survivor Series,
he teamed with
Nikolai Volkoff and
The Bushwhackers; he was the winner
and sole survivor in the elimination-style match against
Sgt. Slaughter,
Boris Zhukov, and
The Orient Express. As a result, Santana
advanced to the final elimination match, teaming with Hulk Hogan
and the Ultimate Warrior against Martel,
Ted
DiBiase,
the Warlord, and
Power and Glory. Santana would
eliminate the Warlord before being pinned by DiBiase.
Santana would then wrestle at
WrestleMania VII, losing to The Mountie in
a little over a minute.
Santana then adopted a Spanish
bullfighter gimmick and the
nickname "El Matador" in 1991.
Under this gimmick, he faced Shawn Michaels in the opening bout of
WrestleMania VIII at the Hoosier Dome
in Indianapolis, Indiana
. Santana claims that at the time he was
being considered for a run with the
WWF
Championship but says that the spot was given to Bret Hart; the
WWF was considering expanding into South and Central America, and
felt that having Santana, its most high profile Latino wrestler, as
champion would aid its cause. The plan was eventually scrapped and
the decision was made to expend into Canada, thus making the
Canadian-born Hart a more viable option as champion. In any case,
Santana wrestled under the "El Matador" gimmick through 1993,
mostly as a
jobber. This included a loss to
Papa Shango at
SummerSlam In his
final in-ring WrestleMania appearance, he defeated
Papa Shango at
WrestleMania IX.
In his final appearance on WWF programming, Santana defeated friend
and frequent tag team partner
Virgil on a 1993 episode of
Wrestling Challenge. As a sign of
mutual respect between the two, both men embraced after the
match.
In 2004, Tito Santana was inducted into the
WWE Hall of Fame.
WrestleMania
Santana, along with only Hulk Hogan, holds the unique distinction
of appearing in the first nine WrestleManias, accumulating a 2-7
record during that time. Officially he is recognized only for the
first eight Wrestlemanias and a 1-7 record as the match against
Papa Shango at WrestleMania IX was
dark.
Eastern Championship Wrestling (1993)
Santana played a role in the formative years of
ECW. Then known as Eastern
Championship Wrestling, he won the
ECW
Heavyweight Championship in August 1993 by defeating former WWE
rival
Don Muraco but forfeited the
championship later that year to
Shane
Douglas.
American Wrestling Federation (1994–1996)
Santana finished his full-time career in the short-lived
American Wrestling Federation.
He was both the first and last AWF Heavyweight Champion, defeating
Bob Orton, Jr. in a tournament final
for the inaugural belt in November 1994, and losing and regaining
the title from Orton on the same night in October 1996.
World Championship Wrestling (2000)
On January 10, 2000, Tito Santana made a one time appearance in
WCW. He defeated
Jeff Jarrett in a Dungeon Match on
WCW Monday Nitro.
Semi-retirement
Tito Santana continues to make appearances on the
independent circuit. On March 13, 2004
he was elected to the
WWE Hall of
Fame, with an induction speech by his WrestleMania VIII
opponent Shawn Michaels. In September 2008 he was inducted into the
Spanish Hall Of Fame of Pro Wrestling (Salón del Catch).
In wrestling
Championships and accomplishments
- Northern States Wrestling Alliance
- NSWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Pro Wrestling
Illustrated
- PWI Tag Team of the
Year award in 1979 – with Ivan Putski.
- PWI ranked him # 51 of the 500 best singles
wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1995.
- PWI ranked him # 93 of the 500 best singles
wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003.
- PWI ranked him # 70 of the 100 best tag teams
during the PWI Years with Rick Martel in
2003.
- Renegade Wrestling Alliance
- RWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- USA Pro Wrestling
- USA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame
- Other titles
- CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- EWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- GWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- IAW Television Championship (1 time)
- NWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- UCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- USA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- UWS Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- HoPWF Tag Team Championship (1 time)
1Tito Santana's reign occurred while the
promotion was an NWA
affliate named Eastern
Championship Wrestling, and was prior to the promotion becoming
Extreme Championship Wrestling and the title being declared a world
title by ECW.
Personal life
While attending West Texas A&M University, Solis was a member
of
Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.
He is now
a Spanish teacher at Eisenhower Middle School in Roxbury
Township, New Jersey
where he lives with his wife Leah and their three
sons Matthew, Michael, and Mark. His wife owns
Santana's Hair Salon in Succasunna
. He also teaches wrestling classes at the
New Jersey-based
Independent Wrestling
Federation. He still wrestles a dozen or so matches per
year.
References
External links
Wikis
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