Tito Santana
| Merced Solis | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Tito Santana El Matador Richard Blood |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) |
| Billed weight | 234 lb (106 kg) |
| Born | May 10 1953 Mission, Texas |
| Resides | Roxbury Township, New Jersey |
| Billed from | Toluca, Edomex |
| Debut | 1976 |
| Retired | 1996 |
Merced Solis (born May 10, 1953) better known by his ring name Tito Santana, is a semi-retired Mexican American professional wrestler whose career spanned from the late 70s to the early 90s. Despite his Mexican heritage, he rarely competed in Lucha libre promotions, being more accustomed to the American style of professional wrestling. He attended high school in Mission, Texas and college at West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M University). Before entering the world of professional wrestling he competed for one year in the Canadian Football League (CFL).
Career
Early career
He worked briefly in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and the American Wrestling Association (AWA), but gained his fame by wrestling in the World Wrestling Federation.
1984
In 1984, he feuded with the Magnificent Don Muraco for the Intercontinental Championship, which he won on February 11 (becoming the first-ever Mexican-American wrestler to have won the WWF Intercontinental Championship). He then entered into a feud over the Intercontinental Championship with Greg Valentine. Valentine captured it from Santana in September, 1984 in London, Ontario.
1985-1986
Tito returned at WrestleMania, and in the opening match defeated a masked wrestler known as The Executioner. Tito and Greg Valentine would go on to wrestle a memorable series of singles and tag team matches with neither gaining the upper hand. They would wrestle in a variety of different type of matches such as regular title matches, No Disqualification matches, and Lumberjack matches.
In July of 1985, Tito Santana regained the Intercontinental Title in a steel cage match in Baltimore. 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 repeately 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 7 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 would lead to a series of rematches where Savage would intentionally get 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.
1987-1988
In late 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 it until WrestleMania IV (March 1988) where they lost it to Demolition (Ax & Smash).
1989
Due to a neck injury suffered by Martel shortly after WrestleMania, the team was inactive until WrestleMania V in 1989. In a match against the Brain Busters (Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson), Martel turned on Tito during the match, leaving Tito to face both opponents alone.
1990-1993
Santana remained a singles wrestler and feuded with Martel for a time. After the Ultimate Warrior won the WWF Championship from Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VI (effectively vacating the Intercontinental Title) Santana took part in the tournament to name a new Intercontinental Champion. Santana made it to the finals, where he lost to Mr. Perfect. In an attempt to keep his career going, he later adopted a Spanish bullfighter gimmick and the nickname "El Matador" in 1992, which he wrestled under until leaving in 1993. He also faced Shawn Michaels in the opening bout of WrestleMania VIII at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana. One of his final appearances on WWF programming was against Virgil on Wrestling Challenge which he won, following which the two embraced.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1993)
He won the ECW Championship in August 1993 by defeating Don Muraco but forfeited the championship later that year to Shane Douglas.
American Wrestling Federation (1995)
Tito's favorite finisher was the "The Flying Forearm Smash." The move was referred to as "The Mexican Hammer" while he was partnered with Ivan Putski (Putski's finisher was "The Polish Hammer"). It was later called "The Flying Jalapeno" by WWF color man Bobby Heenan (who, at times, also referred to the maneuver as "Extra Hot Paste Picante" and "El Salsa de So-So"), and later referred to mockingly by Jesse Ventura as "The Flying Burrito" (Ventura would also deliberately mispronounce Santana's name as 'Chico'). By the time Santana wrestled in the AWF, commentators appropriately referred to it as "The Flying Burrito" or simply "The Burrito."
As "El Matador" he added a variation of his forearm smash called "El Paso de la Muerte" (translated to English: "The Pass of Death", in reference to the killing blow of a bullfight). He would raise his arms as if holding a pair of banderillas (barbed sticks used to weaken a bull during a fight) and jab his hands into the opponents' shoulders. Tito would then bounce off the ropes and deliver a flying forearm to the back of his opponent's head.
In 1998, Tito also served as Spanish commentator alongside Carlos Cabrera and Hugo Savinovich at WrestleMania XIV in Boston.
Personal life
Solis 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. He owns Santana's Hair Salon in Succasunna.
WWE Hall of Fame
In 2004, Tito Santana was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame although he still makes occasional appearances for independent wrestling promotions.
Finishing and signature moves
- Mexican Hammer / Flying Jalapeño / Flying Burrito (Flying forearm)
- Figure four leglock
- El Paso Del Muerte (Flying forearm to back of bent-over opponent's head)
- Second-Turnbuckle Flying clothesline
- Close-Range Lariat
- Running Crossbody
- Repeated Dropkicks
- Big Boot
Championships and accomplishments
- NWA Western States Sports
- NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ted DiBiase
- Northern States Wrestling Alliance
- NSWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Renegade Wrestling Alliance
- RWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- USA Pro Wrestling
- USA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1979 – with Ivan Putski
- 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.
- PWI ranked him # 92 of the 100 best tag teams during the PWI Years with Ivan Putski in 2003.
- Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame
- (Class of 2007)
- 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)
1Title win and reign aren't officially recognized by World Wrestling Entertainment.
External links
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