So, I started watching in 1990, and it seemed like Tito had pretty much descended into JTTS hell by that point. As I learned more about the history, I became aware of the two IC reigns and the tag run with Martel, but even then, he lost on every Wrestlemania I rented...and yes, I never got around to watching the first one. My question is: what exactly happened that Tito wound up falling so far down the card? Do you think it would have gone the same way if Tom Zenk hadn't screwed up whatever it was that he screwed up? Or was he a bigger star than someone who only watched Wrestlemania from that era would have figured, with a bunch of TV and house show wins and such? All I really saw were his JTTS years and the one-sided feud with Rick Martel.
That’s just how the business used to work. You got your run at the top (or as near the top as you were gonna get underneath Hogan and Savage) and then you dropped down and put guys over while someone new took over your spot. Besides, Tito was bulletproof anyway, a guy who they could stick in just about any position on the card and fans would buy into his comebacks and accept him in the role. Need someone to work a long match with a top guy on a house show? Tito Santana! Need a tag partner when someone flakes out and leaves? Tito Santana! Want to do a miracle jobber angle against the tag champs for fun? Tito Santana! I would bet you money that if they had stuck Tito into a World title match against Randy Savage leading up to Wrestlemania V, they would have torn down the house in a 20 minute match and had everyone in the building thinking that Tito might just win the belt.
Tito was good people. He knew exactly what his role was and played it to perfection.
Tito was awesome, always put on good matches, and the people loved him. Add in Ventura's "Chico Santana" commentary and Heenan's arrray of one-liners about Mexican stereotypes, and every Tito match was fun on Saturday and Sunday mornings as a kid.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Tito ever got pissed because Hulk Hogan went to make movies and only returned for the main events at PPV's?
ReplyDeleteSomething to think about: If you wanted to compare "then" to "now", Santana would be Chris Jericho.
ReplyDeleteAs was said, back then you had the upper echelon of Hogan/Savage and those two tended (especially as the 80's wore on) to drag every hot property in the company their way.
But Tito was always immune to that. He'd see those guys on the way up and then get his heat back on the way down. In the interim, he got to babysit the guys who had little else to do.
That's pretty much Chris Jericho, except they've learned to move HIM up and down the card as the need fits. Right now he's feuding for the WWE championship, after that he'll take a trip down the card a bit and either help put someone over or make them useful.It's a tiny adjustment in philosophy that should be expanded to include everyone.
I'm sure he was pissed. But there was no Twitter back then so he just wrote it on the wall of a public washroom.
ReplyDeleteAnd then Little Beaver chimed in with his opinion even though no one gives a fuck what he thinks about ANYTHING.
During the recent angle with Big Show, all I could think was: "At least the guy's got a better Wrestlemania record than Tito Santana". Poor guy never got the chance to end his seven-WM losing streak (eight, if you count his dark match with Papa Shango at WM 9).
ReplyDeleteCome on, WWE, let's bring back Tito Santana to get his "Wrestlemania moment" in 2013.
Watching old WWF matches, its apparent that Tito Santana and Greg Valentine (Tito's heel counterpart) were the MVP's during that era. No matter who they put against them they always have a good match. Not everyone can be or should be a main eventer but there's nothing wrong with having a career like Santana's. My fear is that a lot of today's young stars won't even get up to Santana's level. These days the WWE is full of either Koko B. Ware's and Paul Roma's or Hulk Hogan's and Randy Savage's with few people in between.
ReplyDeleteMr. Dependable, kind of what Dolph Ziggler is becoming.
ReplyDeleteThere are certain guys, like Arn Anderson & Rickey Steamboat, who I find to be the epitome of the term PROFESSIONAL wrestler. And Santana is definitely that too. He was actually my favourite back in the 80s, and I'm glad whenever Tito gets his deserved props these days.
ReplyDeleteAnd risk infuriating an entire WWE locker room as a result of him taking a precious WM spot?! Are you mad, sir?!
ReplyDeleteIf the Rock causes a stir, can you imagine the uproar Tito Santana will cause?
I always liked Tito even though he wore those Strike Force tights for way too long. He also is one of the few wrestlers who is a feel-good story in how he never did anything scandalous or detrimental to the business.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading an interview with Tito where he mentioned that when Flair was to drop the title, the two candidates were him (apparently to capitalize on the Hispanic audience the way Pedro Morales did) and Bret Hart. I find that hard to believe considering Tito was El Matador at the time and hadn't won an important match in a LONG time back in 1992.
Who from that era doesn't have an "I was almost The Man" story?
ReplyDeleteHis rematch with Perfect for the IC title in 1990 is an absolute belter
ReplyDeleteTito was so solid as a worker, but never got a world title run because the champs were pretty much set in stone then. If he had come along 20 years later and had the same career, he would have been given at least a couple runs.
ReplyDeleteAgree with your rant on Tito, I love the guy too and it's a shame WWE doesn't build up these sort of hard working veteran guys whose only role is to have good matches and give some of the new guys someone to learn from.
ReplyDeleteIt seems when WWE does have one of these guys (Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan before he won the world title) that they turn them into total jobbers so fans can't take them seriously.
Tito beat Shango @ WM 9.
ReplyDeleteTito 20 years later would have had the Eddie Guerrero spot. They would have made him the top guy on SD! and gave him the World Title every time the show got remotely close to the border.
ReplyDeleteTito counterparts in 2012: maybe Kofi Kingston? (he is never winning the big titles, but one could easily imaging him taking a current champion to his limit and have a few "are they really doing this?!?"-nearfalls.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine the pure, overwhelming wholesomeness of a Tito Santana and Ricky Steamboat tag team from the late '80s? Like, had Steamboat stayed after losing the I-C Title and teamed with Santana instead of Martel. I think that would've really awesome, actually.
ReplyDeleteTito and Greg really did mirror each other virtually the whole way didn't they? Never noticed that before...
ReplyDeleteTito (and Valentine, as others have noted) was fantastic, and a great company man. He was in that PERFECT zone, like Scott said, where he could fit in anywhere. My best friend borrowed many of my PPV Collection DVDs, and actually pointed out how great Tito was in the ring- he openly wondered why Tito was never as big as Steamboat or Flair because he seemed near-equal to them.
ReplyDeleteI think he, like Valentine, was almost TOO good, while also lacking a bit of charisma necessary to take it to the next level. They were so good in the ring that they could carry anyone and make them look good... and so that's all they did. Why give Tito a push by himself when you can give TWENTY other guys pushes just by wrestling him? I know Jake Roberts said something along those lines about mid-tier guys with average looks who were a little TOO smooth and effective out there.
People also forget that Tito was a big IC-level star in his day. He just reached his peak and then was put into Tag Teams the way other peaked stars did (Iron Sheik/Volkoff, Yoko/Owen, Money Inc, Natural Disasters), in order to spread the goodness out. I think the fact that they used him as a JTTS for YEARS (whereas most guys like Freddie Joe Flloyd, etc., were turfed out quickly) is also a testament. Dude got a steady paycheck (rather than a push), for over ten years, so he's probably not quite so bitter. I know he's sometimes in the "I shoulda been pushed more" camp, but that's pretty normal, and in his case, is probably quite true.
Flair has said the same thing as well about Hart & Santana.
ReplyDeleteThe one on the SNME DVD set? Yes it does...I was watching it with a buddy who didn't start watching until 1998 or so, and he thought Santana was going to turn heel after the match. I can see why he'd think that, but that just shows just how much things have changed since then!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Tito Santana is one of my favorite wrestlers for all these very reasons. If only he had been born ten years prior, he would have been huge and everything that Pedro Morales was and more for the WWWF could have been his, he had all the tools needed to be a huge babyface superstar for the rising Latino wrestling audience in the United States at the time. But Hogan came along and well, that was that, everything else was second-tier to Hogan as the number one babyface, Too bad, Tito could have totally been a great drawing WWF champion, all of his IC title reigns in the early 80s used to sell out houses in Boston and New York no sweat, and that's not even getting into the quality of all the matches Tito had with the likes of Greg Valentin,, Cowboy Bob Orton, and Don Muraco. Later on he still hung around and rocked the house show circuit with great feuds against the likes of Randy Savage, Ron Bass and Jake Roberts in the late 80s. Man I could talk all day long about all the awesome matches and feuds Tito worked, suffice to say I'm a fan and any wrestling fan who wants to know his old school stuff needs to be well versed in Tito's many feuds and matches in the golden era.
ReplyDeleteJericho even wore what looked like an El Matador jacket last week on Raw.
ReplyDeleteKofi is the modern Jimmy Snuka, IMO. The "special attraction" crazy high flyer who never really has any focus or direction beyond popping a crowd.
ReplyDeleteThe best part is that Tito got out of wrestling and is now a teacher in Roxbury NJ. My kids had the privilege having him as a teacher. All too often we hear about the negatives, so I thought I would share a positive story.
ReplyDelete