Mainstream Newspaper Interviews WWE Hall of Famer Tito Santana

Source: phillyBurbs.com
Tito Santana is a former WWF Intercontinental champion at a time when being I-C champ meant being the number-two guy. Tito Santana wasn’t an I-C champ at just any time. Tito Santana was I-C champ at the right time. Tito Santana was a big reason for the explosion of pro wrestling in popular culture in 1985.
Before he opened up the show at the first WrestleMania, Tito was wrestling all over the world. As one of the biggest Latino stars in the business, Tito wrestled and headlined for several territories and promotions throughout his career. Although Tito rocked the house at Madison Square Garden years earlier, Tito is most remembered for his successful return to the WWF in 1983.
There isn’t a wrestling fan from that time period that doesn’t remember any of the Tito Santana-Greg Valentine classics. Their feud has taken on a life of its own and is honored regularly over the last decade. Beyond his feud with Greg Valentine, Tito had a storied career. Tito’s career never quite reached world championship level. Yet if the measure of success in wrestling is drawing money, Tito Santana was a success.
Tito Santana’s career was recognized by the WWE in 2005. Former foe, Shawn Michaels inducted Tito into the WWE Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame was hardly the sendoff that Tito received from the WWE a decade earlier. Finally, Tito Santana was shown some much deserved appreciation for what he had done for the WWE and sports entertainment.
For the majority of his career, Tito never wore the glitzy robes, came out to the ring to blasting music, or made a career of an entrance. Tito was a workhorse. Tito in black trunks and black boots pioneered some of what would become today’s high flying style of pro wrestling. Like his career, Tito walked away from pro wrestling the same way that he had went about his wrestling. Tito quietly rode off into the sunset in 1993.
Tito has come out of the shadows and recently released his autobiography, “Tito Santana – Tales From The Ring.” A complete book review on phillyBurbs.com can be read here. Tito recently joined me on my radio show, “Pro Wrestling Radio” for a no-holds barred interview. Some of the questions in the interview came from callers during the show. Like a chop from Greg Valentine, Tito backed down from no questions. Enjoy my conversation with one of the all-time wrestling greats, Tito Santana. Arriba!
Due to the length of the interview I have broken up the interview into two parts. Check back tomorrow for the conclusion of my conversation with WWE Hall of Fame inductee Tito Santana.
Eric Gargiulo: Congratulations on the book. I absolutely love it.
Tito Santana: I’ve had quite a few fans that have read the book that have, you know they learned a lot about me, my life, and I’ve had some people that have actually told me that tears have come down their face which is nice to hear that. They really enjoyed the book. According to you, you really enjoyed it also and thank you very much.
Eric: What do you think when you get to watch back your old promos and interviews on tape and DVD today?
Tito: It brings back memories you know, just like it happened yesterday. My feud with Greg “The Hammer’ Valentine, it was that feud that probably made me or the feud that made Tito Santana. It was the longest feud in the history of the WWF according to Howard Finkel. So I mean for us to go out there and have all kinds of different matches and the houses would never drop, we kept selling out everywhere we went and that was a great, great feeling.
Eric: What was it about Greg and the chemistry that you two had that made the feud so successful?
Tito: I think day in and day out every time we went into the ring we gave them a different match, we gave them a fight, and the people really believed what they saw because after a match I would always go up to him and say, “I’ve been in easier street fights than the match that I just had with you.” We had them all. We had one-hour matches, we had no dqs, we had time-limit matches, we had taped fists, lumberjack matches, and the fans were never disappointed. Every time we stepped into the ring they knew that they were going to see a fight and they believed what they saw.
Eric: In your book you write about the incident on the plane where Mad Dog Vachon opened a door on the plane while it was in the air. Can you talk more about that?
Tito: Yeah we were in the AWA, we’d wrestle, then we’d have some beers on the plane, we’d play cards on the way home and I heard that Mad Dog Vachon would get drunk and go a little crazy and, it shocked the heck out of me.
Eric: I would be scared to death if someone opened up the plane door in mid-flight?
Tito: Luckily the pilots, both were pilots were Northwest Airlines and they had both flown in Vietnam, I got to know the pilots, and we had two pilots always on the plane or most of the time. I felt very safe whenever they were out there in the front.
Eric: Coming from the era of pro wrestling that you came from, was it hard to break write about some things in the book that you may not have talked about 20-years ago?
Tito: Not really, I wanted to be as honest as I possibly could. I got a compliment from one of the guys, I’ve never read any of the other wrestler’s books, I’ve started to and he agreed with me, my book is different. I don’t have any animosity towards the McMahons or very many of the promoters, or any of the other wrestlers. The only guy I have any animosity towards over is Ole Anderson. I try to think back and I tried to be as honest as I possibly could and share the insides of the wrestlers, what I went through pretty much every wrestler went through. Some guys had it a lot easier than others. For example, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, they were always on top, in a lot of cases I would have to say that they were the franchise of wherever they were at. Other than them two, we all had to deal with different promoters in different ways, and all had our different problems, and Ole Anderson was like a demon to me.
Eric: I have heard you talk about Ole in other interviews. It was interesting to see you go more in depth than you ever did before about your struggles with Ole.
Tito: Yeah, those were true life experiences. I had just bought a condominium in Atlanta, my wife had just delivered a baby, he knew, and as soon as I bought the condominium he started treating me like crap. He could care less. He got rid of my guaranteed money that Jim Barnett had promised me before I went there and now he is trying to get rid of me, sending me to Louisiana working an angle with Bill Watts. There was nothing that I could really do. They had me. I’m so grateful for Vince Sr. When all of this was going on, I would keep in touch with Vince and let him know what was going on, and when I got the phone call to call him the following morning, when he told me, “Tito, it’s time for you to come home,” I mean that was God sent. I told him, “That’s all I needed to hear. You don’t even have to make me any promises. I’m there.”
Eric: Something that struck me in your book was the fondness you had for Vince McMahon Sr. It seemed like Vince was just as much of a mentor to you as he was your boss.
Tito: Yes he was, you know my experiences with Vince. He never made me any promises, all he did was give me an opportunity. A lot of the other wrestlers that I would hear, Vince would tell you if he was going to do something than he would give his left arm in order to keep his word. He never burnt anybody. I came in, the first time that I came into New York it was 1979, I was just three years in the business. Here is somebody that was a nobody and he treated me like I was one of the top guys from day one. You know, even though I was just climbing the ladder.
Caller: What do you think of Eddie Guerrero’s run as world champion? They kind of portrayed him as the first Latino champion but I know that Pedro Morales won the title before him.
Tito: It was nice to see somebody get a chance at a title match, I think and nothing against Eddie Guerrero, but I think that it’s a big difference between when Eddie Guerrero was the champion and when Pedro Morales was the champion. When Pedro Morales was the champion somebody the size of Eddie would never even be considered to get a title shot. It was a different era. I thought Eddie Guerrero was a great champion. It was very, very hard for me when I learned that he passed. He fell into the same trap that a lot of the other wrestlers fell into. Eddie’s problems were early in his career, I think he had finally straightened up his life, but a lot of damage had been done to his insides and it was sad. As far as working, Eddie was a small guy and he was as good as it got.
Eric: You actually tell a great story about Eddie Guerrero and the appreciation he had for you in your book.
Tito: Yeah, I mean I’ll never forget when I got inducted into the Hall of Fame because I knew Chavo Guerrero, but I very vaguely knew Eddie Guerrero. I was in the dressing room with my mom, and my brother, and my sisters, they came in for when I got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He hugged me and he thanked me and he said, “Tito, you opened up a lot of doors for Hispanics, you were true class.” God, it made me feel good. I know that Eddie was a very religious person at the end, and to hear that from the world champion at the time was a real honor to me.
Caller: Why didn’t Vince Sr. put the title on either you or Don Muraco?
Tito: As far as me getting a shot, back in the 80s and early 90s good guys didn’t go up against good guys. I believe that I could have carried the world title because I know that I was a better worker than Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan was a little bigger than I was and he had a lot of charisma, and I was very grateful to be in his cards, but either I or Don Muraco. You know, Don Muraco when I came in and he was the Intercontinental champion, when I beat him, God the people in Boston exploded. Don Muraco was a great worker, and a great talker, and he would have been a great world champion too.
Caller: Why do you think that the NWA never had a Latino world champion?
Eric: The south pretty much answers your question why there wasn’t a Latino champion or a black champion in the south. I had to battle with a little bit of racism in the past, and I think that they thought that a minority would draw in the south, and I thought they were totally wrong.
Caller: Who was tougher to wrestle? Don Muraco or Greg Valentine?
Tito: Greg Valentine. Greg Valentine was like a pit bull, you couldn’t rest. With Don Muraco you had periods in the match where even if you went in a long match, there were periods where you could rest. Greg Valentine would just keep coming, you knock him down and he’d keep coming after you. Greg Valentine would lay in the punches, and the forearms, and the chops, a lot harder than Don Muraco. You were in a fight with Greg Valentine, you knew it. My body was always black and blue. Of course, I would retaliate, I’d lay them in, and he didn’t mind. I used to think and I hate to say this, that Greg is the type of guy that would tell his girlfriends to beat him up. He loved pain. I wrestled him every night for a year and a half. You knew you were going to take a beating.
Eric: Tito, you brought up a very interesting story in your book. In your book, you recall having a conversation with Pat Patterson in which he told you that you were very close to becoming world champion.
Tito: Yes. There was a period in the WWF when I think when they were discussing making me El Matador, they were thinking about going into South America and Mexico. I think at that time they were considering putting the title on me. I remember like it happened yesterday. I believe we were in Toronto when Pat Patterson came up to me and said, “Tito we had just been in a meeting, it was a very hard decision, and we decided to go with Bret Hart, to put the belt on him instead of you. You two guys were up for it.” I just remember that it tore right into me. I wish I would have never known. I don’t know if he was sincere and honest or just blowing my horn, I just wish that I had never heard that.
Eric: You also talk about coming back to the WWE right in the middle of negotiating with Bill Watts between Ole Anderson. You talk about being brought back to replace Jimmy Snuka when he had some problems. How different do you think your career would have turned out if Jimmy Snuka never got into trouble, and you wound up going to work for Bill Watts rather than returning to the WWF?
Tito: God I don’t even want to think about it. If I would have known that Bill Watts was really sincere, because he told me that I was a very good worker and I just needed a little bit of polishing to become a full-time main eventer throughout the country, I would have been more than happy to have gone and worked for him. At the time I really didn’t have much of a choice. It was either Bill Watts or thank God that New York came through for me. I have no idea what would have happened. In our sport, I mean you saw it all the time, injuries or problems got other wrestler’s breaks. The only thing that the promoters are interested is drawing big crowds. If you weren’t the guy, they overlooked a bunch of things but eventually they would put somebody in that spot. Again, I would hate to think about how my career would have gone. I think the fact that I had already been in New York and that I had already become the tag team champion, I think that I was in the plans for Vince McMahon Sr. to bring me in. I know when I left he told me, “You need to get a little more experience and then we’ll bring you back, and we’re going to make you a star.” So I think that regardless I was going to get a break in the WWF, I think it was just going to take a little bit longer if things didn’t happen the way that they did.
Caller: Tito you mentioned Don Muraco earlier. A lot of Philadelphia area fans remember that you defeated Muraco for the Eastern Championship Wrestling title, but then they stripped you of the belt. What happened?
Tito: When I went to wrestle for ECW they had a big tournament for the ECW championship, I think I ended up wrestling five times before I won the title. Paul E. Dangerously was the booker and the promoter at the time with a partner and, I never really cared too much for him and I don’t think he really cared too much for me, and when I got done and figured out who was running the show, I really never intended to go back to defend the title.
Caller: Why do you think so many football players from West Texas State went into pro wrestling?
Tito: I believe that the roots to all of the wrestlers there was Terry Funk. Terry Funk, the Funk family, Terry’s father owned Amarillo Championship Wrestling, and Terry Funk played football for West Texas State, and you know he’d go and meet a lot of the wrestlers. He played with the likes of Bobby Duncam, Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, and you could just go down the line. There were some great stars that came out of there but I believe it was due to Terry Funk.
Order Tito Santana’s Tales From The Ring by clicking here.
The author of pro wrestling’s most controversial book “Ring of Hell…The Rise and Fall of Chris Benoit,” Matthew Randazzo will be my special guest on Pro Wrestling Radio this Saturday @ 12:05 PM/EST for one full hour. Matthew will talk about the book, Chris Benoit, and more. Check out my website http://www.prowrestlingradio.com for more information.
Eric Gargiulo writes about pro wrestling, MMA and more in his blog, The Camel Clutch. He can be reached by e-mail at egargiulo@phillyburbs.com. Eric’s “Pro Wrestling Radio” airs on WBCB 1490 AM every Saturday from 12:05-1PM/EST and can be heard live online at http://www.wbcb1490.com/. Check out Eric’s website, http://www.prowrestlingradio.com for more information, downloads, classic shows, a forum, and more.
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