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Merced Solis is just one of many
wrestlers who made the jump from professional football to
professional wrestling. He played tight end at West
Texas State University along with quarterback Tully Blanchard
before moving on to the National Football League where he was
signed as a free agent for the Kansas City Chiefs before being
cut. After playing two seasons in the Canadian Football
League, Santana trained with the Funk Brothers before debuting
in the ring in 1977.
Early on in his career, Merced wrestled in the
American Wrestling Association (AWA) and the National
Wrestling Alliance. On October 22,
1979, Santana teamed with Ivan Putski to win the World
Wrestling Federation (WWF) Tag Team Championship from Johnny
Valiant and Jerry Valiant. The duo would
hold the belts before losing them to the Wild Samoans on April
12, 1980.
Santana returned to the AWA where he
challenged AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel. He also
wrestled briefly in Georgia before returning to the WWF in
1983 during the beginning of the Rock-n-Wrestling Era.
Santana challenged the Iron Sheik for the WWF
Heavyweight Champion unsuccessfully. After Hulk Hogan
won the WWF Championship, Santana's WWF Heavyweight
Championship aspirations were over as the WWF did not book
face vs. face matches as a rule. Santana then turned his
attention to Don Muraco's Intercontinental Heavyweight
Championship. On February 11, 1984 Santana won his first
WWF singles belt by defeating Muraco for the title.
On September
24, 1984, Santana defended his belt against Greg "The Hammer"
Valentine in London, Ontario. Before the
match began, Valentine's manager Captain Louis Albano
distracted Santana, allowing Valentine to sneak attack Santana
and injure his knee. Valentine capitalized on the injury
and won the match using his much feared figure four
leglock. Valentine kept the hold on after he won the
match (and the title), causing additional injury to
Santana. Santana was hospitalized and required knee
surgery to repair the damage done by Valentine.
After his return from
surgery, Santana faced the Executioner at Wrestlemania I. He soon worked
his way back into title contention where he chased Valentine
for the Intercontinental Title. Valentine and Santana
battled for months over the belt but the title always eluded
Santana. That was until July 6, 1985 when Santana
defeated Valentine in a steel cage match and regained the
Intercontinental Title. After the match, a frustrated
Valentine destroyed the title belt, leading to a new belt
being made.
As before, Santana was a
fighting champion, taking on all comers. On February 8,
1986, Santana faced challenger Randy "Macho Man" Savage in a
heated match. Santana had things going his way when he
suplexed Savage into the ring. However as he did, Savage
blasted Santana with a foreign object, allowing him to get the
pinfall and the Intercontinental Title.
After dropping the title,
Santana continued to stay in the spotlight as one of the top
faces of the Rock and Wrestling Era. At Wrestlemania II,
Santana teamed with the Junkyard Dog to battle Terry and Dory
"Hoss" Funk Jr. Although they lost the match, the match
was one of the highlights of the three city
Wrestlemania.
Santana more and more
frequently began wrestling in tag team action at this
point in his career. At Wrestlemania III, he teamed with
the British Bulldogs to battle the Hart Foundation and Danny
Davis. After Rick Martel's tag team partner Tom Zenk
abandoned him, Santana teamed with Martel to form Strike
Force. Championship glory returned to Santana when Strike
Force defeated the Hart Foundation on October 27, 1987 to win
the WWF Tag Team Championship. Strike Force defended the
belts successfully until falling to Demolition at Wrestlemania
IV. After the match, Demolition injured Martel and
Santana returned to singles competition.
After Martel recovered from
his injuries, Strike Force reformed and they challenged the
Brainbusters at Wrestlemania V. However all was not well
with Strike Force and during the match, Martel walked out on
Santana. Afterwards, Martel turned heel and began
wrestling as "The Model" Rick Martel, feuding with
Santana.
Santana continued to
wrestle in the WWF for several years but his greatest days
were behind him. In Ocober 1991, Santana tried to
jumpstart his career by adopting the persona of "El Matador"
but championship gold eluded him. In August 1992,
Santana competed in Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) where
he defeated Don Muraco for the ECW Heavyweight
Championship. After failing to appear for a title
defense against Shane Douglas, Santana lost the belt by
forfeit. Santana returned to the WWF for a brief stay
before embarking on a run in the American Wrestling Federation
(AWF) where he won the AWF World Title. Santana wrestled
in the independent circuit before starting a career as a
Spanish language announcer for the WWF in 1997. In
January 2000, Santana surprised fans when he appeared on World
Championship Wrestling's (WCW) Monday Night Nitro to defeat
Jeff Jarrett.
In 2004, Tito Santana was inducted into the
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Fame. He
currenly teaches Spanish at a middle school in New Jersey and
owns a hair salon. | 
