Merced Solis (born May 10, 1953), better known by the ring name Tito Santana, is an American professional wrestler, trainer, former Canadian football player, and retired school teacher.
Solis has stayed a babyface character his entire career and is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation between 1979 and 1993 (missing part of 1980 and returning in 1983)Tito Santana, shoot interview YouTube video, posted August 4, 2012. where he was a two-time WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion and a two-time WWF Tag Team Champion with Ivan Putski in his first individual reign, and most notably with Rick Martel in his second individual reign. He also won the 1989 King of the Ring tournament and wrestled and won the first WrestleMania match against The Executioner and competed in the first nine, as well as helping bridge the gap between the 1980s "Rock 'n Wrestling Connection" era to the 1990s "New Generation" era.
Solis was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004 and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame class of 2013. During his time in the WWF, Solis, despite being born and raised in Mission, Texas, was billed from "Tocula, Mexico", which may be a misspelled reference to the city of Toluca. To this day, he still appears on the independent circuit and also worked as a schoolteacher until June 2023, when he retired from teaching.
Early life Solis was born in Mission, Texas on May 10, 1953. His paternal grandfather, Matias Cavazos, was a designer of the town's agricultural irrigation system. As a child, Solis and his family would travel annually to Illinois as seasonal farm workers, picking asparagus. He graduated from Mission High School, where he played football and basketball.
Collegiate and professional football career Solis attended West Texas State University, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He played tight end for the West Texas State Buffaloes. The team was quarterbacked by future professional wrestler Tully Blanchard, who would introduce Solis to the world of professional wrestling. After graduating, Solis was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs but cut during training camp, due to a poor performance in the 40-yard dash because of a twisted Achilles tendon two weeks before camp. He played a single season for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League, appearing in 13 regular season games.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1977–1979) After training under Hiro Matsuda and Bob Orton, Solis made his professional wrestling debut on February 23, 1977, for Championship Wrestling from Florida, losing to Crusher Verdu. In April, he joined Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) where he adopted the name "Richard Blood". In January 1978, he moved onto Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling where he wrestled for a calendar year, he also toured with All Japan Pro Wrestling in October and early November 1978 as "Dick Blood". Reverting to his real name, Solis joined Western States Sports in Texas in 1979, winning the NWA Western States Tag Team Championship with Ted DiBiase.
World Wrestling Federation (1979–1980)
Santana joined the World Wrestling Federation defeating Mike Hall in his debut match on Championship Wrestling on April 17, 1979. He teamed with Ivan Putski to defeat Johnny Valiant and Jerry Valiant for the WWF World Tag Team Championships 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. Santana left the WWF soon after, joining New Japan Pro-Wrestling for a two-month tour.
American Wrestling Association (1980–1982) Santana wrestled in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1980 to 1982. Matches he had in the AWA include two matches he had against Nick Bockwinkel in St Paul, Minnesota, on March 1, 1981, and in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on May 13, 1982 (Bockwinkel won both matches by cheating). Santana teamed with future tag team partner Rick Martel against the High Flyers on August 29, 1982, in St Paul. Santana and Martel lost the match.YouTube videos posted, June 2, 2013, December 31, 2013, November 7, 2015, May 7, 2012
Houston Wrestling (1981–1984) Santana returned to Texas where wrestled for Houston Wrestling from 1981 to 1983. He won the Gold Cup Tournament when he defeated Nick Bockwinkel on November 1, 1981. In 1982, Santana feuded with Gino Hernandez. Left Houston after losing a 6-tag team Loser Leaves Town match teaming with Jim Duggan and Junkyard Dog against Butch Reed, Nikolai Volkoff and Barry Darsow.
Georgia Championship Wrestling (1982–1983)
Santana returned to GCW in July 1982. He teamed with Terry Gordy to unsuccessfully challenge The Samoans (Afa and Sika) for the NWA National Tag Team Championship on two occasions. On April 2, 1983, Santana also fought Larry Zbyszko for the NWA National Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort.
Mid-South Wrestling (1983) In 1983, Santana worked for Mid-South Wrestling. He participated in the North American title tournament in March defeating Matt Borne in the first round and lost to Kendo Nagasaki. He feuded with The Super Destroyer.
Return to WWF (1983–1993)
Intercontinental Heavyweight champion (1983–1987) Santana returned to the WWF in 1983, making his televised return on the May 14 episode of Championship Wrestling by defeating José Estrada. Being brought in for TV tapings only, Santana continued to wrestle for GCW until July when he signed for the WWF full time. In 1984, Santana fought the Iron Sheik to a double-disqualification for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at the Philadelphia Spectrum. He then engaged in a lengthy feud with WWF Intercontinental champion, the Magnificent Muraco. Santana finally won the title on February 11, 1984, becoming the first Mexican-American wrestler to win the Intercontinental championship. After successfully defending the title against Muraco, Santana was targeted by Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, and in September 1984 in London, Ontario, Canada, Valentine defeated Santana to win the title. Soon after, Valentine kayfabe injured Santana's knee and put Santana out of action for several months. Santana returned in December 1984 and set his sights on getting the Intercontinental title back from Valentine. During this time, he started using Valentine's finishing hold, the figure-four leglock and also wrestled in tag-team competition with Blackjack Mulligan. Santana wrestled at the first WrestleMania, at Madison Square Garden, in March 1985, and in the opening match defeated a masked wrestler known as The Executioner ("Playboy" Buddy Rose), making him submit to the figure four in 4:05. Santana made an appearance in the ring later in the card during the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship match between Valentine and Santana's friend the Junkyard Dog. Wearing street clothes, Santana rushed to the ring to inform referee Dick Kroll that Valentine had used his feet on the ropes to help pin JYD. Despite having already called for the bell, Kroll restarted the match and an incensed Valentine was counted out as he did not get back into the ring to continue.
On Right After Wrestling, hosted by Arda Ocal and Jimmy Korderas, Santana stated that he was somewhat disappointed with being in the first match at the original WrestleMania in 1985. He also said that Vince McMahon later told Santana that his reason for putting him in the opening match was to kick the show off with a quality match, something he knew Santana, as a solid fan-favorite and former Intercontinental champion, would produce. 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. The pair also faced off in tag team competition with Santana teaming with The Junkyard Dog and Valentine teaming with Brutus Beefcake in a team that would become known as the Dream Team. Santana recaptured the Intercontinental championship from Valentine in a brutal steel cage match in Baltimore on July 6, 1985. After the match, Valentine, incensed over losing the belt, destroyed it by repeatedly bashing it against the steel cage, forcing the WWF to get a new Intercontinental title belt. In reality, however, the WWF had already made a new Intercontinental belt to go along with the new image they were trying to promote; smashing the old belt was seen as a way of moving forward with Santana having the honor of being the first to wear the new title belt. Santana would hold on to the title until February 8, 1986, when he lost it to "Macho Man" Randy Savage at the Boston Garden, after Savage knocked him out with a foreign object he had hidden in his tights that (supposedly) went unnoticed by referee Danny Davis.
Although Santana lost the Intercontinental title before the WWF's storyline that Davis was a corrupt official who favored the heels, the WWF used Santana losing the belt because of Davis' bias to include him in a six-man tag team match at WrestleMania III on March 29, 1987. Santana teamed with The British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith) against the WWF tag team champions The Hart Foundation (Bret "Hitman" Hart and Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart) and their new partner, referee-turned-wrestler Davis, who was now known as "Dangerous" Danny Davis. Davis had also been the assigned referee when the Harts won the WWF Tag Team Championship from the Bulldogs in January 1987, allowing the Harts to double team Davey Boy throughout the entire match after their manager "the Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart had knocked Dynamite out with his megaphone. The story for WrestleMania III was that the Bulldogs and Santana wanted revenge on Davis for him being responsible for them losing their respective titles. The Harts and Davis won the match when Davis used Jimmy Hart's megaphone to 'knock out' and pin Smith. Santana made a second appearance during Wrestlemania III when he came to the ring and attacked manager Slick after his man "the Natural" Butch Reed had defeated Koko B. Ware. Santana, in response to previous attacks by Slick, tore the clothing from Slick who managed to scamper back to the locker room with his suit in tatters. Following this, Reed entered the ring to fight off Santana but was sent from the ring by a double dropkick from Santana and Ware.
Strike Force (1987–1989)
Tom Zenk abruptly left the company in July 1987, thus ending his Can-Am Connection partnership with Rick Martel. In response, Vince McMahon decided to pair Santana with Martel, forming the popular tag team Strike Force in August 1987. After feuding with the Islanders for a couple months, they defeated The Hart Foundation for the WWF Tag Team championship on October 27 when Martel made Jim Neidhart submit to a Boston crab. Strike Force held the titles for five months before losing to Demolition at Wrestlemania IV. Due to a neck injury inflicted on Martel (kayfabe) shortly after the loss, the team was inactive for several months (in reality, Martel was granted leave to tend to his wife who was seriously ill).Santana, Tito (2008).Tito Santana's Tales From The Ring, pp.81–82, Sports Publishing LLC. Immediately after the injury, Santana introduced a new tag team to the WWF, The Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord), two big, muscular, face-painted wrestlers whom he briefly managed. The Powers of Pain were introduced as mercenaries to help Martel and Santana gain revenge on Demolition for both the title loss and the injury to Martel. The Powers of Pain would later find more permanent management with The Baron before finally turning heel at the 1988 Survivor Series by stealing away Demolition's manager Mr. Fuji, leaving champion Demolition as babyfaces.