[MEDIA] Rocky Mountain News 8.14.08 WRESTLING: Teaching has a hold on ex-mat star
Evad Seltzer
WRESTLING: Teaching has a hold on ex-mat star
By Alex Marvez, Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, August 14, 2008
He enjoyed a storied World Wrestling Entertainment career as Tito
Santana.
But to a select group of seventh- and eighth-graders, he is known as
someone else: Senor Solis.
Santana's post-wrestling life has led him to the classroom. An
educator the past 12 years, Santana (real name Merced Solis) is a
Spanish teacher at Eisenhower Middle School in Succasunna, N.J.
"The transition wasn't very hard to make because I knew I had to do
something after I was done wrestling," Santana said last week in a
telephone interview. "I'm lucky I have a degree teaching physical
education and Spanish.
"A lot of guys become their character and have a really hard time when
wrestling starts to end. I see guys like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and
Ric Flair. They have bought into their gimmicks and live them 24 hours
a day. They think they really are stars when those characters are just
creations of the business."
Santana performed alongside all three of those legendary grapplers
during his 13 years in WWE, including a stretch from 1983 to 1993.
Santana defeated the Masked Executioner (Buddy Rose) in the opening
match at Wrestlemania I in 1985 and performed on each of the first
nine Wrestlemanias before leaving the promotion in 1993. Santana was
inducted into WWE's Hall of Fame in 2004.
While he captured the WWE tag-team belts with Rick Martel as Strike
Force, Santana is best remembered for his lengthy feud with Greg
Valentine over the Intercontinental title in the mid-1980s.
Valentine's hard-hitting style brought out the best in Santana, who
knew he would have to work "stiff" in their predetermined bouts or
risk getting legitimately pulverized by his foe, nicknamed "The
Hammer."
"Greg was like a pit bull," Santana recalled. "If you didn't fight
back, he was going to take and take (in the ring). After a couple
months, I was in the best shape of my life because it was kill or be
killed."
Santana's Spanish students - who weren't even born during his WWE days
- can see some of his bouts through the Internet and WWE's 24/7
nostalgia channel. Fawning parents also tell Santana tales to their
children.
"Some kids will come up and say, 'You were my dad's favorite,' or, 'My
mom was in love with you,' " said Santana, 55. "It's funny because I'm
just Senor Solis to them. From time to time, I do talk about some of
my wrestling experiences."
Santana also wrote about them in his new autobiography Tito Santana's
Tales From the Ring ($19.95; Sports Publishing LLC). The son of
Mexican migrant workers, Santana got his break in grappling through
Tully Blanchard, a football teammate at West Texas State University
whose father Joe owned the Southwest Championship Wrestling promotion
in San Antonio.
Santana is appreciative of the fame and fortune he earned through
wrestling. But in his book, Santana writes, "I would not advise my own
worst enemy to become a professional wrestler, let alone my own
children or the children I teach."
Such an attitude stems from so many of Santana's WWE contemporaries
whose out-of-the-ring issues contributed to their premature deaths.
"I'm not knocking (WWE owner) Vince McMahon, but it's just the nature
of the business," Santana said. "I was very lucky that when I was
around the drugs, steroids and pain pills that I was strong enough not
to fall into becoming a follower."
With WWE now placing a heavier emphasis on Hispanic performers,
Santana believes he could have become an even bigger star had he
worked in the promotion during his heyday.
"I think I'd probably be world champion if Rey Mysterio is up there,"
said Santana, referring to the former WWE Smackdown kingpin. "Rey is
only about 5-foot-5. At 6-foot-2, I would be considered a giant."
For more information on Santana, visit titosantanawrestling.com. To
order his autobiography, visit sportspublishingllc.com.
Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro wrestling column for Scripps
Howard News Service.