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Merced Solis (born May 10, 1953) better known by his ring name Tito Santana, was a Mexican-American professional wrestler whose career spanned from the late 70s to the early 90s. Despite his Mexican heritage, he rarely competed in Lucha Libre promotions, being more accustomed to the American style of professional wrestling.
Before Wrestling
CareerHe worked briefly in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and the American Wrestling Association (AWA), but gained his fame by wrestling in the World Wrestling Federation. On October 22, 1979, he earned the Tag Team Championship with the Polish superstar Ivan Putski. In 1984, he feuded with the Magnificent Don Muraco for the Intercontinental Championship, which he won on February 11. He then entered into a historic and bitterly contested feud over the Intercontinental Championship with Greg Valentine. Valentine captured it from Santana in September, 1984 in London, Ontario. The rivalry intensified with Valentine injuring Santana's knee with his dreaded figure four leg lock putting Santana out of action for several months. Tito returned at WrestleMania, and in the opening match defeated a masked wrestler known as The Executioner. Tito and Greg Valentine would go on to wrestle a memorable series of singles and tag team matches with neither gaining the upper hand. During these matches they would wrestle in a variety of different type of matches from regular title matches, to no disqualification matches, to lumberjack matches. Tito would also employ a variety of partners in attempt to gain the upper hand. These regular partners included the Junkyard Dog and Ricky Steamboat. In these tag matches Tito would even force Valentine to submit to his own version of the figure four leg lock and this earned Santana another series of title shots at the Intercontinental Title.
In late 1987, Tito Santana formed a tag team with former AWA World Champion Rick Martel named Strike Force. The team quickly won the Tag Team championship from the Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) in October, 1987. They successfully defended it until WrestleMania IV (March 1988) where they lost it to Demolition (Ax & Smash). Due to a neck injury suffered by Martel shortly after WrestleMania, the team was inactive until WrestleMania V in 1989. In a match against the Brain Busters (Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson), Martel turned on Tito during the match, leaving Tito to face both opponents alone. Santana remained a singles wrestler and feuded with Martel for a time. After the Ultimate Warrior won the WWF Championship from Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VI (effectively vacating the Intercontinental Title) Santana took part in the tournament to name a new Intercontinental Champion. Santana made it to the finals, and lost to Mr. Perfect. In an attempt to keep his career going, he later adopted a Spanish bullfighter gimmick and the nickname "El Matador" in 1991, which he wrestled under until leaving in 1993. He won the ECW Championship in August 1993 by defeating Don Muraco but forfeited the championship later that year to Shane Douglas. Tito's favorite finisher was the "The Flying Forearm Smash." The move was referred to as "The Mexican Hammer" while he was partnered with Ivan Putski (Putski's finisher was "The Polish Hammer"). It was later called "The Flying Jalapeno" by WWF color man Bobby Heenan (who, at times, also referred to the maneuver as "Extra Hot Paste Picante" and "El Salsa de So-So"), and later referred to mockingly by Jesse Ventura as "The Flying Burrito." By the time Santana wrestled in the AWF, commentators appropriately referred to it as "The Flying Burrito" or simply "The Burrito." As "El Matador" he added a variation of his forearm smash called "El Paso del Muerte" (translated to English: "The passing of the death")- after punching his opponent in the gut and then raising his arms like a bull's horns, Tito would bounce off the ropes and deliver a flying elbow to the back of his opponent's head. During his legendary feud with Greg Valentine, Tito appropriated the figure-four leglock as a secondary finisher, and kept it for the remainder of his WWF tenure. In 1998, Tito also served as spanish commentator alongside Carlos Cabrera and Hugo Savinovich at WrestleMania XIV in Boston. On January 10, 2000, Santana made a one time appearance in WCW. He beat Jeff Jarrett in a Dungeon Match on Nitro. Solis is now a Spanish teacher at Eisenhower Middle School in Roxbury Township, New Jersey. He owns Santana's Hair Salon in Succasunna. Despite his wrestling past, he surprisingly discourages students fighting each other. In 2004, Tito Santana was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Santana still makes occasional appearances for independent wrestling promotions. Personal InformationHe is married to his wife Leah and has three sons named Matthew, Michael and Mark. He teaches the Spanish class at Eisenhower Middle School in Roxbury. Finishing and signature moves
Championships and accomplishments
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