Tito Santana

Merced Solis (born May 10, 1953) better known by his ring name Tito Santana, is a semi-retired 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.

NWA (1976)/AWA (1977-1979)/World Wrestling Federation (1979-1993)
He 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.

1984
In 1984, he feuded with the Magnificent Don Muraco for the Intercontinental Championship, which he won on February 11 (becoming the first-ever Mexican-American wrestler to have ever won the WWF Intercontinental Championship). He then entered into a feud over the Intercontinental Championship with Greg Valentine. Valentine captured it from Santana in September, 1984 in London, Ontario.

1985-1986
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.

In July, 1985, Tito Santana regained the Intercontinental Title in a steel cage match in Baltimore. With both men trying to escape the horrors of the cage, Tito over the top and Valentine through the door, it appeared that the champ would retain his title. However with Tito climbing over the cage, he was in a position to kick the door closed into "the Hammer" as he tried to escape, climbing to the floor and winning the match. Valentine proceeded to throw a tantrum and smashed the title belt repeately into the cage, destroying it, which led to the creation of a new belt design that would remain until 1998. Santana held the title for another 7 months before losing it to "Macho Man" Randy Savage in a hard-fought match at the Boston Garden. Savage would win the title by hitting Santana with a foreign object, which would lead to a series of rematches where Savage would intentionally get himself disqualified in order to keep the belt, resulting in a series of no-disqualification matches where Savage barely managed to escape with a win.

1987-1988
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).

1989
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.

1991-1993
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.

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1993)
He won the ECW Championship in August 1993 by defeating Don Muraco but forfeited the championship later that year to Shane Douglas.

American Wrestling Federation (1995)
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.

In 1998, Tito also served as spanish commentator alongside Carlos Cabrera and Hugo Savinovich at WrestleMania XIV in Boston.

Personal life
Solis is now a Spanish teacher at Eisenhower Middle School in Roxbury Township, New Jersey where he lives with his wife Leah and their three sons Matthew, Michael and Mark. He owns Santana's Hair Salon in Succasunna.

WWE Hall of Fame
In 2004, Tito Santana was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame although he still makes occasional appearances for independent wrestling promotions.

Finishing and signature moves

 * Mexican Hammer / Flying Jalapeño / Flying Burrito (Flying forearm)
 * Figure four leglock
 * El Paso Del Muerte (Flying forearm to back of bent-over opponent's head)
 * Second-Turnbuckle Flying clothesline
 * Close-Range Lariat
 * Running Crossbody
 * Repeated Dropkicks
 * The Big Boot

Championships and accomplishments

 * American Wrestling Federation
 * AWF Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
 * Eastern Championship Wrestling
 * ECW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * International World Class Championship Wrestling
 * IWCCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * National Wrestling Alliance
 * Regional
 * NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ted DiBiase
 * Northern States Wrestling Alliance
 * NSWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Renegade Wrestling Alliance
 * RWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * '''Universal Wrestling Federation
 * UWF Americas Championship (1 time)
 * USA Pro Wrestling
 * USA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * World Wrestling Federation
 * WWF Intercontinental Championship (2 times)
 * WWF Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ivan Putski (1) and Rick Martel (1)
 * 1989 King of the Ring
 * WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2004)
 * Other titles
 * CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * EWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * GWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * IAW Television Championship (1 time)
 * NWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * UCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * USA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * UWS Tag Team Championship (1 time)


 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI ranked him # 93 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
 * PWI also ranked him # 70 (with Rick Martel) and # 92 (with Ivan Putski) of the best tag teams of the "PWI Years".
 * 1979 Tag Team of the Year – with Ivan Putski


 * Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame
 * 2007 inductee to the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame