Tito Santana spoke with WrestleZone ahead of his live virtual signing for ’80s Wrestling and talked about some career highlights during the “Golden Era” of wrestling. Tito was asked to name a standout match in his own career that he had an appreciation for and he called back to a steel cage showdown with Greg “The Hammer” Valentine as one that really stood out. The match, taking place on July 6, 1985 during a live event loop, saw Santana beat Valentine for the title after a lengthy chase.
“The match to me that will always stand out was the one when I had a cage match in Baltimore. We were the headliners and I regained the Intercontinental Title after chasing [Greg] Valentine for about a year and a half which happened to be the longest feud in the history of the WWF. We were selling out all over the place as a headliner without [Hulk] Hogan on the card and I had a great following by then.” Santana said. “When I took the title back in the cage, the arena exploded. It was one of the hardest, loudest crowds I ever heard in an arena.”
The then-WWF would often run multiple live events in one day back then, with the World Champion being on the ‘A’ show while the Intercontinental Champion would headline the ‘B’ show. Santana noted the success they saw without Hogan on their respective shows, highlighting the company’s popularity in the decade. While “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock and John Cena have followed, Santana doesn’t really see anyone else coming close to the level that Hogan was on back then.
“I don’t think so for the simple reason that you cannot create feuds nowadays like they did back then. The fans, it was like a soap opera. The fans would turn in week-to-week to see what gonna happen in this feud that was going on and you had so many guys that were over big-time. There wasn’t only two guys, there wasn’t only four. There was a dozen guys that were over strong and now you don’t have the talent to teach the younger guys. There’s a couple of guys that are still old school talent,” Santana said. “I’m talking about [Randy Orton], but he doesn’t have a lot of people to work with to keep the heat. I think it’s different times and you know, it could change. I think the last ones that were really hot like that were The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin where they were embedded in feuds that the people just couldn’t wait to see the results.”
Check out our full interview with Tito Santana at the top of this post. The next ’80s Wrestling Virtual Signing will feature former WWF World Champion SGT. SLAUGHTER on Monday, October 19th. Former WWF World Tag Team Champions DEMOLITION will appear on Monday, November 16th, and Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine (aka The Dream Team) will appear on Monday, December 14.
For all info on these events and to join the mailing list for upcoming events contact 80sWrestlingPics@gmail.com
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