Before they became one of the foundational tag teams of All Elite Wrestling, Mike Santana and his partner Ortiz were one of the hottest free-agent acts in the world, with both WWE and the upstart AEW vying for their services. Santana recently told the full story of how close they came to signing with WWE and how a single text message from Cody Rhodes changed the course of their careers.
A Fateful Text Message
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Santana recalled meeting The Elite on the first Chris Jericho cruise. While they stayed in touch, the future of AEW was not yet certain. It was a text message from Cody Rhodes that solidified his decision.
“I remember being in the movie theater, I forgot what movie I was watching, I was with my daughter, and I got a text from Cody… I open my phone, and it goes, ‘It’s real. It’s happening. When is your contract up?’ So then we chatted a little bit and I gave him my word, and that was that. That to me, is everything. So that was a big component. Even when we were having the talks with WWE, I remember we were sitting in a parking lot in Puerto Rico, where we finally decided and we were going to tell WWE, hey, we’re gonna go do this other thing. The main thing that we said is, listen, we gave them our word.”
A Lighter Schedule and a Legacy
Santana explained that while giving their word was the primary reason for choosing AEW, there were other significant factors. The lighter road schedule was a major appeal for the two young fathers, as was the historic opportunity to be part of the main event of the very first episode of Dynamite.
“They understood, they respected it. They understood. A big thing with that was the schedule. We both had young kids at the time, and we wanted to be home. We were like, best case scenario, we go to WWE and things blow up, we’re never going to be home. I was like, I want to see my daughter grow up. Thankfully, things have changed, even now, the schedule is not what it was… Also being a part of that legacy. They were like, Yo, you’re gonna be in the main event of the very first Dynamite. No matter what I do, my name is always gonna be there. So yeah, a big part of that was being a part of something fresh and new, and that the name was always gonna be there.”
Santana and Ortiz were indeed in the main event of the inaugural episode of AEW Dynamite on October 2, 2019, where they teamed with Chris Jericho in a losing effort against Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
