Mike Santana made his return to TNA Wrestling at the Rebellion pay-per-view, but this time, he came alone. The former multi-time tag team champion is now embarking on a singles career, and he recently explained his motivation for stepping out on his own after years as part of the acclaimed tag team Proud & Powerful with Ortiz.
“A Place That I Wanted To Be”
Santana’s return to TNA, where he and Ortiz first rose to prominence as LAX, was a full-circle moment. On Insight with Chris Van Vliet, he explained that the decision to come back happened very quickly.
“So it came together pretty quickly. You know, everything happened so fast. We did the sit-down in early April, and three weeks later, I showed up at Rebellion. So everything happened super quick, and I knew it was a place that I wanted to be and where I needed to be.”
“Hungry For More”
For years, Santana and Ortiz were considered one of the best tag teams in the world. Santana made it clear that he is proud of their accomplishments but felt it was time for him to grow as an individual performer.
“We did great things. The fact that today people still talk about the things that we did and what we accomplished and stuff is a huge deal to me… We did amazing things, and now I’m going to continue doing amazing things… I was hungry for more. Sometimes when you are part of a team, and we have spoken about this before, as you grow, and as you start to become different individuals, you start to develop different mindsets and different ways of thinking. I think that was the overall thing. I like to continue growing, I like to challenge myself. As I have said before, in this business, if you are not growing, you’re dying. So that’s what I needed to do.”
Since his return to TNA, Mike Santana has established himself as a main event singles star. He recently challenged for the TNA World Championship at the Slammiversary pay-per-view.
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.
