Santana and Ortiz were one of AEW’s most popular tag teams, but the two’s friendship became very fractured and their professional relationship ended.
When there were reports of tension between the two, many speculated that it could have been storyline-based, but that wasn’t the case.
In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Santana talked about how him and Ortiz grew apart over time.
“We were together for 10 years, I think. When you’re together with someone that long, it’s like a married couple. There’s good, there’s bad, and I think, honestly, for the most part, it was like, I think we just grew apart over time.”
Santana says that the two’s philosophy on tag team wrestling became different and implied that he and Ortiz had different drives when it came to moving forward in the pro wrestling world.
“I’m a go-getter. I like to create opportunities for myself. I’m more than willing to fight for our spot, but also, I’m not going to be the only one.”
When asked if he and Ortiz still had heat with one another, Santana said that he holds no ill will to his former tag team partner and is in a different place in his life than he was during that time.
Santana & Ortiz really first caught fire during their run in TNA and it prompted Tony Khan and AEW to pick the duo up. They soon became a primary aspect to Chris Jericho’s first All Elite faction, The Inner Circle. Despite their popularity, they never did capture the AEW World Tag Titles and actually did turn their real life tension into an on-air storyline. Santana was released by AEW earlier this month.
Credit to Chris Van Vliet and h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
