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.

AEW had been teasing tensions between Chris Jericho and Inner Circle’s Santana and Ortiz for a while. This storyline came to an unexpected conclusion on tonight’s episode of Dynamite.

Sunday’s Revolution PPV saw Eddie Kingston picking up a victory over the former AEW champion. Y2J opened tonight’s show right from where he left things during the PPV.

Jericho called out Kingston to the ring. He offered to shake the hand of The Mad King and Eddie took the offer. Though 2point0 and Daniel Garcia jumped the two men immediately afterward.

Santana and Ortiz hit the ring to make the save. They brought a bat with them to get the upper hand. The duo handed the bat to Jericho as they held Garcia.

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However, Chris Jericho attacked his Inner Circle teammates instead. Both 2point0 and Garcia joined him in the attack.

Jake Hager came down the ring next and he first questioned the Inner Circle leader. He then blasted Santana and Ortiz as well. He smashed Kingston with the bat and power bombed him through a table.

Chris Jericho finally took the mic and dubbed this new alliance the Jericho Appreciation Society. You can check out videos of the segment below:

Santana of Proud N Powerful believes there is huge potential in a feud with Lucha Bros.

The Lucha Bros are the new AEW Tag Team Champions. They capture the gold against The Young Bucks inside a steel cage at All Out. The match was an instant classic and is already being regarded as one of the greatest tag team matches of all time.

Santana and Ortiz of Proud N Powerful have been gaining a ton of steam as of late. The team recently defeated FTR on an episode of Dynamite. Many are wondering when Proud N Powerful will capture AEW gold.

Appearing on Gettin’ Better with Ron Funches, Santana said he feels Proud N Powerful vs. Lucha Bros will be some of the best tag team matches ever.

“I see on Twitter, everyone is like, ‘when are ya’ll gonna get the tag titles?’ It’s awesome. It feels great. It’s one of those things where, we’re obviously doing something right if people want us to have that spotlight. Us and Lucha Bros, we had a feud in IMPACT for the tag titles and that feud pretty much caused us to have 24 or 25 matches around the world. We took that same match and did it all over the Indies in the States, we went to Canada, we went to Mexico, we went to England, we did it in Germany.

“We literally did that match all over the world. The chemistry is definitely there. We’ve always been like a family with each other. We all came up under Konnan and he’s a big mentor for us. When that time comes, best believe it’s going to be some of the best tag team matches anyone has ever seen. That’s not even being cocky, we have the proof.”

Santana and Ortiz have revealed the role that Chris Jericho played in bringing them to AEW.

Santana and Ortiz made a name for themselves in Impact Wrestling as the younger generation of LAX. Many have praised the team not only for their abilities but their authenticity. The team debuted for AEW back in Aug. 2019 at All Out. On the debut episode of Dynamite, Santana and Ortiz aligned themselves with Chris Jericho. Soon, Santana and Ortiz, Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Jake Hager would form The Inner Circle.

During an edition of the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Santana and Ortiz spoke on their decision to sign with AEW over WWE.

“That was one of the deciding factors for us coming into the company because right before we went in, we had offers to go to WWE or AEW. We were on the fence initially, but one of the swaying decisions for us was Chris specifically wanted us to be a part of The Inner Circle. We were like, wow. He’s a huge part of our bonding experience. When we started becoming a tag team, we both read Jericho’s first book, ‘A Lion’s Tale’, so we were like this is the blueprint to be a wrestler.

“This is it right here. He was a journeyman. He wrestled everywhere. This is what we want to do. Watching guys like him, Dean, Eddie, we wanted to be true journeymen. We bonded over his first book, so fast forward to us hearing Cody saying Chris wants us to be in this stable, we were like, ‘What? What’s going on right now.’ It was just one of those real weird, full circle moments where we were like, we bonded over his first book, and now we are a part of his journey, and a part of his legacy.

“We will be tied into his career. It’s crazy when you look at it that we grew up watching him and all of these guys. This whole experience the past two years has been insane. With everything that’s gone on personally in my life, with everything professionally, the whole pandemic, it’s just been crazy insane.”

Santana & Ortiz are currently involved in a feud with FTR. The two will meet on the Sept. 1 edition of AEW Dynamite. Santana & Ortiz lost their first meeting against FTR on July 28, which ended early after Cash Wheeler suffered a nasty arm injury.

As for Jericho, his rivalry with MJF has led to the ultimate stipulation. Jericho has challenged MJF to one last match at All Out on Sept. 5. If Jericho loses, he will put his in-ring career with AEW to rest.

AEW’s Santana & Ortiz recently appeared on SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio. The former LAX discussed a number of topics on the show, including this week’s Parking Lot Fight match that took place against Best Friends on AEW Dynamite.

“All thanks to Jerry Lynn, he agented the match” Ortiz began on the show. “I mean Jerry Lynn has all the experience in the world when it comes to these type of matches. And yeah, he definitely gave us the guidance because we came with a bunch of crazy ideas, as you could imagine.”

Ortiz on Lynn’s Influence

“We were just like, ‘oh, let’s do this, this, this, this and this. Jerry harped on that he doesn’t want the match to be like ‘building furniture'” Ortiz continued. “You know what I mean? Where the guys are trying to build all these crazy extravagant things to put people through or whatever the case is.”

Ortiz would then discuss how Jerry Lynn wanted the match to be laid out. “So, Jerry kept harping on that he wants the bout to flow, which I think we accomplished in the match. And, I mean, we were pretty much all on the same page. We all wanted to, for lack of a better term, murder each other.”

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“We were down for whatever and Santana also had that talk where it was just like ‘hey guys, listen. We’re going out there and this is a fight to us.’ At the end of the day? We’ll be fine. But let’s go out there with that mentality, because if we don’t have that mindset? Like this is a real fight? It’s not gonna come across on the screen.”

Did you enjoy the Parking Lot Fight on this week’s episode of Dynamite? Let us know in the comments

Santana and Ortiz debuted with AEW last year after having had a lengthy run with Impact Wrestling as LAX. Now known as Proud & Powerful they are members of Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle faction. Recently on Konnan’s “Keepin it 100” podcast, Santana and Ortiz commented on what things are like behind the scenes with the Inner Circle and how the “Bubbly Bunch” segments come together.

“We’re just all in a group text and Jericho and all of us shot ideas and we figured it out,” Ortiz said about how the Bubbly Bunch segments were created. “Jericho literally sent us ‘alright, this is what you’re doing this week.’ He pretty much sent out a script for us. I’d have to do so many scenes, Santana would shoot so many scenes.”

They would continue to say that group texting is helping them come together as a team.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Santana said. “We all put these ideas together and everybody’s been into it and it’s been fun and it’s been getting good feedback.”

“And its been helping our relationship with all of us,” Ortiz added. “Because we’re on the group chat adding ridiculousness.”

Disco Inferno then pointed out that when the NWO started in WCW, they were a clique backstage. Disco asked Santana and Ortiz if the same thing was happening in AEW with the Inner Circle.

“Everybody chills together,” Ortiz answered, noting it’s not very cliquish backstage in AEW.

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Santana and Ortiz talking about the Inner Circle can be heard in the player below: