Hometown: Tocula, Mexico
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 234lbs
Debut: 1976
Previous Gimmicks: Latin Lightning, El Madator
Finishing Move: Flying Forearm
Favorite Moves: Figure Four

Before Wrestling

Before becoming a wrestler, Santana played tight end for West Texas State University. The team was quarterbacked by future professional wrestler Tully Blanchard. After he graduated, he tried out with the Kansas City Chiefs but was cut during training camp. He played one season for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League in 1976, appearing in 13 regular-season games. After one season with the Lions, he became a professional wrestler.

Career

He worked briefly in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and the American Wrestling Association (AWA), but gained his fame by wrestling in the World Wrestling Federation. On October 22, 1979, he earned the Tag Team Championship with the Polish superstar Ivan Putski. In 1984, he feuded with the Magnificent Don Muraco for the Intercontinental Championship, which he won on February 11. He then entered into a historic and bitterly contested feud over the Intercontinental Championship with Greg Valentine. Valentine captured it from Santana in September, 1984 in London Ontario Canada. The rivalry intensified with Valentine injuring Santana's knee with his dreaded figure four leg lock putting Santana out of action for several months.

Tito retuned at Wrestlemania, and in the opening match defeated a masked wrestler known as The Executioner. Tito and Greg Valentine would go on to wrestle a memorable series of singles and tag team matches with neither gaining the upper hand. During these matches they would wrestle in a variety of different type of matches from regular title matches, to no disqualification matches, to lumberjack matches.

Tito would also employ a variety of partners in attempt to gain the upper hand. These regular partners included the Junkyard Dog and Ricky Steamboat. In these tag matches Tito would even force Valentine to submit to his own version of the figure four leg lock and this earned Santana another series of title shots at the Intercontinental Title.

In July, 1985, Tito Santana regained the Intercontinental Title in a steel cage match in Baltimore. With both men trying to escape the horrors of the cage, Tito over the top and Valentine through the door, it appeared that the champ would retain his title. However with Tito climbing over the cage, he was in a position to kick the door closed into "the Hammer" as he tried to escape. Valentine smashed the title belt repeately into the cage, destroying it, which led to the creation of a new belt design. Santana held the title for another 7 months before losing it to Randy "Macho Man" Savage.

In late 1987, Tito Santana formed a tag team with former AWA World Champion Rick Martel named Strike Force. The team quickly won the Tag Team championship from the Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) in October, 1987. They successfully defended it until WrestleMania IV (March 1988) where they lost it to Demolition (Ax & Smash). The team disappeared for the rest of 1988 until WrestleMania V in 1989. In a match against the Brain Busters (Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson), Rick Martel left Tito to face both opponents alone.

Santana remained a singles wrestler and feuded with Martel for a time. After the Ultimate Warrior won the WWF World Title from Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 6 (effectively vacating the Intercontinental Title) Santana took part in the tornament to name a new Intercontinental Champion. Santana made it to the finals, and lost to Curt Hennig.

He later adopted a Spanish bullfighter gimmick and the name El Matador over the next few years until leaving in 1993.

He won the ECW (Eastern Championship Wrestling) Championship in 1992 by defeating Don Muraco but lost it later that year to Shane Douglas.

Tito's finisher was the "The Flying Forearm Smash."

On January 10, 2000, Tito Santana made a one time appearance in WCW. He beat Jeff Jarrett in a Dungeon Match on Nitro.

In 2004, Tito Santana was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. To this day Santana still makes appearances on the indy scene.