Mike Santana finally explains why he chose AEW over WWE.
Before him and Ortiz made their debut on the first Dynamite in 2019, the duo was tearing it up in Impact Wrestling. The former Impact World Tag Team Champions’ contracts were coming up and there was heavy speculation on the team having talks with WWE and AEW.
Obviously, Ortiz and Santana chose to make history by joining AEW. The duo have never really talked about why they chose AEW over WWE, but during Santana’s recent visit to Chris Van Vliet, he explained why he opted to go over to the new promotion and how WWE responded to why the former LAX made their decision.
Santana recalled working with the Bucks on the Jericho Cruise, which is how he first got in contact with Cody Rhodes and The Elite. He states that he remained in contact with those guys while still working in Impact Wrestling. He then recounts the text where he gave his word to go to AEW.
“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.”
He further talks about his reasoning on choosing AEW and a lighter schedule was a big factor. Santana has kids at home and he wanted to see them grow up.
“They [WWE] 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.”
Check out the full interview where Santana talks about not winning the TNA World title at Slammiversary, his NXT debut, and so much more.