Tito Santana: Tales from the Ring

By Tito Santana, With Tom Caiazzo

Sports Publishing LLC

SportsPublishingLLC.com

$19.95

Reviewed by Joe Babinsack

There are very few pure babyfaces in the professional wrestling world, guys who pretty much spent their entire career hearing the cheers of the fans, and especially considering guys who reached the upper portions of the cards.

The two biggest names that come to mind are, of course, Bruno Sammartino and Ricky Steamboat. Placing Tito Santana’s name in that company isn’t exactly a stretch: he held the Intercontinental Title of the WWF during a period when the belt seemed to be quite meaningful, and he did win the “King of the Ring” PPV tournament back in the day when it was a solid event, and the names that held it were legends.

Pointing out some flaws in the book may be nit-picky, but there are some editorial overlooks that are bothersome. Another flaw may be just a commentary on the industry we now live in: there’s far too much emphasis on pleasing a certain top promoter, giving him glory (and not for Tito’s own career, which is my issue.)

There are some factual oversights (I’ll avoid calling them outright lies) and those are especially troubling considering the seeming need to retell far too much of WWF/E history, instead of describing Tito’s career.

Some part of me wants to call Tito the most vanilla Hispanic wrestler of all time. I hope that’s not crossing into Michael Hayes territory….but the biggest concern, aside from the length of the book, is that Tito spends far too much time talking about other wrestlers than he does himself.

It’s like he’s screaming, here’s some cool and interesting stories.

But, to be honest, there are quite a few cool and interesting stories. I would have loved to read more about some of Santana’s friends, like Andre and how he took a liking to the man who would be called El Matador, but what’s in there is a few more tales of Andre’s life as a wrestler, without the obligatory “he could drink 18 bottles of wine” story.

I would have liked to read more about the friendships with Sgt. Slaughter and Paul Orndorff and Rick Martel and Dino Bravo. But the stories are quickly paced and there are a lot of them. I just wish Tito would have focused more on his big run from early to mind 1980 until he decided to retire in 1993. He does do some pages on each Wrestlemania he was part of, and since he, like Hulk Hogan, was in the first nine, that’s an interesting perspective.

Tito Santana goes the way of Larry Zbyszko, and gives us a quick read and a short book. There’s nothing wrong with the writing or the content, it’s just a question of why can’t we have a 300 page book and not a close to 200 page one. Sure, it leaves you wanting more, but that’s not the purpose of writing a book in the first place, and if it is, then there’s a level of cynicism that bedevils even me.

Two conflicting themes play out throughout the book. One is interesting and deserved to be explored a lot more. The other needed to be decided before the book was completed, and stuck with.

Of the former, I speak of the presence of Vincent K. McMahon.

Tito speaks highly of both McMahons, and while he overdoes it at times (taking the McMahon side on virtually every controversy and writing around any criticism,) he does take on the way Vince ends up using him and letting him drop down on the card.

Tito speaks honestly about seeing “the writing on the wall” and while his description of the evolution of the El Matador character is not long enough, he does speak volumes of the mindset of Mr. McMahon, and the book provides and interesting glimpse of the McMahon business thought processes.

The latter issue that I speak of is the age old question of wrestling as art form and wrestling in terms of mainstream perception.

I shudder whenever I see a talented guy like Tito talk about “fake” and “scripted” and there’s one sentence that pretty much makes me shake my head. Look, I don’t really mind if someone wants to write a book in character, or even play kayfabe too much, but you’ve got to go one way or the other.

I thought Tito and Tom did a pretty good job through the first 2/3 of the book, sidestepping things at times, but very much explaining the training needs, the learning curve and the way the business operates in terms of moving from territory to territory. Plus he does delve into the unwholesomeness of promoters, how they lie and the pervasiveness of racism and bigotry.

But this is one of those things where you can’t have it both ways.

If you come clean about it being a work (fake is a four letter word to me) then you need to pivot on that revelation and get into the bigger picture. There is a later story about how Tito did some fast footed creative work, but again, considering the shortness of the book, there were a lot of opportunities for explaining behind the scenes stuff and some of the decisions being made.

I guess I am being a little unfair, since there was a good story about when Tito hurt his knee wrestling Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff, and he suggested to Vince that he use the injury in a storyline….but then the storyline gets pinned to Greg Valentine, and then the storyline weaves into some worked sense of reality, as Valentine puts on the figure four and Santana writes about how the knee popped “audibly”

But I loved the story about how he told Shawn Michaels he would “kick his butt” if Michaels didn’t vacate the airplane seat they both were booked into.

That’s funny. Ironic, though, as Michaels did do the Hall of Fame induction speech in 2004.

Tito Santana is a bit of a mystery, a little underappreciated and yet a little bit too unknown considering that he had some higher profile runs and was in the WWF during the Hogan boom. My main complaint about the book is that while I’ve read the book, I really don’t know if I know Merced Solis as well as I’d like to have known him.

The introduction he provides for his own book is compelling, fascinating and full of cultural references that almost no other professional wrestler these days can claim. I would have loved to see more of the insight of this child migrant worker who rose up the echelons of professional wrestler, so far as to be labeled a Hall of Famer, and to see what that cultural perspective meant along the way.

So, today, after reading his book, I’m a little disappointed. Just a little. That I don’t know the man any more than his war-cry of “Arriba” and, by reading the inside back cover, knowing that he teaches Spanish to Middle Schoolers in New Jersey.

But along the way, his perspective of professional wrestling as a top star in the 1980’s is far more compelling than Hulk Hogan‘s, and to that end, I’d have to say that I enjoyed reading the book.

Joe Babinsack can be reached at [email protected].

Thanks to Georgie for securing the review copy. DVD’s are on the review list, as are a couple of self-published books, although one of them may not want the distinction of a review.

You can obtain a copy of the book for $13.57 @ Amazon.com: TITO SANTANA TALES FROM THE RING: Books