Ortiz Opens Up About Split, Brief AEW Feud With Tag Team Partner Santana

The conflict between Mike Santana and Ortiz that eventually led to their onscreen split has been a controversial topic in recent AEW history, especially due to the large fan following they had. During an interview on "The Shining Wizards," Ortiz commented on the fan support and the brief feud he and Santana had to end their pairing.

According to Ortiz, he admits they could have pushed for more opportunities, but he doesn't blame AEW for how things worked out. "It just wasn't our time and it just kind of — because we were always intertwined with a huge storyline with the Inner Circle and it would have been hard to sway off and do our own tag thing and go after the tag titles." Additionally, he revealed there were plans to put the AEW World Tag Team Championship on Santana and Ortiz on two different occasions due to the promotion noticing all the calls online for them to get a title run. "That was noticed by people in AEW and above and it almost happened two times, it just never panned out. I won't get into the weeds of things, but that's pretty much it."

Sadly, Ortiz revealed that his split with Santana was something his former tag team partner forced AEW to do since he was adamant about not working with him anymore. "So, the company kinda had no choice but to split us up." But he also noted that the promotion wanted a feud before the breakup, which he admits ended up being rushed. Ortiz noted that AEW generally has a rushed feeling on television due to time constraints, but ultimately didn't seem to have any animosity toward the promotion about how the feud panned out.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Shining Wizards" and provide Wrestling Inc. with a h/t for the transcription.