 Fresh
off our news making interview with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, The Interactive
Interview is back and better than ever. We've got a knack for making things
better! Whoops, wrong speech!
This week, James and Dan present a packed show. First, we welcome the inoperable
WWE Hall of Fame superstar, Tito Santana to the program with a fantastic
interview most classic wrestling fans will love hearing. Then, we bring you
our third "Stump the Host" segment where James faces an opponent with the
prize being a copy of Legends of Wrestling, Showdown!
Tito Santana
-- James starts the show off by informing every one of the latest "Phrase
that Pays" sound to listen for, a clip from Tesla's "Modern Day Cowboy."
After that brief intro, an audio package on Tito Santana's career airs followed
by a few sound clips of "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels' introduction
for Tito at the 2004 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
-- Tito then joins the show. James, who flies solo on this interview, thanks
Tito for joining him.
-- Since leaving the mainstream wrestling business, Tito has started to teach
Spanish in a middle school. He and his wife also have opened a hair salon
in Rocksberry, New Jersey. James mentions they give good hair cuts as he
attended the grand opening of the salon in 1997.
-- Tito played college football with another former TII guest who you can
still hear in our archives, Tully Blanchard. Tully's father was a promoter
in San Antonio. Well, they talked him into "giving it a shot." Tito thought
he'd just wrestle on the off season of professional football but it turned
out differently.
-- Tito once wrestled as Richard Blood. Richard Blood is the real name of
Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. Jim Barnette, the promoter in Atlanta, had
Steamboat at one point. Ricky had gone to Charlotte to wrestle and became
popular there. Barnette always liked the name Richard Blood and thought he
would put that name on his next star. So, Barnette asked Ricky for permission
to use the name and it was given to Tito. Tito was only 2 months in to the
business and was not ready to be a star, by his own admission. So, he never
amounted to very much as Richard Blood.
-- Vince McMahon Sr. was different from all other promoters because "he was
a man of his word. That's the bottom line." Tito feels if Vince Sr. told
you something, it was the truth.
-- "It was the biggest break I had in professional wrestling up until then,"
said Tito when asked about teaming with Ivan Putski. Tito feels he was still
young to the business at that point and feels Putski was nice to him and
always treated him well.
-- "God, it was probably one of the longest feuds in the history of New York,"
said Tito when asked about his memorable feud with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine.
Tito talks very highly of working with Greg and their trading of the
Intercontinental championship. But, it wasn't all fun and games working with
Greg. "One thing about Greg ... When you were in a match with him, you knew
it. We used to go in there and deliberately beat the crap out of one another."
-- "He was different," said Tito about "Macho Man" Randy Savage. He feels
Randy had a "lighter" style than Greg Valentine. Tito feels he can adjust
to all different styles.
-- "It was another high point of my career," says Tito when asked about being
Strike Force with partner Rick Martel. Tito was offered to team with Martel
after Tom Zenk, Martel's Can Am Connection tag partner, "disappeared."
-- Upon comparing tag team and singles competition, Tito has the following
to say. "I hated relying on somebody else. When you're by yourself, you live
and die by what you do. When you have a partner, it's like a marriage. You
have to trust each other." James asks if he ever had a problem with Martel
and Tito says he never did.
-- "I never thought he was going to be as big as he did," said Tito when
asked about Bret "The Hitman" Hart. "There are different ways we all get
breaks," says Tito. He feels Vince tried to use Bret to replace Hulk Hogan
as the top draw.
-- The show then goes to a brief commercial break letting everybody know
of TII's fantastic "Archives" area where you cannot only read show overviews,
much like this one, but also listen to all of TII's past programs in streaming
media.
-- James then spins a true blast from the past. Tito Santana and Rick Martel's
Strike Force theme off the Piledriver record called "Girls in Cars." This
could cause nightmares.
-- "It didn't take me long to figure out Vince didn't have plans for El Matidor."
Tito enjoyed the character for what it was and made decent money with it
but knew it wasn't going anywhere because there was very little by way of
merchandising. He mentions the action figure but that was about all.
-- Why did Tito finally leave the WWF? "I wasn't happy. I was spending a
lot of time on the road pretty much breaking even. I had experienced success.
It was a very hard life to go up and down just to break even. I had 3 kids
and was married. I just got tired of being on the road on my kid's birthdays
and my wife's birthdays. I just decided I had enough. I wasn't happy and
luckily I had a wife who stood behind me and supported me."
-- "I think Shawn (Michaels) has come a long way as a person. He came in
as a wild kid where he couldn't care less what anybody thought about him.
He did whatever he had to do to get ahead and he did it. In the past few
years, he's become a different person. He's made a complete turn around."
-- When asked about Shawn's introduction of him, clips of which heard early
in the show, Tito says "It was very touching. I never expected Shawn to say
what he said. We didn't discuss what he was going to talk about and to hear
what he had to say made me feel good. I never knew other wrestlers thought
of me in that way."
-- Tito never defended the ECW World Title which he won in a tournament because
in the time after he won the belt, Paul E. Dangerously (Heyman) took over.
"I've never been a fan of his and he's probably never been a fan of mine.
And once I met him the first night, I knew I didn't want to work for him
again."
-- Tito Santana and Sgt. Slaughter were partial owners of the AWF. They booked
the shows and the talent. Tito was sad to see it end the way it did. He feels
they were given a bad time slot. The shows were on CBS really early in the
morning.
-- The AWF used a European style "round" system sort of like boxing. James
asks about it and Tito says, "I think we would've had to get away from it.
It don't think it would've worked. It had its good points. Americans want
to watch American football, not Canadian football. They didn't want to watch
European wrestling, they wanted American wrestling."
-- James asks Tito's opinion of World Championship Wrestling. Tito says,
"They didn't have a leader. They didn't have one person, like Vince McMahon.
They had a bunch of chiefs and nobody wanted to be Indians. It was doomed.
Someone had to think about other people and everybody was thinking about
themselves."
-- James asks if Tito has seen NWA TNA. Tito replies, "I don't watch it."
-- Tito does not consider himself retired just yet. He likes to wrestle once
or twice a month. He feels the people still react well to him and it gives
him the chance to get away for a few days. That said, he would not consider
a return to work for Vince. He doesn't want to have that hectic of a schedule.
-- "It was great. I didn't think I was going to feel the way I did. It was
very touching. I was surprised how the young wrestlers showed respect and
appreciation to us for being the ones who paved the road for them and how
wrestling is what it is because of us. I don't know if Vince McMahon drilled
that into them but every one of them said the same thing. But, just seeing
everyone, even Vince McMahon and his family, was a nice feeling."
-- "Ric Flair is Ric Flair. I don't think he's at the same level as Hulk
Hogan but he's not far. I think the difference between Ric Flair and me is
I stopped being Tito Santana at home."
-- James then rolls into Word Associations giving Tito names such as Ric
Flair, Miss Elizabeth, Road Warrior Hawk, Jeff Jarrett, Vince McMahon, and
more!
-- After the interview, "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart leads James and
Dan back for the recap to talk about a wide range of topics including the
Tito interview just conducted. They then discuss RAW, Smackdown, the Total
Nonstop Action pay per view, and Impact. Plus, hear James' controversial
opinion of the fans at the TNA Asylum!
-- We then roll into a commercial for this Wednesday's Total Nonstop Action
pay per view telecast followed immediately by "The First Lady of Wrestling"
Missy Hyatt introducing our "Stump the Host" segment for a free copy of the
new Legends of Wrestling video game for the Playstation 2 console! This is
a fun segment full of inside jokes. The show closes as James spins "Asylum
#9" off the new WASP record called "The Neon God."
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