The Ballad of Rick and Tito

   Rick Martel and Tito Santana are two of my favorite wrestlers.  They had success early in their careers and then came together as a team in the Fall of 1987.  After their split at WrestleMania V in the WWF, they went their separate ways again.  Martel got a singles push with a brand new gimmick, "The Model."  Santana went it alone again and eventually became El Matador.  By this point in their careers, they were the go-to guys for great matches against new talent and wrestlers that were breaking out on their own.  While their win-loss records decreased a little bit, they were relied upon greatly.  After their break-up, whenever they were in the same ring together, they would go at it.  It occurred during several Royal Rumble matches and other matches as well.  The thing is, they never got that one on one encounter to end the feud at a big Pay-Per-View, which I felt they and the fans alike deserved.  

   Tito Santana made his WWF debut in the late 70's.  This Mexican-American superstar was extremely popular and likable.  He got his first shot of success when he teamed with Ivan  Putski to win the WWF World Tag Team Titles.  He really made a name for himself in the early to mid-1980's, however.  He had two great runs as the Intercontinental Champion, defeating and feuding with the likes of the Magnificent Muraco and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine.  He had an incredible Steel Cage grudge match with Valentine at the world famous Madison Square Garden.  He formed a team with the Junkyard Dog for a short time and remained a fan favorite.  He befriended the British Bulldogs in their feud with the Hart Foundation and their ally, crooked referee Danny Davis, who was the same referee when Santana lost the Intercontinental Title to "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

   Rick Martel started his career in the 70's in his home country of Canada.  He arrived to the WWF in 1980 and quickly found success with Tony Garea, with two reigns as WWF World Tag Team Champions.  Garea was already well-known and the team was quite popular.  In 1982, Martel left for the AWA, where he found his greatest success.  He ascended to the thrown of AWA World Heavyweight Champion, upending the legendary Jumbo Tsuruta, and held the Title for an impressive 19 months before dropping it to Stan Hansen.  He had great matches during this time, including an encounter with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair.  Upon his return to the WWF in 1986, he formed a popular team with the late Tom Zenk called the Can-Am Connection.  They had great matches with several teams and defeated the team of Magnigicent Muraco and Cowboy Bob Orton at WrestleMania III.

 

Martel and Santana worked in the same company for years, never crossing paths.  That was until the Fall of 1987.  The Can-Am Connection began a feud with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan's Islanders during the Summer but Zenk left the company and Martel was on his own.  One night during a two on one attack at the hands of the Islanders, Martel was saved by none other than Tito Santana.  The popular singles stars joined together soon after.  In fact, it was in a backstage promo not long after the attack that the duo inadvertently named themselves.  Martel mentioned that they would strike with force, thus the Strike Force was born.

   Not long after, they defeated the long reigning Hart Foundation for the WWF World Tag Team Titles.  Together, they became a popular team and were great Champions. However, their momentum was ended abruptly at WrestleMania IV when they lost their Titles to the brutal Demolition due to interference and a shot to Martel's back by Mr. Fuji's cane. During a rematch in July of 1988, Martel was injured and Tito was back to square one as a singles competitor.  Martel resurfaced by the end of the year and Strike Force was back together.  They wanted to climb back up the ranks of the tag team division to get another shot at the gold.  At WrestleMania V, they fought Bobby Heenan's Brain Busters, Arn Anderson and Tulley Blanchard.  It was a great back and forth battle.  During the match, Santana went for his patented flying forearm but accidentally knocked Martel off the apron.  When Martel got back up and Santana went for a tag that he desperately needed, Martel left him high and dry, walking out on his partner and turning heel in the process.

   In the coming weeks, Martel stated he was tired of Santana riding his coattails and it was his time.  He was repackaged as "The Model," doing all the stereotypical "model" things during this time, always looking in the mirror.  He started off wearing tied sweaters around his neck for a somewhat preppy look and eventually started wearing his more signature look, a beret and a jacket with a button that read "Yes, I Am a Model."  He even starting bringing around an atomizer, which contained his signature cologne he called "Arrogance."  He went on to have major feuds with Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Tatanka, Shawn Michaels, and Razor Ramon.  Meanwhile, Tito Santana went back into singles mode and just became that reliable worker, having great matches and making his opponents look good.  In late 1991, after having spent time in Spain becoming a bullfighter, he was repackaged as El Matador.  Rumor has it that before the WWF decided to go with Bret Hart as the WWF Champion in the Fall of 1992, Santana was strongly considered for that role.  You may look back and scoff at that but at the time, even with Hart's success as Intercontinental Champion, he wasn't much higher in the ranks than Santana, as Hart's ascension to the World Title came out of nowhere, as would Santana's, if he was the man they chose.

  The two never had a formal one on one match during their feud after the breakup.  While Santana did defeat Martel in the finals of the 1989 King of the Ring tournament in June, it wasn't on the big stage.  They had another encounter in November, 1990 on The Main Event, when Santana submitted to Martel's Boston Crab.  Again, this was a feud I feel should have been resolved on a major Pay-Per-View.  They feuded the remainder of 1989 and into 1990 but usually during multi-man matches.  At SummerSlam 1989, Martel teamed with fellow French-Canadians the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers and took on Tito Santana and The Rockers.  At the Survivor Series, Martel and Santana found themselves on opposite teams again.  Martel teamed with the Honky Tonk Man, Bad News Brown and team captain the Big Bossman.  Santana joined the Red Rooster, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, and team captain Dusty Rhodes.  At the 1990 Royal Rumble, the two men went at it wildly when they found themselves in the ring at the same time.

   During this time period, it wasn't uncommon for feuds reaching the better part of a year.  Logic would dictate that the two should have a singles encounter at WrestleMania VI.  Unfortunately, it wasn't to be!  Both ended up in separate and largely forgettable matches with no back stories to them. Martel defeated Koko B. Ware, while Santana lost to The Barbarian, who was recently split from his Powers of Pain tag team partner, The Warlord.  Instead of two matches with no story that didn't matter, I would have put these two together in a match to finally resolve their feud.  The winner wouldn't have been as important as the match itself.  With at least respect for continuity, the WWF always made sure to remind fans these two men didn't get a along.  They found themselves on opposite teams at the 1990 Survivor Series in the Ultimate Survivor match and went at it again, as well as a few other Royal Rumble matches as the years went on.

   For me, it would have been nice to resolve this feud with an actual match at a major event like WrestleMania, the very stage where the team was torn apart in the first place a year earlier.  Even though Strike Force was a short-lived team, the split led to a great feud that never formally got resolved.  Some people compare the pushes after their breakup to The Rockers, who did it two years later with much more violent results.  I have friends that say Santana was essentially the Marty Jannetty of Strike Force.  I disagree, however, as neither Santana nor Martel climbed to the heights they once had.  While yes, Martel received a new character and feuds that took center stage, he wasn't any more or less successful than Santana, and didn't win any Championships, meaning Martel was also not the Shawn Michaels of Strike Force.

   I wrote this blog to talk about the unresolved major feud these two men had but also to speak highly of both men.  I had the pleasure of meeting Tito Santana two years ago and he couldn't have been nicer.  He even let me hold the old Intercontinental Championship.  I've yet to meet Rick Martel, but he's definitely on my bucket list.  Tito was a guy that I rooted for, even if he was likely to lose.  He was a great pick to lose to Mr. Perfect in the finals of the Intercontinental Championship tournament and was the perfect first opponent for Shawn Michaels as a singles competitor.  Meanwhile, Martel's high profile feud with Jake Roberts, caused by Martel blinding Roberts with "Arrogance" was fantastic.  In a similar vein to Santana, Martel was the go-to guy on the heel side of things, being the first major feud for newcomer Tatanka and losing in the finals of the Intercontinental Title battle royal to Razor Ramon.  I have the utmost respect for both men and when the time finally comes when Rick Martel gets inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, I hope Tito Santana will be there to induct him.

If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments.  Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST on YouTube, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans.  Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport.  For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
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