Tito Santana

Merced Solis (born May 10, 1953), better known by the ring name Tito Santana, is an American professional wrestler, trainer, and retired school teacher.

After training under Hiro Matsuda and Bob Orton, Solis made his professional wrestling debut on February 23, 1977, for Championship Wrestling from Florida, losing to Crusher Verdu.

In April, he joined Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) where he adopted the name "Richard Blood".

In January 1978, he moved onto Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling where he wrestled for a calendar year, he also toured with All Japan Pro Wrestling in October and early November.

Santana has stayed a babyface his entire career and he is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation between 1979 and 1993 (missing part of 1980 and returning in 1983) where he was twice the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion and twice held the WWF Tag Team Championship.

Reverting to his real name, Solis joined Western States Sports in 1979, winning the NWA Western States Tag Team Championship with Ted DiBiase.

Santana joined the World Wrestling Federation defeating Mike Hall in his debut match on Championship Wrestling in 1979.

He teamed with Ivan Putski to defeat Johnny Valiant and Jerry Valiant for the World Tag Team Championship WWF Tag Team Championship at Madison Square Garden in October 1979.

The duo held the titles for close to six months before losing to the Wild Samoans in April 1980.

Santana left the WWF soon after, joining New Japan Pro-Wrestling for a two-month tour.

Santana wrestled in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1980 to 1982.

Matches he had in the AWA include two matches he had against Nick Bockwinkel in St Paul, Minnesota, on March 1, 1981, and in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on May 13, 1982 (Bockwinkel won both matches by cheating).

Santana teamed with future tag team partner Rick Martel against the High Flyers on August 29, 1982, in St Paul Minnesota.

Santana and Martel lost the match.

Santana returned to GCW in July 1982.

He teamed with Terry Gordy to unsuccessfully challenge The Samoans (Afa and Sika) for the NWA National Tag Team Championship on two occasions.

On April 2, 1983, Santana also fought Larry Zbyszko for the NWA National Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort.

Santana returned to the WWF in 1983, making his televised return on the May 14 episode of Championship Wrestling by defeating José Estrada.

Being brought in for TV tapings only, Santana continued to wrestle for GCW until July when he signed for the WWF full time.

In 1984, Santana fought The Iron Sheik to a double-disqualification for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at the Philadelphia Spectrum.

He then engaged in a lengthy feud with WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight champion, the Magnificent Muraco.

Santana finally won the title on February 11, 1984, becoming the first Mexican-American wrestler to win the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship.

After successfully defending the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship against Muraco, Santana was targeted by Greg "the Hammer" Valentine, and in September 1984 in London, Ontario, Canada, Valentine defeated Santana to win the title.

Soon after, the storyline had Valentine injuring Santana's knee and putting Santana out of action for several months.

Santana returned in December 1984 and set his sights on getting the Intercontinental title back from Valentine.

During this time, he started using Valentine's finishing hold, the figure-four leglock and also wrestled in tag-team competition with Blackjack Mulligan.

Santana wrestled at the first WrestleMania, at Madison Square Garden, in March 1985, and in the opening match defeated a masked wrestler known as the Executioner ("Playboy" Buddy Rose), making him submit to the figure four in 4:05.

Santana made an appearance in the ring later in the card during the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship match between Valentine and Santana's friend the Junkyard Dog.

Wearing street clothes, Santana rushed to the ring to inform referee Dick Kroll that Valentine had used his feet on the ropes to help pin the JYD.

Despite having already called for the bell, Kroll restarted the match and an incensed Valentine was counted out as he did not get back into the ring to continue.

On Right After Wrestling, hosted by Arda Ocal and Jimmy Korderas, Santana stated that he was somewhat disappointed with being in the first match at the original WrestleMania in 1985.

He also won the 1989 King of the Ring tournament and wrestled the very first ever WrestleMania match competing in the first nine, as well as helping bridge the gap between the 1980s "Rock 'n Wrestling Connection" era to the 1990s "New Generation" era.

Santana was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004 and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame class of 2013.

During his time in the WWF, Santana, despite being born and raised in Texas, was billed from "Tocula, Mexico", which may be a misspelled reference to the city of Toluca.

To this day, he still appears on the independent circuit.

Solis attended West Texas State University, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

Solis played tight end for the West Texas State Buffaloes.

The team was quarterbacked by future professional wrestler Tully Blanchard, who would introduce Solis to the world of professional wrestling.

After graduating, Solis was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs but cut during training camp, due to a poor performance in the 40-yard dash because of a twisted Achilles tendon two weeks before camp.

He played a single season for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League, appearing in 13 regular season games.