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The Legend of Tito Santana -- And Se?or Solis

Posted: Apr 6th 2013 By: CMBurnham

At Eisenhower Middle School in Roxbury Twp. they call him Se?or Solis. To fans around the world, the 7th and 8th grade Spanish teacher is Tito Santana, the original Mexican wrestling star of the World Wrestling Federation.

To start WrestleMania 1 the Hall of Famer won the first ever match. This year, when the event comes to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Solis won't be watching.

Every Tuesday at 3 p.m., Merced Solis leaves the classroom where he teaches, heads to Santana's Hair Salon in the Roxbury Mall and signs autographs.

He's mostly left this life behind, but it's hard to disappear when you're a legend.

Last week someone showed up from Germany. Even here at the business he's owned with his wife for 16 years, they call him Tito.

Solis puts his pen to the glossy paper and looks down at Tito Santana, the World Wrestling Federation's original Mexican wrestling star. From 1983 to 1993 he was a high-flyer, finishing opponents with a flying elbow off the ropes. His long dark hair framed his charismatic smile. In his later years, they called him "El Matador," waving a bright pink cape with the gimmick of a Spanish bullfighter. In 2004, the promotion, now called World Wrestling Entertainment, inducted him into its Hall of Fame.

"I think I was able to separate Tito Santana and Merced Solis," he says, seated in the basement of his Ledgewood home.

Pictures of Solis as Santana dot the walls next to framed jerseys autographed by Steve Young and Emmitt Smith.

Tito is 59 now, his hair much shorter. Glasses frame his still bright smile. He is 20 pounds lighter than he was in his heyday. Five days a week, the two-time Intercontinental Champion rises at 5:30 a.m., heads to Eisenhower Middle School in Roxbury Township and teaches Spanish to seventh and eighth graders. Here they call him Se?or Solis.

"When he was home he was just a regular guy," says Leah Solis, his wife of more than 30 years. "He could definitely separate it and so could we."

This weekend WrestleMania 29 will sell out MetLife Stadium, about 45 minutes from his home. It's the event where the legend of Tito Santana started.

In 1985 inside Madison Square Garden, he defeated The Executioner by submission to win the first WrestleMania match ever. He wrestled on the first nine WrestleMania cards, a distinction he shares only with Hulk Hogan.

At WrestleMania this weekend, the WWE's current Mexican star, Alberto Del Rio, will defend the World Heavyweight Championship. He was 7 years old when Tito Santana opened the first WrestleMania.

Santana won't be there Sunday, though. Santana won't even be watching. After retiring from the WWF in 1993, he has rarely looked back.

"I had no idea what I was going to do next," Santana recalls. He had driven to Connecticut to personally tell owner Vince McMahon he was leaving. "I was in my car. I broke down. I was afraid."

"He was so unhappy at the time, " Leah Solis says. "I said why don't you leave? We'll make it."

When he was 7 years old, his father put him to work in the fields for the first time. His family lived in Mission, Texas, five miles from the Mexican border, but they went where the work was. Before little Merced could finish the first grade, he joined the family in Springfield, Ill., to pick asparagus. He didn't finish a full year of school until he was a freshman in high school.

The two-time tag team champion has spent his entire life trying to figure out his best move. In high school, athletics became his way to a better life. He received a football scholarship from West Texas A&M University to play tight end. After graduation he was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs, but was cut after the preseason. He played the year for the BC Lions in the Canadian Football League before wrestling came calling for the first time. The father of one of his college teammates just happened to be a wrestling promoter.

"His father started saying 'Merced, you're a big Mexican. There's a lot of Mexican fans and you could have a great career in professional wrestling.'" Santana says. "'People are going to like you.' This is what he told me: 'You could be making $80,000 a year as a professional wrestler.'"

Solis went where the money was, and by 1979 had his first appearances with the WWF, then a territorial promotion out of New York. When he came back for good in 1983, he brought with him his wife and first child, settling in northern New Jersey.
Two years later, WrestleMania changed everything.

"I knew it was different because of the big stars from outside of wrestling that were involved in the show," Santana says. "Liberace was there. Muhammad Ali was there. Cyndi Lauper."

"Everything was changing. Vince had told us we were going to become national stars as big as any pro team."

It was such a success that Leah says they paid her husband twice. By the mid-1980s, he was averaging over $200,000. Stardom also meant Santana was on the road as many as 355 nights a year.

"The travel was really getting to him," Leah says. "Now we had three kids. He missed birthdays, holidays. The travel was too hard on him."

"If I wrestled within 300 miles ? Boston, Washington, upstate New York ? I would always wrestle and come home," he says, adding he'd get home as late as 4 a.m., hang out with the kids in the morning then go to another town. After an 11-year run in the WWF, Santana felt he wasn't making enough money to justify being away from his wife and children. In 1997, he came back for one year as a Spanish commentator and then ducked back into obscurity.

"I just dove into being a husband and a father," Santana says. "To me, what I see from some of my buddies ? Hulk Hogan is Hulk Hogan 24 hours a day. A lot of my buddies, Ric Flair, I guess they started living the gimmick."

He's spent more years as a teacher now then he has as a wrestler. Solis started teaching Spanish at Eisenhower Middle School in 2001 ? the guy doing the hiring was a wrestling fan. He coached basketball for 10 years before the school cut athletics. His students now weren't even born when he was Tito Santana, but all their parents still remember. "I can't tell you how many kids come up to me and say: 'My mom used to have a crush on you when she was little. My dad says he used to watch you,'" Santana says, flashing the grin that made him famous.

Half a dozen times a year he still gets the itch to wrestle. He dons the trunks he keeps boxed up in the basement and steps into the ring for a local independent promotion. This Saturday, Santana is headlining a show in Stirling at the Long Hill Community Center.

"My wife says 'How long do you plan to do this?' And I said as long as the fans aren't hollering 'Get out of the ring you old fart.' When I hear that, I'll give it up."

The children that Solis sacrificed on the road for all those years are all grown up now. In August, he's expecting his first grandchild. As much as he's tried to leave Tito Santana behind, he never really has. The WWE called Solis a few weeks ago to try and get him to appear on television. He would have had to miss a few days of class ? he wasn't interested. He's happy with being Se?or Solis now.

On Sunday, when WrestleMania comes to MetLife Stadium, Merced Solis has plans to go out to dinner with his family and then head home. Most nights he's in bed by 7:30. School returns from spring break on Monday.

But on Tuesday, from 3 to 7 p.m., he'll be happy to be Tito Santana. He'll be at Santana's Hair Salon like he always is, with a big stack of autographs waiting for anyone who comes by.

"I tell the kids if you want an autograph, you don't have to get a haircut," he says. "But I keep the pictures at the salon. You can come. If you want a picture for your dad, your mom - anyone you want a picture for - I'd be happy to sign it."

PRO WRESTLING IN TOWN

WrestleMania 29 starts 6 p.m. Sunday at MetLife Stadium, One MetLife Stadium Drive, East Rutherford. Sold out. Tickets: $64.80-$2,075.50 (floor seats). Call (800) 745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com

WrestleMania Axxess, a fan expo, starts Thursday at the Izod Center and runs through Sunday; 50 State Route 120, East Rutherford. Times: 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 8 a.m., 1 and 6 p.m. Saturday; 8 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $58.50; call (800) 745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com

The WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony is 8 p.m. Saturday at Madison Square Garden, 7th Avenue and 32nd Street, Manhattan. Tickets $70-$180; inductees to include Bob Backlund, Bruno Sammartino, Mick Foley and Donald Trump.

After WrestleMania is over, Monday Night Raw will be at the Izod Center, 7:30 p.m. Monday. Tickets $30.40-$109.70. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com

For a listing of all WrestleMania events, visit wwe.com.

Thursday through Sunday, WrestleCon, another event not affiliated with the WWE, will be stationed at the Meadowlands Expo Center, with Hulk Hogan scheduled to appear Saturday; wrestlecon.com