Rumors Of Tension Between AEW's Santana & Ortiz

After a year away recovering from injury, Mike Santana's return to AEW in August seemed to suggest he and long-time tag partner Ortiz would be reuniting, with the duo teaming with the Blackpool Combat Club to face Penta El Zero M, Eddie Kingston, Orange Cassidy, and Best Friends at All In. Since then, however, Santana has shot vignettes promoting a singles push, leading to an argument between the two on social media that suggested old tensions between them haven't cooled. On "Wrestling Observer Radio," Dave Meltzer confirmed that the duo have become estranged, on and offscreen.

"Mike Santana doesn't want to team with him [Ortiz] anymore," Meltzer said. "So that's the basic gist. They agreed to do the tag team for London, and now Santana wants to go as a single ... Look, when Santana got hurt, Ortiz became defacto, a singles guy. And you saw what became of his career in the last year, he almost disappeared. So him as a single is not good for him, as compared to being in a tag team. For Santana, I would say the same thing, but he really wants that."

"But I think he also ... wasn't as happy in AEW. I understand that Ortiz was one of those guys ... he's making more money than he's ever made before, and if he's not featured or anything ... he's okay with that. Santana is less okay with that. He feels he wants more time to wrestle, more exposure, and all that. And he was disappointed as a team that they were not getting it, so he wanted to go as a single. And also, he and Ortiz had kind of a falling out a year ago. That's the situation."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription