Mike Santana Gets Candid About The Pros And Cons Of His AEW Experience

Along with former partner Ortiz, Mike Santana was essentially a Day 1 guy in AEW, joining the promotion at AEW All Out in September 2019. Now, five years later and over a year removed from leaving AEW to re-join TNA, Santana has had plenty of time to reflect on the pros and cons of his AEW tenure. Speaking with "Tim Hann Rivera," Santana first discussed the cons.

"If you're not progressing in this business, then you're dying," Santana said. "And that's with anything, any job. If you're not working to get a higher position or to progress in any way, then what are we doing here? And I've always said that my biggest thing was that I want to grow. I've always lived my life and every aspect where I'm chasing what's next. 'How are we going to grow? How are we going to continue building?' And it got to a point where it was like that wasn't happening, and we weren't getting those opportunities. And I just wasn't feeling that."

As for the pros, Santana noted that he did enjoy his early work as part of Chris Jericho's Inner Circle stable. But most importantly, his time in AEW helped him evolve into who he is now.

"I grew as a man there, cause I went through a lot of things," Santana said. "Like, during my time there, my father passed away. I dealt with my addiction issues. My friendship and partnership and all that stuff started to be affected. I grew. And it showed me a lot of different situations to learn from. So I'm always grateful for the opportunities that I had there. I'm not, like, everyone else, and I'm not going to bury everyone...that's not me. It prepared me for what's ahead, you know what I mean?"

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