Signs of real-life tension between Santana & Ortiz have been noticed by AEW fans, and there has even been speculation that Santana could leave the company in the near future.
Santana & Ortiz have been teaming together for over a decade now. The two first joined up on the independent scene as EYFBO in 2012 before signing with IMPACT Wrestling in 2017 and joining the celebrated LAX faction. There, they won the promotion’s Tag Team Championships four times, establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with.
In 2019, the two signed with AEW and made their debut at All Out in 2019 and joined Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle. While members of the group, they were part of some of the biggest matches in AEW’s early days including both Stadium Stampedes and the inaugural Blood & Guts match.
After the Inner Circle imploded earlier this year, they began teaming with Eddie Kingston to take on their former leader and his new group, the Jericho Appreciation Society, most recently joining Blackpool Combat Club to defeat the JAS in the second-ever Blood & Guts bout.
However, in recent weeks, there has been speculation that the two have real-life heat between them.
Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp was asked his thoughts on the situation and he noted that Santana & Ortiz have not had a two-on-two tag match for some time, with the last one coming in February when they defeated Chris Jericho and Jake Hager on an episode of Dynamite. On top of this, Santana has recently been taking bookings on his own without Ortiz on the independent scene.
Santana has also caused a stir on social media. In April, he tweeted “126 days”, which many have taken to be how long he had left on his contract, and just a few days ago he ominously tweeted the word “soon”.
Soon.
— Mike SANTANA🇵🇷 (@Santana_Proud) June 27, 2022
During the Blood & Guts match on June 29th, Santana appeared to suffer an injury to his leg when performing an uranage at the beginning of the bout. While there has not been any official word on his condition, one doctor who examined is said to believe it could be “very very bad.”