Reason For Santana & Ortiz Split Revealed

Proud & Powerful officially came to an end on the September 9 edition of AEW Collision as Santana made it clear he would be a singles competitor going forward. This led to a real-life Twitter spat between Santana and his now-former tag team partner Ortiz that was said to not be a part of a storyline.

Santana and Ortiz had a falling out in 2022 and the reason for Proud & Powerful splitting up is simply that Santana no longer wishes to team with Ortiz, Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio. 

"Mike Santana doesn't want to team with him [Ortiz] anymore. 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 de facto, 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," Meltzer stated.

"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."

Santana and Ortiz first started teaming together back in 2012 on the independent wrestling scene. They then headed to IMPACT Wrestling in 2017 as a new version of LAX. Santana and Ortiz went on to become four-time IMPACT World Tag Team Champions before they joined All Elite Wrestling in August 2019. 

Santana has only recently returned to AEW after over a year on the shelf with a serious knee injury he suffered in June 2022. Ortiz remained on TV but he was also seldom used following April 2023.

H/T to Wrestling Inc.