Let’s run with a hard pick for the Wrestling Salvage Yard! Let’s reach into the 90s WWE gimmick bag and we’ve got: El Matador better known as Tito Santana. This is definitely a hard one, folks.
From Tito Santana to El Matador in WWE
We’re not going into Tito Santana’s entire career in WWE as his 1980s run was good. He was the company’s most notable Latino wrestler and was getting a good push as a singles wrestler. After coming back to the company in 1991, he was put in a bullfighter costume and given the name El Matador. According to Tito Santana, he was being considered as the next big name in WWE at the time as the company was supposedly looking at a Latin American push.
Wrestling Salvage Yard: El Matador
However, a wild Bret Hart appeared and the WWE turned his attention north to Canada. How much of that is true and how much is revisionist history on Santana’s part is for you to decide but in the 90s, WWE was definitely all about Canada and the UK.
Anyway, El Matador just wasn’t it in WWE during the early 90s. He was never really in the mix of anything important during this period but he was always around on television programs. Meaning that ultimately, Tito Santana could’ve just returned as himself as there was really nothing that was actually different or fresh for him.
Salvaging El Matador
I’ll just concede defeat as this gimmick just didn’t do anything for me. It was just Tito Santana in a costume. I wouldn’t say it just outright sucked because it could’ve been a fine gimmick in a comedy promotion but there just wasn’t anything here.
Ultimately, it was another early 90s WWE gimmick that was too cartoony even for the 80s and was going to fail. There’s no salvaging El Matador which is a shame because Tito Santana was pretty damn good in-ring.
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