Tito Santana on The "Lost" Intercontinental Title Switch vs Don Muraco (Not Filmed on PURPOSE?) 

I couldn't agree more. Tito was pretty hot in terms of being over. But I can also see why WWF didn't want to push him more, because he wasn't the best promo, and he was given the gimmick of a bland white meat baby face. But how over he was in Strike Force shows how he could have been if he had an amazing gimmick. And no, El Matador was not the way to go. Although I sorta liked it. As far as Tito selling more shirts than Hulk? Doubtful. If someone (Heenan) told Tito that, it was a rib. He was over, no doubt about it, but no way on Earth he was outselling Hogan. But Tito is totally right that so many people could have had Hogan's spot. However, Hogan DID run with the ball. Not everybody would.

@@JeremiahEcks777 Tito was more over with Hispanics than Hulk was with white non-Hispanics. And I would imagine Tito was also more over with white non-Hispanics than Hulk was with Hispanics. So I can see in areas like NYC, California, Florida, or Texas where Tito would outsell Hulk, even if only marginally. Especially during his feud with Valentine.

@@michaelkelly4613 I've got to be honest but I really struggle to believe that. If WWF felt Tito was that hot, he wouldn't have been a glorified jobber to the stars for a lot of his WWF career. I'm not disputing that Tito wasn't over. He was. And he was an excellent and perhaps underrated worker. And clearly WWF had faith in him to give him two titles back when titles meant something. But more over than Hogan, even in specific areas? No way.

Sorry, but no. As kids we changed the channel whenever Tito was having matches, post Strike Force. He just didn't stand out among guys like Jake, Rick Rude, Macho Man etc. He was the good guy version of Greg Valentine, the product of an earlier era.

They used him but damn everybody couldn't be hulk Hogan

Adrian and Jesse went to WWF too

One of Heenans classic quotes from WM 8. Memories.

Heard "Will you stop" in Gorilla's voice in my mind instantaneously.

Loved that the IC belt was a legitimate B-card main event match for years.

Tito probably did very well on the house show sales…. If you are going to a show and Hogan was not headlining it, you would show support for your “guy” on the night… when they showed Tito matches on tv the would always pan into the crowd of someone wearing a Tito t-shirt, so I could kind of agree with that he outsold Hogan (but in terms of the B-show and A-shows hogan was not at)

Back in those days the belt didn’t change hands often so only a select few were world champion

My friends brother Chris RIP, was at the Garden the night he lost the IC Title to Savage

ECW made an attempt at restoring history, when they had Tito pin Muraco for the ECW HW title in August 1993 and was televised.

The Undertaker result was never meant to be shown on US tv, and it was probably early 00’s before people were aware of it… the Papa Shango WM9 result was documented in the WWE magazine, and the footage of that match only surfaced a few years ago (it’s basically Jim Ross doing sound tests for the majority of it)

@@clark82 Yeah well it seems like the sentiment was we can't show Tito winning on TV or on a PPV because it might help him get over and God forbid they should let that happen. The Undertaker match was actually really good but the WWF wasn't going to allow footage of Tito pinning the Undertaker cleanly people might actually start getting behind Tito if that happened.

I got to see the Tito vs Undertaker match back in 92. The whole show was released here in Canada at video rental stores.

@@clark82 Ya, The Undertaker was still being promoted as Undefeated for his match with Hulk Hogan at Survivor Series 1991.

The loudest pops I ever heard in the Boston Garden for any event was for Hulk Hogan.

@@bigblueGiants and wrestlemania 18 in Toronto

I would watch Bret Hart in almost any match over almost any match Hogan had any day... But if someone tries to rewrite history and claim Hogan wasn't over, that fans only wanted a strong work rate... bull s**t quite frankly. In WWF 1995-1997, you want to talk work rate? You had prime Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, prime Undertaker, prime Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Hakushi, Steve Austin before injury, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Runnells, Brian Pillman, Mick Foley... you want to talk work rate? THAT's a hall of fame of workrate right there. And the program sucked. Because the thing with wrestling is, it's not about workrate alone. It never was and it never will be. Wrestling is a variety show. You need those who are high work rate like Bret to carry the mid card and make main events special attractions from time to time, but you need those who are hotdoggers and grandstanders who's push depends on their charisma and connecting with the audience. Wrestling at the moment has the best workrate it ever has, but wrestling, even with more options than ever, isn't doing half as well as it was under Hogan and Flair in the 80's. And frankly 90% of wrestlers now are infinitely more watchable than Hogan in the ring. But Hogan knew how to work the crowd, work the gimmick *and* was protected and projected properly by wealthy people. Nowadays, you might be able to work the gimmick but crappy scripting and stop / start pushing will kill you cold, since booking is a lost art. Also history disagrees with you as Hogan was cheered massively in Toronto for WM6. And it didn't look piped in to me. According to Edge, it wasn't. According to Edge the crowd was hot for Hogan AND Warrior.

Muraco has said they botched the finish

@@tomh1593 Wasn't Muraco's foot on the bottom rope when he was pinned?

Feb 11, 1984

They showed clip of the match on royal rumble 92, not sure if the whole match was taped

It was recorded, but from a ring side handheld camera, and was more so the final minutes and the aftermath with Mountie using his shock stick on Bret and Piper coming to the rescue

The guy that knew no more than one hand full of moves happens to be the guy that gets pushed cuz he's Juiced to the gills much better performers back in the day that they could have made a star out of pukeamania ran Wild! 🤔

Chico Santana

I agree. However he might be telling the truth also; he says Heenan told him this. Maybe it was a rib?

Tito was massive in the 80s not like Hogan. Then again in my opinion he put out a better product than Hogan on the mat. From an interview standpoint of course Hogan was a master.

@@gslide06 Oh, Tito is probably better pound for pound in terms of match quality but Hogan blows Tito out of the water in terms of longevity and overall popularity. Merch sales prove it.

It's hard to overstate how over all these guys from the 80s and 90s were and still are. Tito was and is a legend. That said... You're spot on about Tito. Great talent, great babyface, super popular. Not on Hogan's level, and that's no insult or knock at Tito. Tito had a career to be envied by most, and deserves to be remembered as an all-time great midcard/upper midcard babyface. I agree with you about the push thing, too. I wonder what would have happened if Vince had chosen Tito instead of Bret in 1992 (assuming that story is true). It's pure speculation, but I don't see Tito Santana being as over as Bret Hart or as legendary as Bret Hart. Maybe he would have been, with the push behind him. Interesting food for thought, but no way to know.

Yes and no. No wrestler can hit that level by themselves. Professional wrestling a team sport. You need the right booking,, the proper amount of airtime (but not too much), the production tean know what camera angles and such to make YOU PERSONALLY look your best, and a million other things. All those people you "beat" while getting over, needed to lose to get you over. I know you realize all this, Im just discussing lol. But there IS that "it" factor that many wrestlers have, but only a few have a lot of. And only a couple have it on the level of Hulk Hogan. He had that Hollywood, cross-over kind of appeal going on. When he was in Rocky, it put his name on the lips of a LOT of people that didnt even watch wrestling. And anyone that lived thru the 1980's will never forget seeing Hulk slamming the Giant. It was a B I G deal!

@@morrnmanderson7376 true but all the wrestlers became main stream names because of the main stream attention hogan brought to the wwf . he was one of the biggest main stream stars in the entire world

I had always heard Jimmy Snuka was the original choice to lead the WWF which I believe as in 1983 he was over more than anyone even Andre and Backlund but there was heavy drug and alcohol abuse and he was also a suspect in the death of his girlfriend.

The Coliseum VHS tape History of the IC title only shows some of the match and Tito holding the title belt. I just looked at 2/25/84 Championship Wrestling episode. Again ONLY a few minutes of match is shown and Title entering the ring with the belt after the (pin/win)

@@davidfrederick6003 yes, as I stated in the edit. But that's still different than running out of tape or losing it as they seem to say here.

From what many interviews with Tito and Muraco said it was a sunset flip coming out of the corner which Tito came up with. I saw this ending with both of them on a house show later when they were trying to make Muraco face

I think Muraco said he botched it in his eyes but it still went over okay to the crowd. He was his own worst critic, and himself, like Tito was tremendous.

That's accurate, there was a lot of Tito shirts at the house shows. And the crowd pops evidence that fact further.

@@gslide06 delusional