WWE: Top 10 Superstars To Never Be World Champion
By Tim Sherry
credit: wwe.com
4. Tito Santana
Want to hear a head-turning statistic? Texas’ Tito Santana, in his WWE career, won over a thousand matches. That’s right, the eventual “El Matador” is in the quadruple figures in the win category during his 12 years in the promotion. Only seven other superstars in WWE history have accomplished that feat and all seven have been world champions. In fact between those men, John Cena, Randy Orton, Kane, The Big Show, The Undertaker, Bret Hart, and Shawn Michaels, we’re talking about 51 world titles between them. Even more telling, Santana has more wins than the likes of Hulk Hogan, Triple H, and Randy Savage. Yet, Tito could just never make that leap to the main event.
Unfortunately for Santana, he was a victim of poor timing. His in-ring ability really peaked in the early to mid-80’s and by the time the company was main stream, Hulk Hogan was the biggest star in the business. And with what we now all know about Hogan, with him being the top baby face, there was no room for another at that time. However, the argument can be made that Santana was the second-most over good guy in the 80’s. With his fiery comebacks and endless passion, Santana had the baby face character of that era pegged. His lengthy feud with Don Muraco over the Intercontinental Title between 1983 and 1984 was about as compelling as any program in the company at that time. His follow-up programs with Greg Valentine and Randy Savage were a lot of the same. And when his two IC title reigns ended, he teamed with Rick Martel to to create Strike Force who captured tag team gold in the fall of 1987.
From 1982 until 1993, Santana was a mainstay on the roster and one of the most consistent ones at that. In those 12 years, he worked over 100 matches for each of them expect one. He was the perfect mid-card baby face who made everyone he faced look better. He did get the credit he deserves when he entered the Hall of Fame in 2004 but with the amount of wins to Santana’s name, he probably deserved more. He was the definition of a loyal employee, never jumping ship despite his ability and mid-card booking. Based on that alone, he deserved world title gold but despite not attaining in it, Santana will forever be remembered as a guy who gave everything to the sport and never looked back.