WRESTLINGFEUDS
WWFGolden Era1989–1990

Rick The Model Martel vs. Tito Santana (Apr 1989 – Nov 1990)

Rick Martel walked out on tag partner Tito Santana mid-match at WrestleMania V after an accidental forearm, ending Strike Force, and the two spent the next year and a half fighting on house shows, on Saturday Night's Main Event, in a King of the Ring final and at two Survivor Series while Martel became The Model, before Martel closed the rivalry with a clean Boston crab submission on The Main Event IV.

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Background

Rick Martel and Tito Santana became a team on the August 15, 1987 *Superstars*. The Islanders attacked Martel after he pinned Barry Horowitz, and Santana, who was doing guest commentary at the Spanish-language announce table, ran in to make the save.[1][2] Santana promised they would be striking the Islanders "with force," Martel turned that into the team's name, and on the following week's *Superstars* the two announced in a locker-room interview that they would team as Strike Force.[2][1] Martel came to the pairing from the Can-Am Connection, which had ended when Tom Zenk left the WWF.[3]

Strike Force won the WWF Tag Team Championship from the Hart Foundation at a *Superstars* taping in Syracuse on October 27, 1987, when Jim Neidhart submitted to Martel's Boston crab at 9:08; the title change aired November 7.[1] They held the belts for 152 days and lost them to Demolition at WrestleMania IV on March 27, 1988, when Ax hit Martel with Mr. Fuji's cane behind the referee's back and Smash pinned him.[4][5]

The rematches that followed ended with Martel off television. At the Oakland Coliseum on June 1, 1988, Demolition beat Strike Force by count-out after hitting Martel with the Decapitation on the floor, and that match, which aired on *Prime Time Wrestling* on July 11, was Martel's last appearance for eight months.[5] On the June 18 *Superstars*, the WWF announced that he had suffered a concussion, and Santana went back to wrestling singles matches.[5][6]

Martel returned at the Royal Rumble on January 15, 1989, entering 29th, dropkicking the Barbarian out and lasting until Akeem threw him out with three men left.[7] He came back as a singles wrestler, and Strike Force did not reunite until WrestleMania V, booked against the Brain Busters, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, with Bobby Heenan in their corner.[8][7] It was Santana and Martel's first match as a team in ten months.[7]

Build-up

WrestleMania V took place on April 2, 1989 at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City before 18,946 fans.[7] From the opening bell Jesse Ventura framed the match around rust, calling Strike Force a tremendous team that had not teamed in a long time, while Gorilla Monsoon insisted that nobody knew what the two had been doing.[9] Martel stepped into the ring just as Santana went for his flying forearm on Blanchard; Blanchard ducked, and the forearm hit Martel and sent him flying out of the ring.[9]

With Martel down on the floor, the Brain Busters cut Santana off from his corner, tagging out every time one of them was in trouble.[9] When Santana finally dragged himself to the corner, Martel, still holding his head, ignored the outstretched hand, waved his partner off and walked back to the dressing room.[9][7] Ventura crowed that he had said all along the two had not teamed in too long, while Monsoon protested that he did not understand it at all.[9] Anderson pinned Santana at 9:17 after a spike piledriver, with Blanchard leaping off the turnbuckle to drive Santana's legs down.[7][9]

Backstage, Gene Okerlund told Martel that Strike Force was supposed to be a team. Martel shot back: "I'm sick of him riding my coattails! You're lucky I'm a gentleman and I just walked off! That could have been a lot worse for you, Tito Santana!"[9] By mid-May, Martel had Slick as his manager, and the two explained the turn in a ringside interview on WWF television on May 14.[7]

The feud went straight onto the house-show loop. From April 22 at the Boston Garden through the summer the two wrestled almost nightly, and Martel won most of those matches, often after attacking Santana before the bell so the bout had to be moved later in the card, or by putting his feet on the ropes for the pin.[7] On the July 1 *Superstars*, Santana interrupted Slick and Martel's appearance on the Brother Love Show and attacked both men until referees pulled him away.[7] At SummerSlam on August 28, Martel and the Rougeaus beat Santana and the Rockers when Martel pinned Marty Jannetty.[7]

They finally met one-on-one on network television on the *Saturday Night's Main Event* taped September 21 in Cincinnati and aired October 14. Martel came out with a sweater tied around his neck and his Survivor Series teammates behind him; Santana answered by bringing out his own team, and the match ended in a double disqualification at 8:40 when both sides brawled into the ring.[7][10][11][12]

The same afternoon, the WWF ran its King of the Ring tournament as an untelevised show at the Providence Civic Center, before 4,500 fans. Barry Windham no-showed and the field was redrawn; Santana beat Bad News Brown, the Warlord and Akeem, Martel beat Bill Woods, Bushwhacker Luke and Jimmy Snuka, and Santana pinned Martel in the final.[7][11][13]

At the Survivor Series on November 23 at the Rosemont Horizon, Santana was on Dusty Rhodes' Dream Team against Big Boss Man's Enforcers, with Martel on Boss Man's side.[14][7] Martel pinned Santana at 9:44 with a roll-over while holding the tights, but Brutus Beefcake later pinned Martel after the referee caught him holding the ropes, and the Dream Team won.[7]

Martel had become The Model by the end of 1989.[8] On the February 10, 1990 *Superstars* he unveiled his Arrogance cologne on the Brother Love Show, calling it the fragrance of the 1990s, and in a match aired that spring on *Prime Time Wrestling* he pinned Santana after spraying it in his eyes.[15][16] A SummerSlam rematch was announced in August, but on the August 25 *Superstars* the WWF said Martel would be at a modeling contest in Paris instead; his replacement, the Warlord, pinned Santana at SummerSlam with a running powerslam at 5:28.[15][17]

On the November 11 *Wrestling Challenge*, a blinded Jake Roberts came to the ring during their match and attacked Santana by mistake, giving Martel a disqualification win.[15][18] At the Survivor Series on November 22, Santana was on Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior's team in the final elimination match, and Martel was counted out at 7:17 after walking out.[15]

The Matches

Their last singles match was taped October 30, 1990 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and aired on NBC as *The Main Event IV* on November 23, the night after Survivor Series.[19][15][18] The show had been taped as a 90-minute *Saturday Night's Main Event* before it was moved to prime time and cut to an hour, and it drew an 8.6 rating, down from the 12.8 the previous *Main Event* had drawn in February, with Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper calling the action.[20][18] Martel came in with heat from his feud with Jake Roberts, the crowd rallied behind Santana, and Martel had already beaten him twice on television that year. By one reviewer's running count of televised results, Martel came in 17-1-1 and Santana 16-10-1.[18]

Martel attacked at the bell and threw Santana out, but charged into the ring post and hurt his arm, and Santana went to work on it, blocking a monkey flip with a stomp to the face and stealing a two-count with a small package.[19][20] Santana turned a Martel chinlock into a hammerlock on the mat, forcing Martel to the ropes.[19][20] Martel took over with a choke on the ropes, a thumb to the throat and a backbreaker. When he went up top, Santana crotched him, then made his comeback with a backbreaker of his own and a middle-rope clothesline for two.[19]

The finish came off a counter. Santana picked the leg for the figure-four, Martel turned it into a small package for two, then locked on the Boston crab for the submission at just under seven minutes, with reviewers timing it anywhere from 6:43 to 6:55.[19][20][18][21] There was no run-in and no distraction. One review noted that Santana usually lost feature matches on something fluky, which made this a more decisive loss than normal, and that it was Martel's third straight win over a top name in as many shows.[18]

Afterward Gene Okerlund interviewed Roberts, who said that with Survivor Series over, Martel was out in the open and could be hunted one-on-one.[18] The Santana feud was finished, and the Roberts feud was the one the WWF was building.

The same Fort Wayne taping produced a title change that never aired. The Rockers beat the Hart Foundation for the tag team titles that night, but when the show was cut from 90 minutes to an hour for NBC, the switch was dropped and erased from the record.[20]

Aftermath

Martel moved on to Roberts full time. He had blinded Roberts with Arrogance on the October 6, 1990 *Superstars*, and at the Survivor Series his Visionaries, Martel with the Warlord and Power and Glory, beat Roberts' Vipers without losing a member, the first clean sweep in Survivor Series history.[22][23] The program ran into 1991 and the blindfold match at WrestleMania VII.[8]

At the joint WWF, All Japan and New Japan show at the Tokyo Dome on April 13, 1990, Santana teamed with Jimmy Snuka to beat Masa Fuchi and Kenta Kobashi, while Martel and Curt Hennig lost to Jumbo Tsuruta and Haku.[24][25] Back home, Martel opened WrestleMania VI by making Koko B. Ware submit to the Boston crab.[26]

Santana's path went the other way. He lost to the Barbarian at WrestleMania VI, and in the tournament for the vacant Intercontinental Championship he reached the final only to lose to Mr. Perfect, in a match taped April 23, 1990 and aired May 19.[26][27] At the 1990 Survivor Series he pinned the Warlord with the flying forearm 28 seconds into the final elimination match, then was eliminated by Ted DiBiase.[15] In December 1990 the Wrestling Observer reported that Santana was slated to go to Japan's SWS as part of the WWF's talent exchange.[28]

Santana has said the WWF was preparing him to be world champion for a push into Central America and Mexico, but the company turned its attention to Canada and went with Bret Hart instead, and he went back to Spanish commentary; he felt he had been higher on the cards than Hart.[29] In 1991 McMahon asked him to become a bullfighter, El Matador. Santana trained in Mexico for the role, opened WrestleMania VIII against Shawn Michaels, and later said the WWF "missed an opportunity" with the gimmick.[30] He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004 by Michaels.[29]

Santana stayed with the WWF until August 1993, and Martel until January 1995.[6]

Behind the Scenes

Santana wanted to be the one who turned. By his account, when the WWF was planning Martel's return, he went to Vince McMahon and asked, "Can I be the heel?" McMahon told him, "No, I still got some things I want to do with you. He says, Rick's going to be the heel."[4] Santana said he had studied heels for his whole career and saw others make the switch, and that he would have been "a heel, like Mr. Perfect or Mr. Wonderful."[4]

Asked whether McMahon never saw Santana as a viable heel, Bruce Prichard said, "Absolutely," because "it's hard to hate Tito Santana," adding that "Tito was a very, very warm, natural, just real person. And there's nothing put on about him."[31] Martel's own account is that the turn was his idea, because he felt he had done everything he could as a babyface. He has said McMahon almost laughed him out of the room before reconsidering, and that they took the Strike Force reunion and split slowly because they were worried Randy Savage's heel turn might overshadow his.[32]

The Model's name did not come from Martel. He has said McMahon and J.J. Dillon came up with it and that he was not keen at first, but his wife's reaction was, "At least it's not the Red Rooster!"[32] Prichard has said he loved the gimmick: early on the WWF had Martel speak little, leaning on voiceovers and the cologne bottle, Martel wore McMahon's old suits because they fit him, and they put "stinky stuff" in the Arrogance bottle.[33]

Prichard has also explained why Santana lost the 1990 Intercontinental tournament final to Mr. Perfect: with a babyface world champion in the Ultimate Warrior, the WWF wanted a heel Intercontinental champion.[33] Martel, for his part, has said he went into real estate in 1990, and that McMahon could see his interests had changed and held no resentment.[32]

The 1988 injury angle covered something real. Martel has said his wife developed ileitis and had part of her intestines removed, and that he went to McMahon to say he had to leave even with the Demolition feud running; McMahon backed him completely and told him the door was open to come back.[32]

None of it reflected real animosity. Martel has called Santana "a dream to work with" after the Zenk split, and has said of their first days as a team, "I could feel comfortable having him beside me. I had somebody that could get the job done. He was a great guy, a really nice guy."[2] Santana, asked about his old partner, said, "Rick Martel is a hard-working man. [He] can't be trusted at all times, but he's a hard-working man."[2] The team name almost went another way. Santana has said McMahon first wanted to call them the Border Patrol, and he warned that with migrants dying at the border, the name could turn them heel, so McMahon changed it.[34]

The team that beat them did not last long either. WrestleMania V was the Brain Busters' only WrestleMania; Heenan fired them during a backstage interview on a later *Saturday Night's Main Event*, Blanchard failed a drug test on November 1, 1989, and Anderson left the WWF more or less immediately afterward.[35]

Legacy

The Wrestling Observer rated the October 1989 *Saturday Night's Main Event* match three and a half stars, and a later recap of that issue called it the closest thing the feud got to a pay-per-view blow-off.[11] The Observer gave the *Main Event IV* match three stars, judging that Santana looked great and Martel looked fine.[21] Later reviews of the blow-off were cooler: one called it "quite the delayed blowoff" and "standard TV fare," another "kind of disappointing compared to previous outings from them, but at least it's a clean finish."[19][20]

The WrestleMania V match has had a longer life. One retrospective called it "a largely forgettable match buried in a fourteen-match card," but praised how much story the two teams packed into nine minutes and called Martel's post-match interview "a thing of unscripted beauty."[9] WWE has listed the walkout among its most shocking tag team breakups.[3]

The record of the feud favored Martel. He won most of their house-show meetings in 1989, beat Santana twice on television in 1990, and had the last word on *The Main Event IV*, by one count his eighth straight win; Santana's biggest win in it was the King of the Ring final.[7][18] With the SummerSlam 1990 match called off, the two never had a singles match on pay-per-view.[7][15] Santana said in 2014 that he felt the feud never came to a definite conclusion.[30]

The split's longest-lasting result was The Model, a character Martel played into the Roberts program, the Visionaries and the rest of his WWF run.[8][23] Prichard has credited the gimmick with giving Martel a personality to go with his ability in the ring.[33] Santana never got the heel turn he asked for and spent his whole WWE career in one alignment, and by his own account he lost his shot at the world title when the company chose Bret Hart instead.[4][31][29]

See Also

Storylines

Sources & Further Listening

  1. 1987 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/87.htm
  2. "Tito Santana and Rick Martel: Rise and Demise of Strike Force" (Santana and Martel interview quotes) — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/tito-santana-rick-martel-strike-force/
  3. "10 Shocking Tag Team Breakups" — WWE.com. https://www.wwe.com/classics/classic-lists/10-shocking-tag-team-breakups
  4. "Tito Santana Was Furious He Couldn't Turn Heel After Strike Force Broke Up" (Santana interview) — Wrestling News. https://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-news/tito-santana-furious-couldnt-turn-heel-after-strike-force-broke/
  5. 1988 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/88.htm
  6. Strike Force (professional wrestling) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Force_(professional_wrestling)
  7. 1989 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/89.htm
  8. Rick Martel — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Martel
  9. "Match of the Year: Strike Force vs. The Brain Busters 4/2/89 – WrestleMania V" — matchoftheyear.net. https://www.matchoftheyear.net/2019/02/strike-force-vs-brain-busters-4289.html
  10. "WWF Saturday Night's Main Event - October 14th, 1989" — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2017/03/27/wwf-saturday-nights-main-event-october-14th-1989/
  11. "Wrestling Observer Flashback – 10.23.89", Scott Keith's issue recap of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/04/14/wrestling-observer-flashback-10-23-89/
  12. Saturday Night's Main Event, Oct. 14, 1989 results — WWE.com. https://www.wwe.com/shows/snme/history/1985to1992/oct141989
  13. "WWF King Of The Ring Tournament - 1989" — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wwf-king-of-the-ring-tournament-1989/
  14. Survivor Series (1989) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Series_(1989)
  15. 1990 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/90.htm
  16. WWF Superstars of Wrestling, February 10th, 1990 recap — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2017/06/25/wwf-superstars-of-wrestling-february-10th-1990/
  17. "Wrestling Observer Flashback – 09.03.90", Scott Keith's issue recap of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/10/29/wrestling-observer-flashback-09-03-90/
  18. "What the World Was Watching: WWF The Main Event IV - November 23, 1990" — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2022/03/02/what-the-world-was-watching-wwf-the-main-event-iv-november-23-1990/
  19. "The SmarK Rant for WWF The Main Event IV" — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/rant/the-smark-rant-for-wwf-the-main-event-iv/
  20. "The SmarK Retro Rant for The Main Event #4 – November 1990" — Inside Pulse. https://insidepulse.com/2006/03/22/47363/
  21. "Wrestling Observer Flashback – 12.03.90", Scott Keith's issue recap of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/11/16/wrestling-observer-flashback-12-03-90/
  22. "Rick 'The Model' Martel sprays 'Arrogance' in the eyes on Jake 'The Snake' Roberts: Superstars, October 6, 1990" — WWE.com. https://www.wwe.com/videos/rick-the-model-martel-sprays-arrogance-in-the-eyes-on-jake-the-snake-roberts-superstars-october-6-1990
  23. "Rick Martel leads The Visionaries to WWE's first clean sweep in Survivor Series history" — Cageside Seats. https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2024/11/28/24306995/rick-martel-visionaries-first-clean-sweep-1990-wwe-survivor-series
  24. "Wrestling Observer Flashback – 02.05.90", Scott Keith's issue recap of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/09/18/wrestling-observer-flashback-02-05-90/
  25. "Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04.23.90", Scott Keith's issue recap of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/10/03/wrestling-observer-flashback-04-23-90/
  26. "Wrestling Observer Flashback – 04.09.90", Scott Keith's issue recap of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/09/30/wrestling-observer-flashback-04-09-90/
  27. "Wrestling Observer Flashback – 05.07.90", Scott Keith's issue recap of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/10/06/wrestling-observer-flashback-05-07-90/
  28. "Wrestling Observer Flashback – 12.10.90", Scott Keith's issue recap of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/11/17/wrestling-observer-flashback-12-10-90/
  29. "Tito Santana and the Title That Eluded Him" (Santana interview) — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/tito-santana/
  30. "Tito Santana Says WWE Missed An Opportunity With 'El Matador'" (Santana interview) — Wrestling Inc. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2014/10/tito-santana-says-wwe-missed-an-opportunity-with-el-matador-582736/
  31. "Bruce Prichard On Vince McMahon Not Letting Tito Santana Turn Heel" (Something to Wrestle podcast transcription) — 411MANIA. https://411mania.com/wrestling/bruce-prichard-vince-mcmahon-not-letting-tito-santana-turn-heel/
  32. RF Video shoot interview with Rick Martel (recap) — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2022/05/07/rf-video-shoot-interview-with-rick-martel/
  33. "Kayfabe Commentaries Timeline Series: 1990 WWE as told by Bruce Prichard" (shoot interview review) — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2017/07/06/kayfabe-commentaries-timeline-series-1990-wwe-as-told-by-bruce-prichard/
  34. "Strike Force Shattered: The Rivalry Between Tito Santana and Rick Martel" — ProWrestlingPost.com. https://prowrestlingpost.com/tito-santana-and-rick-martel/
  35. Brain Busters — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Busters

Further Listening

  • Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard — the episode covering why Vince McMahon never let Tito Santana turn heel
  • RF Video Shoot Interview with Rick Martel — Martel's account of pitching his own heel turn, the Model name and his wife's illness
  • Kayfabe Commentaries, Timeline: The History of WWE, 1990 as told by Bruce Prichard — the office view of the Model gimmick
  • Tito Santana's Tales From the Ring (Tito Santana autobiography) — Santana's own telling of the Strike Force years