10 AEW Originals Who Are Struggling In 2022
5. Ortiz
Santana and Ortiz were an integral part of The Inner Circle back in the early days of Dynamite and, in the run up to Chris Jericho’s eventual showdown with Jon Moxley, Santana showed the potential babyface hero lurking inside his heel exterior.
Unfortunately, Proud and Powerful never really got anywhere near the tag team titles. While it made sense for the heel champion to expect his cronies to focus on protecting his World title, even after the stable turned face, the focus remained on whatever Jericho was up to rather than allowing his tag team buddies to spread their wings.
It was a subject explored as tension mounted between Jericho and Eddie Kingston, but even after the Inner Circle splintered Santana and Ortiz didn’t receive a push. They were left playing sidekicks to another pal instead. Santana is currently out injured but is rumoured to be so fed up with the booking that he isn’t coming back, leading to a real-life rift with his tag team partner.
Where does this leave Ortiz? Recently he and Ruby Soho were trading mixed tag wins with Tay Melo and Sammy Guevara for belts that don’t feel at all prestigious or important. Then Soho also picked up an injury.
He was last seen in a strange intervention segment for Kingston but without his teammate, what does the future hold for this tag team specialist?