On June 29, 2022 at AEW Blood & Guts, Mike Santana suffered a leg injury that kept him sidelined for over a year.
Santana was regularly teaming with Ortiz as part of Proud N Powerful before he was injured. Ortiz remained on television for a short time, still working with Eddie Kingston, but eventually was off TV himself.
Santana remained on the shelf until AEW All In when he returned to competition to compete in Anarchy In The Arena alongside Ortiz & Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta).
Speaking to Jeremy Lambert & Joel Pearl on In The Weeds, Santana commented on being sidelined with the injury and what was going through his mind at the time.
"It was quite the journey. I said in a promo a couple of weeks ago, going away for the injury was the easy part. It was the spiritual, the mental, the emotional aspect of dealing with it. The last three years, three and a half years, was a whirlwind of a lot of stuff going on in my personal life. My entire life, I spent running to wrestling as an escape from a lot of the personal things I went through in my life. The past three and a half years were no different. There was a lot of times when wrestling was the thing making me unhappy. To be honest, a lot of the personal issues I was dealing with, I just ran and ran from. Finally, when you don't have that aspect and you're sitting at home, you have no choice but to face those things. It was a process. One day, I'll get more in depth of what went down. I don't even know where to go from there. It was a lot of shit. Nobody likes to deal with the skeletons in their closest. Everyone keeps them locked away for as long as they can, but when you don't have that escape, and you have nothing but time to think...I'll keep it real, I didn't think I was ever going to wrestle again. That wasn't because of me not being able to get through the injury, it was a lot of personal struggles and things I had to deal with. Thankfully, I got to a point where 'enough is enough.' Either I'm going to get better, be better, and use this time to become a ten times better person than what I was or I'm just going to sit in my shit and let it eat away at me. I've never been the type of person to allow that to happen. Thankfully, I spent half, six months, of the time I was out just bettering myself in every way possible. I sat with myself a lot, dealt with a lot of my issues, and I want to be better and get better. They always say, 'if you don't want it, it isn't going to work.' I wanted it. I was desperate. I took the time to do the work and it made me a better person and the person I am today is nothing like the person I was before and I'm thankful. God gave me another chance and I ran with it. I'm here today and I'm blessed," he said.
When asked if there was a moment that made him deal with things, an emotional Santana recalled the moment he shared with his daughter that got him in gear.
"The moment had to be, right before Christmas, and my daughter showed me her Christmas list. Her Christmas list says, 'I just want Daddy to get better.' That did it for me. My daughter has looked at me like a super hero her whole life. On the path that I was on and where I was going, I would have never been able to fix her. When I read that, that was it. I knew I had to do something, and I did something. Her reaction to seeing me back on TV, that was all I needed. That was the moment," he said.
Since returning to the ring, Santana has split from Ortiz with Santana walking his own path.
Elsewhere during the interview, Santana commented on the public split. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
Watch the full interview with Santana in the video above.
