In a new documentary released on YouTube by TNA, Mike Santana, formerly of the Santana & Ortiz tag team (“Proud and Powerful”) in AEW, discusses overcoming addiction, how he feels he has to represent a lot of people including his culture.

“Everybody can say this is just a wrestling storyline or promo or any of that shit, I could care less. I know what I represent, I know where I come from, I know what I’ve been through, nobody can take that from me. People are out there playing a character, what you see is what you get; there ain’t no f—ing character here. You’re seeing a straight Boricua player from New York City, that’s what you get. There ain’t no f—ing character here.”

He talked about his tough family upbringing shaping who he is today. “Growing up in some of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City, teenage mom, single mother; having to witness her struggle and endure unimaginable abuse, I did anything not to be home to see my mom get her ass whooped every night,” he said. “Sometimes when you deal with stuff like that you find family in the street and that’s exactly what happened with me. I found myself with f—ed up crowds and doing things that I regret and I’m not proud of.”

He said his daughter helped save his life with her Christmas list asking him to stop doing drugs. “When you’re sitting in rehab for 30 days you stare out the window because you got a lot of time to think. It was my daughter writing her Christmas list right before I went into rehab and on her list she ask Santa for Daddy to stop. Her writing her Santa letter saved my life.”

Steve Maclin said there’s not a lot of difference between Santana the man and the on-air wrestler.

Santana said he’s in TNA to be the guy, not coast. “Anybody in the company who would take offense, take offense,” he said. “I’m here to be the guy. If you’re comfortable and coasting in your spot, good. Because I’m going to knock you down. That’s as real as it’s going to get. I hope TNA is ready.”

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