WWE Hall of Famer Tito Santana reflected on the old-school WWF system during a recent appearance on the In The Front Row podcast, revealing that wrestlers rarely practiced matches ahead of time and instead relied on instinct, crowd reactions, and veteran leadership inside the ring.
Santana credited Mr. Fuji as one of the key figures who helped him understand wrestling psychology and how to connect with an audience during matches.
Tito Santana Says WWF Wrestlers Never Rehearsed Matches
According to Santana, the WWF schedule left little time for rehearsals or planning matches in advance because talent spent most of their days traveling from city to city.
“Believe it or not, we never practiced, you know, we were traveling. We’d fly into a different city. We get there, we check into the hotel, eat, go to the gym, get a couple hours of rest. We had to be the arena an hour before the matches started, so the fans were already in. So, you know, we didn’t have a preview to go in and practice any moves. But we didn’t need to, because everybody back then was so good.”
Santana explained that Fuji taught him one of the most important lessons of his career — paying attention to the crowd and adjusting accordingly.
“Mr. Fuji taught me this. It says, listen to the people, the people tell you what they want. And I think to myself, What do you mean? Listen to the people, they tell you what they want. And before you know it, it’s true.”
He then detailed how Fuji would communicate with him throughout matches while they were in holds together inside the ring.
“I remember Fuji had me in a hold, you know, and all of a sudden he says, okay, Tito son, put your arm up a little bit and start shaking. Start shaking, and listen to the crowd. And the more you shook the hand, the more the people went crazy. Said, Okay, get on your knees. You know they would call. They were so good, they would call all the spots for me.”
Santana admitted that during the early years of his career, nearly everyone he wrestled was more experienced than he was, which forced him to improve quickly.
“You learn every time for the first five years, every time I stepped into the ring, everybody that I was wrestling against was better than me. So I was learning every night I would just listen, you know, and I became a good follower. It’s like a guy leading a woman on a dance. It’s the same thing, you know, I was the girl, you know, the heels would lead me, and I was a good follower. And people loved working with me, because when it time for me to fight back, I had a lot of fire, and they loved that.”
Tito Santana Explains Old WWF Match Structure
Santana also described how little was actually planned before matches in that era. Wrestlers were often only told who would win and how the finish would happen.
“The only thing we knew, the agents that read the shows, they say, okay, Tito, you’re going over tonight. This is how you’re going to go over. Everything else we would put together, you know, we didn’t discuss in the locker room. We didn’t do anything. We just go in there and we listen to the people and we, you know, we did it.”
He then broke down the traditional babyface formula that was commonly used during WWF matches.
“A baby face would always out-wrestle the heel. The heel would have to cheat to stop you. You know, the baby face would do stuff to look good. The heel would have to do stop you, poke your eyes, do something behind the referee. Now that the heel is getting heat on you and you fighting back, but they stop you again. Fighting back. Stop you again. But when it came time to make your final comeback. When we’re going home, we say, going home, you know, nobody’s stopping you. Then you go, boom, boom, boom. You make your comeback. You either go over you beat the guy, or the guy would cheat and beat you.”
Santana also shared concerns about today’s wrestling business, saying modern talent often lacks the same opportunities to develop naturally in the ring.
“The wrestling these guys that are wrestling now don’t have anybody to teach them in the first place, but they don’t have that much time in the ring. Most of their wrestling is our interviews in the middle of the ring nowadays, they don’t. There’s no way they could ever learn the business like, like I learned it.”
He also criticized the rising costs associated with attending WWE events, particularly WrestleMania.
“I went to WrestleMania last year in Vegas. I didn’t want to go this year. I don’t want to overdo my presence. But I understand that a lot of the tickets are not sold, you know. So, you know, I understand that they’re struggling to draw, but they’re so expensive, you know, how can anybody afford to pay $1,000 you know, for your kids to you and your kids to sit in the match. You know, it’s, uh, I think they’re out pricing themselves.”
Mr. Fuji, born Harry Fujiwara, passed away in 2016 at the age of 82 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007. Santana retired from full-time teaching in 2023 after working for 26 years as a Spanish teacher and basketball coach in New Jersey.
Tito Santana Recalls How Mr. Fuji Taught Him Wrestling Psychology
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