Santana and Ortiz

Santana and Ortiz
Ortiz and Santana in 2019
Tag team
Members	Angel Ortiz / Ortiz Mike Draztik / Santana
Name(s)	The Latin American Xchange LAX EYFBO Proud and Powerful[1] Santana and Ortiz
Billed from	New York City, New York
Debut	March 9, 2012
Years active	2012–present

Santana (born February 4, 1991) and Ortiz (born September 27, 1991) are an American professional wrestling tag team currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where they are part of The Inner Circle stable.

In 2012, Angel Ortiz and Mike Draztik formed a tag team known as EYFBO (acronym for Entertain Your Fucking Balls Off or Entertain Your Freakin Butt Off)^[2] and worked for several years in the American independent circuit. They won several titles, including the AAW Tag Team Championship, CZW World Tag Team Championship and the HOG Tag Team Championship.

In 2017, they were hired by Impact Wrestling, and changed their names to Ortiz and Santana. They joined Konnan as the members of the stable The Latin American Xchange (LAX) and became a big part of the promotion's tag team division. During their time in Impact, they were four time Impact World Tag Team Champions, holding the record for most combined days as champions, with 662 days and, at one point, the record as the longest reign with 261 days. They also won GFW Tag Team Championship and unified the title with the Impact Tag Team Championship. Santana and Ortiz left the promotion in 2019 and, soon after, joined the newly created All Elite Wrestling, where they joined Chris Jericho's stable The Inner Circle.

History[]

Impact Wrestling (2017–2019)[]

On the March 16, 2017 episode of Impact Wrestling, Santana and Ortiz were part of LAX with Homicide, Diamante, and manager Konnan. LAX attacked Decay, Laredo Kid, Garza Jr., and Reno Scum inserting themselves in the Impact World Tag Team Championship picture and winning them the following week, establishing themselves as heels in the process. On the March 30 episode of Impact Wrestling, Ortiz and Santana defeated Decay, Laredo Kid and Garza Jr. and Reno Scum to win the Impact World Tag Team Championship. On the April 23 episode of Impact Wrestling, Santana and Ortiz defeated Veterans of War (Mayweather and Wilcox) in a tournament finals to win the GFW Tag Team Championship. On November 5 at Bound for Glory, they lost to Ohio Versus Everything (OVE) as part of a double turn with Sami Callihan interfering on OVE's behalf, Jake Crist performing a low blow on Ortiz, and OVE attacking them after the match, thus turning LAX into face in the process.

On the May 24, 2018 episode of Impact King became the newest member of LAX. After the group leader Konnan was attacked, and Homicide and Diamante went missing in action, King assumed leadership of the faction and guided Ortiz and Santana back to being tag team champions. In June, Konnan and Diamante returned, both showing suspicion about King's involvement with the group. On the July 5, 2018 episode of Impact, Konnan confronted King who admitted that it was he who had "taken out a hit" against Konnan to takeover the faction. King then attempted to get Ortiz and Santana to recognize him as the new head of the group but they rejected this and stood beside the original leader, Konnan. Then, former LAX members Hernandez and Homicide returned, entering the ring and attacking Konnan's trio.^[3] At Bound for Glory on October 14, Hernandez and Homicide lost to Ortiz and Santana in a Concrete Jungle Death match.

On January 12, 2019, The Lucha Bros (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix) defeated LAX during the TV Tapings in Mexico to win the Impact World Tag Team Championship.^[4] Santana and Ortiz would reclaim them at the Rebellion pay per view on April 28. They held the titles until July, when they lost them to The North (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander).

On July 8, it was revealed that Santana and Ortiz would soon be leaving Impact and had interest from WWE and All Elite Wrestling.^[5] During August 9 tapings Santana and Ortiz were given a "send off" by the Impact locker room.^[6] Santana confirmed the following day that he and Ortiz were in fact done appearing on Impact Wrestling. ^[7]

All Elite Wrestling (2019–present)[]

On August 31, 2019, at All Out, Santana and Ortiz debuted as heels for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), attacking both Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Fénix) and Nick Jackson after their tag team ladder match.^[8] On October 2, the inaugural episode of Dynamite, they teamed with Chris Jericho in the main event and defeated The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks).^[9] Led by Jericho, they subsequently formed a new faction along with Sammy Guevara and Jake Hager called The Inner Circle.^[10] On the November 18, 2020 episode of Dynamite, Konnan reunited with Santana and Ortiz during an Inner Circle party in Las Vegas.^[11]

Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (2019)[]

On September 8, 2019, Santana and Ortiz debuted with the Mexican promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), earning their first victory after defeating the team of Arez and Daga and Laredo Kid and Myzteziz Jr.^{[citation needed]}

Championships and accomplishments[]

Santana with the Impact Tag Team Championship belt

Before they signed with Impact, Santana and Ortiz worked as EYFBO in the independent circuit

• AAW: Professional Wrestling Redefined
  • AAW Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[12]

• All Elite Wrestling
  • Dynamite Award (3 times)
    • "Bleacher Report PPV Moment of the Year" (2021) – Stadium Stampede match (The Elite vs. The Inner Circle) – Double or Nothing (May 23)
    • "Biggest Beatdown" (2021) – The Inner Circle jumping Orange Cassidy – Dynamite (June 10)
    • Hardest Moment to Clean Up After (2021) - (Best Friends vs Santana and Ortiz) - Dynamite (September 16)
• Combat Zone Wrestling
  • CZW World Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[13]

• House of Glory
  • HOG Tag Team Championship (3 times)^[14]

• Impact Wrestling
  • GFW Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[15]
  • Impact World Tag Team Championship (4 times)^[16]
  • Tag Team of the Year (2018)^[17]

• Jersey Championship Wrestling
  • JCW Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[18]
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Ranked Ortiz No. 115 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2019^[19]
  • Ranked Santana No. 119 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2019^[20]
• Pro Wrestling Revolver
  • PWR Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[21]
• WrestlePro
  • WrestlePro Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[22]

• Warriors Of Wrestling
  • WOW Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[23]

• World Wrestling League
  • WWL World Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[24]

References[]