The ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event Pack’ is out today for WWE 2K25, and to celebrate, I had the opportunity to chat with WWE legend Tito Santana, one of the stars of the latest DLC.
Born in 1953 in Mission, Texas, USA, Tito Santana has pretty much seen and done it all in the world of professional wrestling, in a career that spans from 1977 – and believe it or not, he still makes appearances for independent wrestling promotions to this very day.
In the WWE alone, Tito Santana was not only inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004, but is also two-time Intercontinental Champion and two-time Tag Team Champion, and that’s not even taking into account all of his other accolades in different promotions, such as being the World Heavyweight Champion in ECW in 1993.
Tito Santana is joined by fellow WWE legends!
In the ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event Pack’, Tito Santana joins other WWE legends and Hall of Famers, namely Junkyard Dog, Sid Justice, Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura and ‘Mr Wonderful’ Paul Orndorff. WWE 2K25 also marks the debut of Tito Santana in a WWE game.
Fans of WWE 2K25 will be very familiar with how accurate the digitised characters are to their real-life counterparts, and after seeing the entrance for Tito Santana, I can tell you that the fan-favourite WWE legend is no exception.
“It’s my first experience being in a video game, and I know how big this is. I know fans have waited a long time for this. It feels long overdue, and I’m excited to be part of WWE 2K25,” Tito began when I recently sat down to talk to the legend.
One of the most popular modes in the WWE 2K series is its ‘Showcase’ campaign, where players replay WWE Superstars’ careers and eras, reliving some of the greatest matches and moments of all time, as well as those dream matches that never came to be.
Dream matches come true in WWE 2K25
With so many matches to choose from in his illustrious career, I gave Tito the gruelling task of picking out just two favourite matches, as well as two dream matches not part of his golden era.
“I loved working with ‘Mr Wonderful’ Paul Orndorff. After one of our matches, Vincent K. McMahon told us that it was one of the best matches he’d ever seen,” Tito said, referring to his duel at the iconic Madison Square Garden on 21 May 1984. “When you wrestled Paul, you knew you were going to have a great match.”
“I also had a great feud with Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine. We had a match in a steel cage where I won the Intercontinental Championship for a second time,” he added. This match took place in Baltimore, 6 July 1985.
“It was one of my favourite matches ever, and I remember coming home and telling my wife, ‘I’ve had easier street fights than wrestling, Greg Valentine.’” This match was even more significant because it was the first time the Intercontinental Championship had changed hands in a steel cage match.
“In terms of dream matches from today, I would have loved to have wrestled CM Punk and Randy Orton. I think our wrestling styles would have had great in-ring chemistry. No doubt, we would have had fantastic matches,” Tito continued.
With that in mind, one of the best features of WWE 2K25 is that with the release of the ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event Pack’, those dream matches are now possible.
Another popular mode is MyFACTION, where players can earn and unlock special persona cards and build dream factions to take on in-game AI in a variety of challenges or face other players online. In the spirit of MyFACTION and classic Survivor Series matches of yesteryear, I asked Tito to build his very own dream team of Superstars from any era, of any gender.
“Firstly, I would have to say The Undertaker, one of the greatest ever, and speaking of, Hulk Hogan, and Mr Perfect, sadly, the latter two are no longer with us. Rest in peace,” Tito said. “Finally, I’d choose the current WWE Women’s World Champion, Stephanie Vaquer.”
Reflecting on his career, Tito explained to me the main differences between the pro wrestling of his golden era and today.
“Back in my era, pro wrestlers were typically bigger in stature, physically stronger, but today, they’re so much lighter and athletic. The things they can do in the ring nowadays are unbelievable,” he explained. At this point, I thought Tito was being very modest and humble. I have no doubts, in his prime, he’d more than hang with the top talent of today with his charisma and technical wrestling skills.
Outside of the world of professional wrestling, Tito has had an amazing and fulfilling life. “What has given me the most joy outside of professional wrestling is being an eigth-grade gym teacher for 26 years. Making a difference in kids’ lives is very rewarding, especially when I bump into some in town and they thank me for caring for them. That is such a rewarding feeling, because I truly care for those kids. Teaching is a part of my life that I will never forget.”
WWE 2K25 is out now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2.
