Independent wrestler Jenni Santana was a recent guest on the “Wrestling Epicenter” podcast and commented on finding out just two years ago that her father was WWE legend Tito Santana.
According to Jenni, she briefly had some direct contact with Tito but things seem to have gone quiet for now. Despite this, she’d eventually like to get to know her father better.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On finding out Tito Santana is her father: “I only found out a few years ago that he (Tito Santana) is my biological father. I was already into Martial Arts heavily. Then I did the interview with Hannibal and he asked if I was interested in trying professional wrestling. I was like, “Yeah! Why not?”
On how he reacted to the news: “At first, he wasn’t very receptive. I had talked to his sons and we had a conversation. It wasn’t very… I mean, I can imagine that it was a shock. Here it is, how ever many years later, and this grown person with children of her own doesn’t quite show up on his doorstep but is kind of, “Hi, here I am!” (laughs) I wanted to approach it gently. I know he has a family of his own. And, it wasn’t like I had known for a long time – I was finding out right around the same time that he was. I had suspicions when I was younger… There wasn’t really DNA so there was nothing that I knew for sure. Time went on and I hadn’t really thought about it until a few years ago.”
On if she has had direct contact with her father: “We had a conversation and we had talked about getting to know each other and meeting up. And then, I don’t really know what happened. It just kind of went silent. So, I’m not really sure. Eventually, hopefully, we’ll get to know each other more.”
On the emotional struggle of deciding to contact Tito: “It was tough because I was coming at it from a place where I didn’t want to cause any rifts or struggles in whatever situation he has. Some people love new news and others do not! (laughs) I didn’t have any idea how he was going to take it. I didn’t even know how I felt about it. But, I guess the deciding factor was my grandmother. I had a sit down conversation with her. I told her I was thinking of reaching out (to Tito) and she told me, “I watch these shows all the time like Long Lost Relative. They end up having these great relationships!” She said, “If I had someone reach out to me, especially you, I would be so happy and would want to get to know them.” She’s like my biggest fan! (laughs) But, it is not like we’re young. Tito has been married for 40 years or something like that. It is not like it is a delicate new relationship. Something like this could cause more rifts when you’re just starting out and you’re younger in life and in your relationship. But, he’s older in life now and when you’re older in life, you have more life experiences. You have more solid foundations and relationships. So, it really shouldn’t rock anything too hard.”So, I decided to go for it! Also, my chiropractor and his wife had a similar situation where she had found out who her biological father was. When she contacted him, this guy (her biological father) literally drove across the country as soon as he hung up the phone to see her. So, when you hear that happen, I guess you have that hope. You don’t have a personal connection but you do have that DNA connection, that blood connection… And, Tito and I do have a lot of similar things that happened to us in life. He’s very athletic, I’m very athletic. He succeeded in wrestling. I’ve succeeded in Jujitsu. He works for a high school. I was working for a high school and in education. There’s a lot of connections instead of just the DNA. So, not that I had hoped… But, I thought, “Lets give this a shot!” It didn’t actually turn out like that. (laughs) But, You can’t control everything.”
On her hopes for her relationship with Tito: “I’m not going to push anything. I mean, I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. That isn’t going to change. But, I hope over time that we can connect more. And, I’ll hope for the best. But, you know, I’ll prepare for anything.”
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