Santana & Ortiz: LAX vs The OGZ Is A “Ghetto Soap Opera”

“A Ghetto Soap Opera” is how Santana and Ortiz describe the LAX vs OGZ rivalry. The backstage scenes often resemble more of an HBO drama than a pro-wrestling show. Although LAX defeated the OGZ at Slammiversary, King’s team stole the belts, tagged them and are claiming them as their own.

Santana and Ortiz recently took part in an Impact Wrestling media call.

When the original LAX first hit the pro-wrestling scene over 10 years ago, Santana and Ortiz were only teenagers. We asked Santana and Ortiz how the original version of the faction influenced them when they were younger.

“LAX has been something we’ve watched since when we were kids,” Santana said. “The fact that two Latinos out there not like playing a gimmick but being them and being proud of who they are and what they represent.”

“It’s pretty surreal, it’s a pretty cool thing,” he continued. “I never would have thought when I was 14-15 years old that when I was watching them on tv, I never would have thought ‘hey I’m going to be at Slammiversary XVI wresting the original LAX and putting on one of the best matches in Impact history.”

Ortiz would say his background as a wrestling fan is different from Santana’s. He got into wrestling more in the early 2000s boom when Homicide was first making his mark.

“Homicide was definitely one of the dudes that was just killing it on the indies,” Ortiz said. He’d continue to say watching Homicide’s growth as a performer had an impact on him.

“This is a dude from where we come from and he’s killing it having these insane matches,” Ortiz continued. “Then putting him together with Hernandez and Hernandez is just a truck!”

“We can’t ask for a better position,” he continued. “We are carrying the ball and are going to take it to the moon.”

Santana and Ortiz have come from idolizing LAX to being LAX. Not only that, they are feuding with the original LAX over the Impact tag-team Championships.

The OGZ aren’t the only tag-team LAX need to worry about, however. They have a big match coming up this October on Chris Jericho’s “Rock N Rager at Sea.”

Konnan challenged the Young Bucks to a match during a recent episode of the “Keepin’ it 100” podcast. The match was made official later the next day.