Santana And Ortiz Behind The Scenes Details On Parking Lot Brawl Against Best Friends

The parking lot brawl between Santana & Ortiz and Best Friends was one of the most memorable matches in the first year of AEW Dynamite. The four men battled in a circle of cars, using the environment to their advantage to create a fight scene more than a wrestling match. 

Appearing on Talk Is Jericho, Santana & Ortiz provided some behind the scene details on the match. 

“It was what it needed to be. We went into the match saying, ‘we need this to be a really good blow off.’ The build-up was decent to good, but we needed the exclamation point at the end and I’m happy we delivered. Thanks to Jerry Lynn and funneling all of our ideas and setting it up for it to be the best possible match. I got to watch it with my girlfriend and her parents and they just looked at me like I was a maniac,” said Ortiz. 

Tony Khan noted after the match that it was done all in one take, which Santana confirmed by saying, “I remember telling the production guys, ‘please, no one yell cut for this match.’ We were so hyped up and to the point where, if we had to cut anything, it would kill the match.”

When it came to putting the match together, all four men gave their input and they looked back at other parking lot matches for inspiration. 

“[We put it together] that day. We talked about things over the week and figured out things we wanted to do, but it was pretty much that day. We got with each other and went over it all day. That was the end result,” said Ortiz.

Santana added, “We had a group chat with all of us and my main thing was making sure all four of our visions were out there and everyone had their say in it. We got into a group text and were just throwing ideas here and there like what weapons we want to use, what props we want to get together, and sharing other parking lot matches. We were watching Eddie [Guerrero] vs. [John] Cena. We watched Kurt [Angle] and Jeff Jarrett in TNA.”

The match featured a handful of memorable spots including Trent taking a powerbomb on a car windshield, Orange Cassidy popping out of a trunk, Santana being piledriven onto a hood, and much more. 

“Getting smashed between the engine and hood, that sucked. I was sandwiched between the hood and engine. Chuck did a swanton and then Trent did a senton. All the wind came out of me, my head hit the engine block, it sucked. I’m glad we did it because it added to the match, but I probably wouldn’t do that again,” said Ortiz.

When discussing certain spots that sucked to do, Santana said, “I had the bright idea of going headfirst into the side mirror of a car. Usually, those mirrors come right off. You kick that shit, and it comes off. I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll just take it headfirst.’ I took it headfirst and it didn’t budge. It cracked me wide open.”

Both gave a shoutout to Sue and said they had to talk her into flipping them the bird at the end of the show, which Sue confirmed in an interview with Fightful. 

If you use any of the quotes above, please give a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.