Kenny Casanova Talks Writing Tito Santana Book
Don’t call him Chico!
It’s hard to believe that it took until 2019 for Tito Santana to release an autobiography.
Sports Publishing came out with a while back, but 159 pages isn’t nearly enough to cover his illustrious 40-year career. Sure, he may have stopped competing on TV in the mid-1990s, but I witnessed him in action as recently as 2017!
Last fall, the WWE Hall of Famer published “Tito Santana: Don’t Call Me Chico” with co-author Kenny Casanova, a New England Pro Wrestling Hall of Famer who toured the indie circuit from the early 1990s until the late 2000s. In 2014, Casanova launched WOHW Publishing, an independent outlet for pro wrestlers to self-publish their autobiographies and distribute them through their own websites. His first project – “Kamala Speaks” – earned roughly $60,000 from book sales, Kickstarter and GoFundMe, with all proceeds going toward Kamala’s medical bills.
Since then, WOHW Publishing has released autobiographies of Sabu, Vader, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and notorious WWE referee Danny Davis.
Casanova graduated from SUNY Albany with a BA in English Literature and The College of Saint Rose with a Master’s in education. He currently teaches 12th grade English, having piloted an integrated program that lets vocational students gain English credit in their trade classes like auto, culinary and carpentry.
You can order “Tito Santana: Don’t Call Me Chico” here.
You can follow Casanova on Facebook and Twitter.
Casanova spoke with The Wrestling Estate in a lengthy interview last month. The following conversation has been edited and broken into parts for easier reading. To hear the full conversation, listen to Corrigan’s Corner at Team LeftJab Radio.
Last time we talked was right before Vader’s book came out last spring. So, how was 2019 for you?
Kenny Casanova: “Pretty good. We put a bunch of stuff out. My head’s still spinning. Tito Santana, Sabu, Vader’s books all came out, as well as a coloring book for Mick Foley called ‘Cactus Jack And The Beanstalk.’ The proceeds went to Connor’s Cure. It’s going to be a series of adult coloring books called Bledtime Stories with wrestlers facing classic fairy tales like Brutus Beefcake and Little Red Riding Hood, Sabu vs. the Big Bad Wolf and Demolition on Mars. The guy that draws these – Pete Bregman – is great. When he has free time, he works on these ridiculous scripts I send him and brings them to life. Demolition crash land on Mars and have to rescue somebody while fighting kung fu ninjas, zombies and a big slug. It’s making fun of the old sci-fi comic books from back in the day.”
Those sound like fun projects. Was your plan to always expand from autobiographies?
Kenny Casanova: “No. I stumbled into that. Sabu actually had the idea for an adult coloring book. ECW fans would get kick out of coloring in the blood. Coloring books typically have a fairy tale feel to it, so I thought about writing them like a kid’s book with more words and an actual story.”
How did Sabu’s autobiography do?
Kenny Casanova: “It’s probably selling better than all of the ones I’ve done. Kamala’s still does pretty well when someone will mention it on ESPN or somewhere and then all of a sudden we’ll sell a bunch. Of all the guys I’ve written books with, Sabu is probably the most recognizable and the most recent. He’s the biggest bridge to both old-school wrestling fans and newer ones.”
How did the Tito Santana book come about?
Kenny Casanova: “His first book ‘Tales from the Ring’ came out right after his El Matador run. He said he didn’t really make anything from that. Plus, the publisher isn’t even around anymore. It’s not in print and barely scratches the surface of his career. I re-organized the whole thing. It was more a collection of stories than chronically telling about his career. Now we have one of those 400-page, whole career, very introspective stories of one of the guys that a lot of Hispanic wrestlers credit as being the first to reach main event status and pull together the Latino community.”
How was working with Tito?
Kenny Casanova: “I worked some indie shows with him back in the day, but Brutus Beefcake was the one who referred me to him. When Tito saw Beefcake’s book, I think he liked it and saw that I loaded it up with pictures and put history in there. What I try to do when I write, some of the better writers will do this as well, since I’m also an English teacher now, I’ve learned that kids particularly like dialogue in a book. I try to have these guys give dialogue the best they can remember from an argument or discussion, as well as the other four senses.
It’s very easy to make a wrestling book results-oriented. Went here, faced this guy, I won/loss, made this much money and moved on. That gets really boring. I try to give what the locker room looked like, what the arena sounded like, what type of car they drove or what the hotel smelled like. People feel like they’re reading something special. Tito’s first book was kayfabed to some degree. He would say something like ‘I fought my hardest that night, but I still lost.’ That doesn’t even resonate with today’s market.”
A guy like Tito, you never hear him on podcasts or see him on TV. Was it hard for him to open up and break kayfabe?
Kenny Casanova: “A little bit. When we first started talking about the book, he said he considered podcasts to be like shoot interviews, which he charges for. He’s an older guy now. I explained to him that if you do a couple podcasts here and there, and you pick the right ones, they turn into an infomercial for the book. People hear your voice for an hour and get invested.”
I remember you telling me when working with Vader, there was a story or two that you had to twist his arm to get in the book. Did Tito have any of those?
Kenny Casanova: “No, but my guess is he had a little bit more partying when he was on top than he would admit to. Of course, he’s a family man now and none of that is in his life anymore, and I don’t even know if it was really back then. He took the high road in a couple places. There wasn’t any scandal or anything that he didn’t want to touch on, and there aren’t any stories like that about him out there, anyhow.
He did a tell a story in the book that I thought was pretty interesting. He was in the first class of the WWE Hall of Fame when they opened it up to the public back in 2004. When he showed up, Eddie Guerrero came over to him and thanked him for everything he did for Latinos. Eddie told him that Tito was one of the reasons he felt he could show up in New York and make it. If you look back in the territories, there was typically one black wrestler or one Mexican wrestler in a territory at a time and that was it. That spot was taken. For quite a period of time, Tito Santana was in that spot until he opened promoters’ eyes that he was more than just a token. Eddie thanked him for that, which is cool because a lot of fans today look at Eddie as breaking that stereotype.”
That’s a great story. You know, I’ve never asked what your favorite wrestling books are?
Kenny Casanova: “In The Pit With Piper. There were some funny stories and he did a really good job doing what I always try to do – search for the joke. If there’s a punchline you can squeeze in there, then do it. I don’t like any part where people are reading the book in bed and feel like they’re ready to fall asleep. It’s like the quote from Dr. Seuss: ‘I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells.’”
Did you ever get in touch with Sid about writing his autobiography?
Kenny Casanova: “When I was talking to Sid, I was releasing Sabu’s and Vader’s and writing Tito’s. I told him I’d love to do it, it would just take some time. Then I kind of lost touch with him and he’s doing it with another guy.”
With so many high-profile names working with you or at least trying to, you’re really establishing your niche in the wrestling world. I guess now it’s just about getting more publicity from the fans.
Kenny Casanova: “That’s happening. I can’t tell you who I’m working with now, but it’s one of the biggest names. I have to let him announce it. I can tell you that he has one of the biggest wrestling podcasts out there. Him and another guy. Because of some of the books that have come across their table that they’ve deep dived into, they said I should write the book. That should be announced in a month or two. My ultimate goal is to keep the stories alive. Scott Teal of Crowbar Press says if you let these guys die, their stories turn to dust. Keeping the legend alive is my goal, so younger generations can read about these guys who publishers sometimes won’t give a chance to.”
I can narrow it down to two for your next book.
Kenny Casanova: “Well, I would love you to do that, but…”
Ah, understood!
Kenny Casanova: “I didn’t say anything. (laughs)”
Of course! So, you’re also working on a Justin Credible book right now?
Kenny Casanova: “Yeah, we’re on a little break right now. He’s focusing on a podcast with Vince Russo about AEW, but we’re going to start back up again. That happens with these guys – Vader’s book took four years to write. I approached Justin first, but he was going to write with somebody in the U.K., and that fell through, so he contacted me. We had actually worked together a tiny bit on the indie scene before. He was surprised that I was still involved in some capacity in the business.
By the way, I still didn’t give any sort of announcement on what the next book is, so any sort of speculation from you guys is totally speculation. It’s totally rumor and innuendo.”
You can order “Tito Santana: Don’t Call Me Chico” here.
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