"Has it been three years?" - Jim Cornette stunned over AEW star's long absence from TV

Jim Cornette recently talked about a major AEW star who has been inactive in the company for a long time now. This was an individual who was part of the promotion's early beginnings.

Ortiz joined the company in 2019 as part of Chris Jericho's Inner Circle alongside longtime tag team partner Mike Santana. Eventually, the duo would split from the faction but would also find themselves unwilling to work with one another any longer. Santana has left the company and is now signed to TNA.

During a recent edition of his Drive-Thru podcast, Jim Cornette took a look at AEW's current roster, and they spoke about Ortiz. He mentioned how it had been so long since he'd been seen, and the last thing he could remember was the rift he had with Santana. Cornette wondered if the 33-year-old had been getting paid to sit at home all this time, considering how he had not been seen on TV in any capacity.

"Good Lord. Well, when did we last see him? Has it been three years? Santana left, yeah...he asked to get out of there. And remember the bone of contention between them as a team was that Santana was saying Ortiz was content to just sit around and get paid and do what he was told. And Santana had higher aspirations, that's why he left. Do you think Ortiz has still been sitting at home just getting paid? Wouldn't we have accidentally seen him in a backstage segment if he were still around? [26:04-26:51]

Ortiz's last match in AEW was in January 2024, when he teamed up with Eddie Kingston to take on Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli. He has since only been appearing on the independent circuit.

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Jim Cornette has always been vocal about Santana and Ortiz's booking in AEW

On an episode of his podcast three years ago, Jim Cornette spoke about Santana and Ortiz and how he did not enjoy their booking within AEW. He mentioned how a formidable tag team like them did not deserve to be reduced to the lackeys of Chris Jericho.

Following this, they did split up from the Inner Circle, but they never got to pull off an amazing run before they parted ways.

"A real company with the worst tag team division, I don't think has ever existed, and we name all the teams, we forgot about Santana and Ortiz. Because since they have been Jericho's flunkies in the group (Inner Circle), maybe had one tag team match on TV in the last six months, they have been mostly forgotten about," said Jim Cornette.

Ortiz is an example of one of the AEW originals whose career did not pan out following a few years with the company. Santana, on the other hand, is more active now in his current run in TNA, which has also led him to an appearance on NXT.