AEW's Ortiz Explains Why He's Done With Tag Team Wrestling For The Time Being

AEW star Ortiz has officially begun his journey as a singles wrestler after his long-standing partnership with Mike Santana fell apart in 2023. Ortiz has only wrestled a handful of one-on-one matches for All Elite Wrestling, and is looking to change that in 2024. During a recent interview on the 'Shining Wizards Wrestling Podcast,' the AEW star opened up about what it has been like flying solo.

"Right now I'm not tag team wrestling, which is a new adventure for me, because I spent the majority of my career as a tag guy," Ortiz said. "I'm kind of trying to find my voice. I still don't know what the answer is, but it's almost exciting because I get a new palette to paint with."

Ortiz admitted that he's changed a lot in recent years, so much so that if the sort of thing he's going through now happened 12 months ago, he wouldn't have reacted the same way.

"It almost became a job for a little while and I started going through the motions," he said. "When you do something for so long, you could almost take it for granted, and I look back and I had great opportunities, great moments in wrestling ... If I had the mentality that I had now, I would have took so much more advantage of that."

Ortiz revealed that he is aiming to get back to basics as far as his in-ring work is concerned, and that he is hoping to become more of a hybrid wrester instead of the someone who primarily works gimmick matches.

"I've kind of been type case into like the 'street brawler' guy," said Ortiz, admitting that he doesn't mind that label as it's close to home. "I also just like ... I want to wrestle. I want to chain wrestle, I want to go hold for hold, I want to do more lucha stuff. I've always pride myself in being like a hybrid wrestler, and I just kind of want to do more of that."

Please credit the Shining Wizards Wrestling Podcast when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.