TNA Wrestling: How Mike Santana’s Daughter Helped Him Beat Drug & Alcohol Abuse

Mike Santana ended up in a dark place because of addiction. Drugs and alcohol abuse took hold to where the TNA Wrestling star could have been one of those cautionary tales. However, the New Yorker found the strength to get himself right, fueled in large part by his determination to be a present dad to his young daughter Ariana. 

Santana, who recently celebrated 1,000 days clean and sober, has inspired many by being open about his struggles. His emergence as one of TNA’s most popular performers took him to the top. He became world champion defeating WWE NXT’s Trick WIlliams at Bound For Glory in October. A month later the gold was taken from him by veteran Frankie Kazarian. 

The underdog remains motivated despite the setbacks. He looks toward 2026 as TNA enters a new era with its flagship show Thursday Night iMPACT! premiering on AMC on January 15. It’s where Santana will get his rematch against Kazarian. 

Here Santana opens up about his journey and TNA’s new network deal. 

TNA Wrestling

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for you this past year. How do you look back on what you’ve been through? 

Mike Santana: It has been a wild year. 2025 has to be the best year of my career. I attribute it to all the struggles I’ve been through. All the obstacles I’ve had to face and hard work I’ve been putting in. I’ve been nonstop for the last, I got back into wrestling in August 2023, and literally have not stopped. The first year was my proving year. I’ve been putting in the very best I can. It has been a rollercoaster. Yes, I attribute it to the struggles, obstacles, and the work. 

You’ve become the go-to guy for TNA. How is it to have the company trust you in this position at the top? 

I feel like I’ve always been one to do my research. I consider myself to be a student of the game. When I came back and told myself I wanted to be that top guy and guy the company trusts to be in numerous different situations and things like that. I’ve looked at guys who have been in my position, even in other companies, where let’s see how they handle it and approach things. Also, taking a bit of myself. I’ve always been comfortable with public speaking. Also,

I’m very understanding of the fact I’m not just representing myself but a brand. That’s important to me. I take my job very seriously. They know this isn’t something I do for a hobby. This is how my daughter eats. This is how I pay my bills. I’ve always taken my job very seriously. But like you said, having that trust from the company itself to be put in these situations and represent the brand is definitely a good feeling. It’s a testament to the hard work I’ve been putting in and representing. 

People are connected to you because of your authenticity. You’ve spoken candidly about your sobriety. How is it for you to see your story resonate so much? 

What has made me so proud of it is the fact it has been the catalyst to get me where I am today. It has been my biggest motivation, just knowing that I went from rock bottom and used rock bottom to use what I have built today. I was taught in rehab and during the process of getting my life together and getting clean that what helps me stay sober and in the position I’m in mentally and personally is giving away the gift that was so freely given to me. And that was the gift of hope and sobriety and clarity. That’s always something that helps me. Yeah, I’m proud of all the struggles I’ve been through. 

I say today that all those dark times were necessarily in the grand scheme of things. Also, my daughter, it’s about just setting an example firsthand for her. Yes, she saw me at my worst and saw firsthand the work I put in to get to where I am. For her to go from writing Santa her Christmas list and asking him for her dad to stop and get clean to going and standing in the ring and me presenting her the world title and in between that seeing the work I put in. That’s everything to me. Wrestling fans can read through the crap. I feel like I’ve used my story as something. It’s a real life story for anybody that feels like they want to connect. I think that has what got people behind me and got this train going. 

You mention your daughter. How is it for her to be on TV and a part of the story? How has she been taking in everything? 

She thinks it’s pretty cool. She loves wrestling and is so enthralled with everything. It’s funny, she saw the AMC commercial on TV for the first time. I didn’t tell her she was in it. When she saw herself just seeing her light up and how surprised she was. It’s a great feeling. The fact I get to be living proof that anything is possible. That your wildest dreams could come true if you put in the work. I’m proud of that every day. 

How was it for you to hear that AMC announcement? 

I heard some rumblings early on, but in wrestling everything is just talk until it happens. I took it with a grain of salt. It would be great if it happened and will go from there. When the initial announcement happened and I found out, I was like, “Yep, now the work really starts.” I was proud of the team because everyone at TNA has done an amazing job at getting us here. It’s a huge accomplishment, a huge moment, and I’m proud that more wrestling fans are going to get to see the greatness TNA has to offer. I feel like the diehard fans knew and followed along, but TNA was hard to get a hold of for a long time. Now with AMC, it’s such a big reach and in more homes and more accessible. I’m excited for the world to see what we do. As far as the locker room goes, everyone is excited and motivated. We all have that common fire going. We’re going into the new year ready to go. 

What do you want to say to new and old fans on what they can expect from this first night as TNA looks to make the best first impression? 

I think we’re going to do what we do best, and that is put on a great show. If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve been on a roll and breaking records and packing houses and putting on the very best matches that we could. Again, the beautiful thing about TNA is the fact that everyone has a common mindset and that’s elevating the brand and making sure the show as a whole comes off as great. We have a tight locker room where everyone is putting in the work. We thank the fans who have been following us. Thank you for the support. This is a thank you back. For new fans going to be checking out TNA on AMC, you’re in for something great because we pride ourselves on giving you a show that caters to all wrestling fans and we got a little bit of everything. It’s going to be a great time. 

Being on AMC, you think about synergy with TNA and all their other acclaimed shows. Could you see yourself in the The Walking Dead universe? 

Absolutely. I read the graphic novel two years before it came out. I have been following The Walking Dead for a long time. So if I got the opportunity to do something with them it would be a huge deal. I followed Breaking Bad, that was an amazing show. There are opportunities for a lot of integration. I think it will be great for everyone involved. As far as I’ve heard, AMC executives are very happy with the reaction everything has gotten so far. This is the first time they are in the sports entertainment business and offering a platform for wrestling. It’s a good time overall. We’re excited.  

TNA Wrestling

For me, pro wrestling is at its best when you can dig into a good story and the lines of reality are blurred. I think the two-part Immersed documentary featuring you really adds another layer of connection to the audience. 

Agreed. I think the documentary helps people connect even more to what I’m doing and just following along with the story. It’s a story of real life. I think in a business where so many people play characters it’s refreshing to see someone who people can look at and say oh man I know this guy personally and could be that guy. My whole thing is making people believe not only in my story but in the reality of anything that is possible. It doesn’t matter where you come from or where you’ve been through when you work hard at something you make it a reality. 

It’s awesome I get to be the beacon for that and at the forefront of telling those stories. That’s something I want to continue doing. I think AMC presents the perfect opportunity to do that. The documentary, a lot of passion and hard work went into putting that together not just on my end but the entire team’s end. The production team that worked on it did a great job. I got to watch it back and was like, “Wow, it’s almost unreal watching all that stuff.” I still find it weird watching myself on TV or watching these documentary pieces. It’s just a real life story. 

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The reality of life is things don’t always go the way we want. Like I know many weren’t happy about Kazarian taking the title from you right after you won it. Talk about the story you’re telling with Kazarian going into that rematch. 

As far as Frankie goes, he is a day one TNA guy. Someone I respect and have a lot of history with. We both came from similar situations in a sense where we weren’t happy somewhere, bet on ourselves, and that bet paid off. Now we’re going to go head-to-head for the TNA World Title on a major pay-per-view in a new era for the company. We got all that going. I think like you said about me losing the title in the fashion I did, it got people behind me even more. Now people are clamoring to see this title run. What’s the initial thing we do? We tell stories. I think this is all part of the journey and story overall. It’s just getting started. 

What’s your New Year’s resolution? 

Continuing to grow in every way possible, but also I also want people to take a moment to smell the flowers and the accomplishment and what we’ve been able to do. Me, myself, I want to keep growing and see where I can take this. I just want to become a better person every day of my life. That never ends. 

TNA Thursday Night iMPACT!, January 15, 9/8c, AMC

TNA Genesis, January 17, 8/7c, Pay-Per-View

 Immersed: Mike Santana is streaming now on TNA and Fight Network’s YouTube channel.