AEW wrestler Mike Santana reaches one year of sobriety

AEW wrestler Mike Santana has reached a huge personal milestone.

On Friday, Santana revealed that he’s reached one year of sobriety. Santana wrote that one year ago today was when he hit rock bottom and realized that he needed to take care of himself. Santana said that, if he didn’t, he would have lost his life, his family, his career, and everything that he worked to build.

Santana made the “greatest/hardest decision” he’s ever made by checking himself into rehab. Over those 30 days, Santana learned to “finally let go of the pain and trauma” that he carried for so long.

Santana noted that he struggled to share this publicly, but he hopes that doing so will help others in his situation. His full social media post can be read below:

A year ago today, was the day I hit my rock bottom. The day that I realized it was time to turn around and face those demons that I’ve ran from for years. The day that I made the decision to change or I was going to lose my life, my family, my career and everything I worked so hard to build. It was the day that I decided to finally take care of myself after years of just taking care of others.

I checked myself into rehab.

And I can tell you here and now, that it was truly the greatest/hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life. I learned more about myself in those 30 days than in my lifetime. I learned to finally let go of the pain and trauma I carried around for so long. It taught me to genuinely love myself. To live and not just exist. Along with so many other great things. I also say that my injury was God’s greatest gift to me. Because that time is what gave me and made me who I am today. I can go on and on about my sobriety journey because it’s been exactly that. And maybe one day I’ll open up more about it. But I just want to take the time to appreciate this accomplishment. I actually struggled a bit with sharing this with the world, as it was something I dealt with in private and away from everyone. But if I can help give strength and hope to someone else with my story and journey, then so be it. We’re taught that what helps us is giving away the gift that was so freely given to us. So that’s what I’ll do whenever I can.

I want to say thank you to God and my father for continuing to guide me. My amazing family for sticking by me and always seeing the light that I carried inside, even thru all the darkness. And all those who offered their support during those dark times. Much love to you all.

#ADayAtATime #Recovery #Thankful

Santana suffered a torn ACL in June 2022 and didn’t compete agin until August 2023. Upon his return, Santana became a singles wrestler in AEW and feuded with his former tag team partner Ortiz. Santana defeated Ortiz in a no DQ match on Rampage last October.

Since that Rampage episode, Santana hasn’t had any other AEW matches. He’s competed on the indies, including winning the House of Glory World Championship.