Santana had another match scheduled against “The Hammer” on television, this time shortly after the WWF starting taping All Star Wrestling from London Gardens in Ontario, Canada.  Santana was noticeably limping coming into the ring that evening, so Albano (who managing Valentine by then) came up with a plan.  He distracted Tito, so Valentine could attack the knee from behind.  When the match finally started, Tito was a house of fire, with many heavy rights keeping Valentine off guard, while Greg had one thought in mind, soften the leg for the deadly finisher.  Finally, Santana nailed his famous flying forearm and pinned him, but Valentine’s foot found its way under the bottom rope, so the ref stopped counting.  Tito rose thinking he won the match, but then Greg hit a knee to the small of the back and yanked back on the leg for the 3-count, winning the belt.  Not satisfied with this, Valentine then slapped on his deadly figure-four after the match.  Santana had to be stretchered out of the ring, and would need reconstructive surgery for his knee.

Santana’s return to meet Valentine was almost identical to Chief Jay Strongbow’s.  They aired footage of the fiery Latin on the operating table.  Santana showed up in the crowd when Valentine wrestled at TV tapings.  At one such event, when Valentine tried to injure some poor hapless jobber, Santana ran in for the save and hit him with his flying forearm.  Meanwhile, Valentine met other challengers for the title.  He beat Junkyard Dog at WrestleMania 1, but then Santana ran in and exposed Greg’s cheating tactics to have the decision reversed.  When they finally met again, Valentine and Santana had many great battles, mostly ending in no-contests.  Many times Valentine would get counted out just to keep his title.  By this time he was managed by Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart.

Santana got Valentine in numerous Lumberjack Matches to make sure he wouldn’t be able to escape.  However, while the babyface lumberjacks kept the champion in the ring, the heels would usually help him out, or even cheat so Valentine could win the match.  So Santana lost most of the Lumberjack matches, and all seemed lost.

Then he challenged Valentine to a series of tag team matches.  Valentine usually had Brutus Beefcake as his partner, and they worked together pretty well.  Santana used several different partners, including Junkyard Dog and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (who meshed really well with Santana).  The ending to these matches usually came when Santana finished off Valentine with his own hold, the figure-four leglock.  Now it seemed the pendulum of the feud swung in the other direction once again.

Finally, lady luck caught up with Santana on July 6, 1985 when Santana won the belt from Valentine in a steel cage in Baltimore, MD.  The ending came when Tito was climbing the cage to escape right around the corner from the door, as Valentine was trying to escape through the door.  In one of the most intriguing cage match finishes of all time, as Santana was coming down from the cage, he kicked the cage door closed on Valentine’s face.  Greg was infuriated and destroyed the belt against the walls of the cage, but Santana was once again champion. 

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