January 31, 201312 yr Author comment_5532009 Really good match. Once you really get to know Santo and Casas as wrestlers, their matches aren't going to surprise you the way that someone like Dandy or Satanico would, but they still had an excellent match. Anyone who thinks Flair is a routine guy should really check out Santo, but that's another story. Anyway, this is mostly mat-based and it's nice work. In some ways, this feels like the Liger/Ultimo Tokyo Dome match of lucha -- some fun spots, but they've been copied by others so many times that they look a little tired because they were overdone later. The primary one is the alternating pin attempts after leg sweeps, followed by the standoff, but there are others. Casas wins clean with a sharpshooter in a surprise result. I really dug him using the ropes for leverage to try to turn Santo's cross-legged headscissors into a pin attempt early in the match.
January 31, 201312 yr comment_5532068 Anyone who thinks Flair is a routine guy should really check out Santo, but that's another story. .
February 4, 201312 yr comment_5533114 Another really strong match from this feud. The mat work was real good. We got some nice dives. They hit their spots. A real good match .
February 27, 201312 yr comment_5537214 The first two falls of this felt like the touring version of Santo vs. Casas -- graceful, athletic but lacking in passion. Business picked up a bit in the third fall with some nifty battles over submissions. I thought Santito went out a bit quickly to the sharpshooter. Overall, easy to watch but unmemorable.
March 4, 201312 yr comment_5537745 Being a Santo/Casas novice I STILL got that "touring match" vibe here. It had good stuff with some great takedowns from Santo and bumps from Casas, but nothing really stood out either.
March 21, 201312 yr comment_5539601 Smooth mat work too start. Didn’t think there was enough damage done to Santo to get pinned so quickly though. Something you have to deal with on these two out of three falls matches. G. Gordon Liddy is asking some kid questions backstage between falls. The crowd is right up against the ring in certain areas which isn’t good for any dive attempts. Well they do find a spot for Santo to dive on to Casas. Not a whole lot of room. Good match.
May 9, 201312 yr comment_5544306 I had high hopes going in but ended up with a solid B match. It felt like they were going through the motions and Negro was in an uncooperative move. Their second best is still better than most wrestlers at their peak though.
May 18, 201312 yr comment_5544927 This was sort of touring style match for these guys but it did have a good many neat moments and I also did appreciate the way it intensified over the course of the match. Casas getting the clean win was surprising to me to and I did enjoy seeing all these vignettes between falls again.
June 15, 201312 yr comment_5548039 To me, El Hijo Del Santo is just too damn cool and cant do any wrongs. He's like my Mexican Liger.
May 9, 201510 yr comment_5667769 The first two falls really dragged, but the third picked things up a bit. Not much, but enough that this wasn't a total washout. Santo submitting in the final fall was enough to warrant the match being included here all by itself; I thought he was almost untouchable in Mexico. I was also surprised that Casas didn't try to heel it up a bit more, instead, he tried to match holds with Santo and succeeded as often as not. This was a good exhibition of the technical side of lucha with a legitimately surprising finish. I'm sure that these two had a better match in them somewhere, though.
June 12, 201510 yr comment_5675569 This was a title match and in lucha title matches are all about showing how good of a wrestler you actually are. Thus rudos don't heel it up much and tend to wrestle as relatively clean as possible.
May 10, 20178 yr comment_5799963 garretta, one better match that I've seen is 9/19/97, and also a triple threat from 12/06/96 (includes El Dandy). Those matches are absolute classics. I'm with garretta on this one. I thought the first two falls didn't really have much to them, but I enjoyed the third fall.
October 12, 20177 yr comment_5816501 This is the first match Ive seen between these two. Very enjoyable watching the smooth matwork and few big dives, especially that Santo one. The finish wasnt very surprising to me just because I didnt know what to expect. This was very pleasant to watch.
October 25, 20177 yr comment_5817792 This match really puts Casas right on Santo's level (if he already wasn't). It's good, but not near what they can do.
April 27, 20205 yr comment_5915796 Casas comes in as UWA World Middleweight Champion, for a defense against arch rival from Arena Neza. Primera starts off with some nifty matwork, including Santo’s extended head scissors, before Negro drops him with a thirt-a-whirl slam and picks up the win with La Casita at about the 5 minute mark. Santo steadily evens up the segunda on some matwork, before hitting two bulldogs, some flashy tecnico armdrags and a Segadora kick before submitting Casas to the Camel Clutch. Santo starts the tercera in control, riding a Boston Crab, a Mecedora and a slowly burnt Tapatía spot which Negro escapes before he can apply it full on. Santo is relentless, chasing the damaged leg of the champ, synching in a Cavernaria and another Camel Clutch that Negro escapes by leaving the ring and stalling. Negro comes in catching Santo off guard with a couple of drop kicks. Again, Santo goes for a Tapatía but Casas escapes using the ropes this time. Santo hits a Tope Suicida and then my favorite signature spot of his, a Vertical Body Press to the outside with the signature splat. Santo tries a tope to the inside but Casas sidesteps him and locks a tight Sasorigatame for the submission win. Aesthetically pleasing touring match with arch rivals, wrestled with the mind set of pleasing the live crowd but lacking a bit of substance, still this two never seem to disappoint. ***1/2
Create an account or sign in to comment