[1992-01-05-UWA] El Hijo del Santo vs Negro Casas

[MikeCampbell]

I like Tim's UWF/PWFG comparison for this match. I've only seen one other singles between these two (the 1997 classic) and I think this is worthy of standing alongside it. The lack of sound made it hard to follow, at times, but the mat work was great, especially the way Santo basically tried to tie up Casas in knots.

[Zenjo]

[x] Poor VQ

[x] No sound

[x] Clipping

[x] Loved every minute of it

 

Another excellent installment in possibly the greatest lucha rivalry of all time. These guys work so smoothly together it's like poetry in motion. Beautiful matwork in the primera. It's an acquired taste for sure and I can see why people wouldn't like it, particularly at first. Santo continued to dominate into the segunda. Casas was having to fight a defensive match and just hanging on. He levelled things up with La Majistal. I love that move. Then in the tercera there were exciting 2.9ers. Shame about no finish. I'd have liked to see this with better VQ and audio, but I'll take whatever I can get. You'd be missing out by skipping this because of those problems.

[WingedEagle]

I haven't seen much lucha and my concept of it was generally your stereotypical six man with bodies flying everywhere. This was not that, and it was awesome. The shoddy VQ and lack of audio didn't bring things down at all for me. Great action trading holds on the mat, with Casas bringing awesome facials to the table that even the VQ couldn't hide. Things slowed down in the second fall but it was still exciting to watch, especially being so new to the style. Cannot wait for more.

 

***3/4

[PeteF3]

I didn't like the finish at all but the work itself was very snug--like a more advanced version of the Arn/Rhodes match we just saw. Shame about the clipping and VQ because what we saw could put this in the Dandy/Azteca range with a real ending.

[Loss]

Previously at PWO:

 

01/18/92 - El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas (UWA) I am not going to write anything about this, other than to say it is a 1992 MOTYC and could easily be argued as their best match against each other. 90% on the mat with some amazingly stiff mat work. The mat holds are fought over so hard that it gives the aura of being uncooperative, which isn't the case but give the match a big feel (even though I don't think there is anything other than Technico vs. Rudo going on here). A simple transition from arm bar into a headscissor is fought over and sometimes not achieved the first time it is tried. I watched this, 1/97 Misawa/Kobashi (watching it again with new eyes, especially after seeing their 10/98 match gave me a much greater appreciation of this match), and the RnR/Armstrong vs. MX/Bubba match made it a good Sunday of wrestling.

[garretta]

This was actually a better match than I thought it would be going in. No, the poor video and nonexistent audio aren't ideal conditions to watch a match in, but I could still see enough to know what the guys were doing, and I didn't mind the lack of audio because the Spanish spoken in the commentary would have been far above my fluency level. The only time there was a problem for me was when the referee (who, incidentally, looked quite a bit like El Dandy, though it most likely wasn't him) wasn't in video range when he was making pinfall counts.

 

I liked the story they appeared to be telling: Casas was afraid of Santo's high-flying, while Santo didn't want to be victimized by Casas' cheating, so they each decided to take it to the mat and see what happened. If there's a reason not to rate this match, it's because it's clipped for TV, but what I saw was excellent. It's nice to know that two guys whose style is usually as far away from matwork as you can get are still able to deliver an enjoyable mat wrestling match when the situation calls for it. I especially liked Santo's subtle punches and kicks to the part of Casas' body that he was working on at a given time. These guys definitely weren't just sitting around killing time.

 

My guess for the finish is that the UWA had a rule similar to New Japan: knocking an opponent over the guardrail was an automatic disqualification. Since both Santo and Casas went over as a result of the tope, the ref simply decided to call it a draw.

 

If a copy of this with audio and better video surfaces, I'd love to see it, but I'm glad we got what we got.

[soup23]

I won't rank but this was some beautiful wrestling that was up there with the 1987/1997/1991 versions of their feud from the footage we see here. I liked the intense tight matwork that had no air between the moves that were applied. The finishes of each of the falls also flowed wonderfully into each other. The climax being the first time they really dive to the floor was dramatic and had been built up to so well.

[dawho5]

Great matwork with struggle and aggression from both sides. Better VQ and complete would have been amazing.

[conker8]

Now with sound