Santo, Corazon de Leon & Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, Satanico & Emilio Charles Jr., 9/95

Santo, Corazon de Leon & Ultimo Dragon vs. Negro Casas, Satanico & Emilio Charles Jr., 9/95 rematch

Santo hates Casas! Casas hates Santo! as the old deathvalleydrivers would say.

This two-part penny opera starts with Santo dropkicking Casas in the face before everyone's been properly introduced. Casas spends an exorbitant amount of time checking his face for structural damage, and the rest of the match trying to shootkick Santo in the head. Santo replies with headbutts, knees to the face and killer topes. The first match has a great Santo beatdown. Second match has some big bumps from Casas, who blades himself... but only a trickle. Still it's enough to cry foul and Casas delivers a penalty kick between the goalposts, a trademark Casas walkoff spot.

You've got to love Negro Casas. 90% of the time that would be a disappointing finish, but Casas was so good at blurring the lines. He's basically saying, "you do not strike the face of Negro Casas," and if Santo's enraged, he needs to think about who threw the first cheap shot. The great heels make themselves the moral victor, like kids always do on the playground. Casas was infuriatingly good at this, which led to the quasi-heel turn from Santo and the hatred of their '97 feud. The rest of the guys here are either warm bodies or completely useless, but you wanna see these because this is where the hate began. Their earlier matches were exhibitions in lucha libre, this was Casas truly getting under Santo's skin, not really knowing what he was starting.

Corazon de Leon vs. Apolo Dantes, CMLL World Heavyweight Championship, 9/23/95

Apolo Dantes is one of the most underrated workers of the 90s. Jericho is one of the worst guys I've seen work Mexico. The fact that this was halfway decent was purely down to the skill of A. Dantes. There were times, it seemed, when Dantes didn't have a clue what Jericho was trying to do, but he beat the guy and I was glad it was over.