[1999-02-26-CMLL] El Hijo del Santo & Negro Casas vs Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

There's a vignette before the match of Casas watching their last match while nursing his injured knee when Santo walks in to talk it over with him. The knee is neither bandaged when the match starts, nor is Casas favoring it, so I might have misunderstood whatever he was doing, but it does eventually play into the match. This was a great match, much better than the previous tag. Lots of urgency and hate in this one, with Santo and Casas putting over the rudo team convincingly while also showing plenty of fire themselves. Great heat for all of this too. Casas' charisma really carries this to something special - just little things like the way he looks at the crowd and his pitch-perfect selling keeps the people pretty hyped.

[tim]

I don't think this was much better than the previous tag (which I really, really liked) but it might edge it thanks to the last fall. I like how in the first two falls they for the most part tried to keep in clear, being a title match, but would show fire througout with big chop exchanges etc. Bestia's senton to end the second fall looked really good too. Then they go all out for the third fall with the rudos laying a beating on Casas and Santo to start off. I liked how desperate Casas seemed when Bestia first started to go for the leg. Santo wiping out Casas with the tope looked really great and I liked the ending stretch with them going down to one on one. Scorpio interfering to wobbled the ropes felt really dirty and was of course promptly upstaged by the interference to hit the match winning foule. The post-match is INCREDIBLE. The fans are incensed and throw trash into the ring and directly at Bestia and Scoprio. The commentators also seem to have strong words for them. Casas challenges them to a mask/hair vs. mask/hair match and I'm ready for that one.

[Tim Evans]

Good match with a great ending. Santo taking out his partner with an insane tope. The crowd almost causing a riot after the end and Bestia/Scorpio having to dodge trash being thrown at them. Good stuff. Scorpio's bacne is not so good.

[soup23]

I loved the stuff in the opening with Santo and Casas interacting. The match had two good falls but it is the third that really sets this across. The dive stuff was set up wonderfully as I was wondering why Bestia was acting so lackadaisical and then bam, Santo runs right into Casas. A little later, Santo is out of the match and the crowd really rallys behind Casas. He gives a valiant effort only to be fouled by Scorpio and the rudos win and nearly start an Arena Mexico riot. Stuff gets pelted and words are exchanged. Give me more please. ****1/4

[Zenjo]

The opening fall was short and quite poor. The second was just short. Scorpio did not impress me at all in this one. Business picked up a fair bit down the stretch before a cheap finish. Is this what passes for title matches in 99? I miss the traditional format. Overall it's solid enough buildup to the Apuestas.

[PeteF3]

This is another lucha match that would have been better at one fall, since the first two were pointless with bad sloppy work by the rudos. It's redeemed by a hugely dramatic third fall with some incredible technico comebacks and the rudos cheating to win. Great heat for that, and the rudos' win feels undeserved in both a mark and smark fan sense, so I guess it succeeded. This went on a while with two LONG pre- and post-match segments (as if U.S. wrestling isn't already talk-heavy enough), but the goal is to hype a big apuestas rematch and on that front it succeeded. Alfonso Morales sort of Lance Russells the rudos through a post-match interview and even talks to ringside fans to confirm that the match was won on a foul, in a clever touch. Great finish and angle to cover for a match that was 1/3 awesome and 2/3 mediocre.