[1999-03-19-CMLL] El Hijo del Santo & Negro Casas vs Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr (Hair vs Mask)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Phenomenal entrances. Even better match, full of blood and great brawling. I can't get over how good Casas is as a babyface after seeing him as a bad guy for so many years. He wrestles like a lucha Choshu, making every bit of selling or offense big and dramatic. His facial expressions carry this, but the violence is off the charts too. Pretty classic both as a match and a moment, seeing two long-term rivals form a partnership like this, with each guy stepping up when the other couldn't and ensuring that they could keep their mask and hair. As good as anything else this year, which is saying a lot.

[tim]

This is a match I was really anticipating, liking the build so much, and boy did it deliver. The match up is just great first of all, two legends who had been major rivals and perfect foils teaming together to take on two vicious rudos. This is great right from the entrances. The rudos dominate early on of course and it's a good beat down, and I really like how Casas tries to put up a useless fight right at the end of the first fall. Second fall Santo and Casas make their comeback and it's a GREAT comeback, the crowd is fired up and they really take it to the rudos, featuring an amazing tope by Santo. Salvaje hits a FOULE on Casas and is about to get another shameful win off of it but Baby Richard stops the other ref's hand right before the three count to award the fall to the tecnicos by DQ. Awesome spot. The foule does let the rudos get on top for the third fall though. Third fall is great and the ending awesome, Santo accidentally takes out Casas with a tope so the rudos are about to finish him off, but he ducks a double clothesline allowing Casas to make a comeback and they take it in a huge win and the crowd reacts big for it. Great post match with Scorpio attacking Santo as Santo demands his mask, looking downright homicidal and cutting a rage-filled promo. My MOTY so far.

[Tim Evans]

It's gonna be hard to top this as MOTY. Just incredible emotion and action. Santo does numerous dives. Casas does his best Onita impersonation. Scorpio looks like a mad man with half his hair out of his torn mask during the post match. Even Scorpio Sr. tries to stop his son's unmasking. Great stuff.

[soup23]

Incredible match and my #2 MOTY so far. Frantic action and tons of highlights showing a great violent wager match spectacle in a tag setting. The masked wrestlers paired off here and so did Casas vs. Bestia.Cases dive to the outside was great and we had some sick shots and mask ripping from Santo and Scorpio. The ending with the rudos being completely pissed and removing their mask and haircut in disdain was great and visceral. Awesome stuff all around. ****1/2

[Zenjo]

The Rudos had enlisted the services of a fortune teller. That worked out about as well as you might expect. As an aside, it's a blessing those two guys aren't broadcast in HD.

 

The Salvaje and Scorpio combo dominated the primera and busted open both fan favourites. The comeback in the segunda was perfectly timed and the crowd was raucous in their approval. Exciting tornado action. Bestia tried to steal one but got caught and DQ'd. I loved the way they did that with the two refs. The final fall actually featured some tagging. Not to mention excellent dives and close near falls. The arena exploided when they won it and (being a hopeless mark) I was out my seat as well. At 18m it was long enough, just. There was some peril for the tecnico loss, yet one thing would've put it over the top as an all time classic. Just imagine if Santo had been pinned in the tercera and had to rely on his greatest rival to come back and save his mask? That would've been insanely brilliant. Casas could've needled him for years about that. Even the other way around would've been really good.

 

Regardless, this is the best match of the year so far and should finish top 5.

[Phil Schneider]

This is one of the last great bloody Arena Mexico apuestas matches. Scorpio and Bestia are a pair of awesome grizzled ugly rudos who come out smoking. They totally bum rush Santo and Casas slam them into the seats and the barricade and bloody them up. Santo is one of wrestlings great bleeders, but it is rarer to see Casas leaking like this. Total one sided violent domination by the rudos in the first fall. The tide turn is awesome Santo is getting double teamed, and as the rudos whip him into the ropes, Casas grabs his torso, throwing off the timing and allowing Santo to hit them with a double clothesline and take control. Technicos take over and get revenge cutting up both rudos. Third fall is a classic with lots of crazy dives, near falls and gritty violence. All four guys are amazing, but man alive is Casas on another level here, he is one of the most expressive wrestlers in history, just watching his face is such a pleasure. Pain, discouragement, glee, anger it is all there, just a maestro.

[PeteF3]

I'm again not as high on this, but only in the sense that I don't really see it doing any better than "on the list" as far as MOTYCs rather than an unquestioned 1 or 2. The drama was certainly high down the stretch--Santo leveling Casas with the tope was a great way to create sudden doubt when the technicos had to be seen as heavy favorites based on both their reputations and how the match had been going. Its setup, with Santo taking time to kick one rudo before attemping the tope, was just as good. Casas continues to be the stiffest worker in lucha, and it's glorious to watch. I could watch him clothesline motherfuckers all day.