Espanto Jr.

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[ohtani's jacket]

Another case of wishing we had more footage, but from the UWA and AAA we have he looks on par with the best wrestlers in the business. The best wrestler in Mexico in 1992 was Casas, but there's a chance Espanto was in the top 5.

[Tim Cooke]

Even with a lack of footage, the three Santo singles matches (86, 88, and 92), plus his work as Santo Negro and Pentagon should be enough to get him on my list. Another one of those "if only we had more to see from his UWA days..."

[Childs]

I think Espanto is my favorite Santito opponent. He's a guy I'm quite certain was a great wrestler, even if there's not enough evidence for him to make my list.

[ohtani's jacket]

Favourite Santo opponent is a fun topic. I think Casas and La Parka would be in contention. Blue Panther. He had really good chemistry with Perro Aguayo Jr as well. That feels like a million years ago. Blue Demon Jr? I jest.

 

Edit: Espanto had a couple of lengthy tags on UWA TV. I don't think Dr. Wagner Jr. y Espanto Jr. vs. Celestial y Coloso is on YouTube, but their match against Villano IV y V is.

[goodhelmet]

Put me in the "Wish we had more footage" camp.

[Parties]

Easily makes my list on what is out there, and I would agree with the idea that he's Hijo del Santo's best overall opponent, at least from what I've seen in their big 80s/90s matches. That anyone got more out of Santito than Casas did is amazing, but the chemistry and pace of the Santo-Espanto matches is one of the best pairings I've seen anywhere.

[elliott]

I ranked Espanto Jr 88th in 2016 and I feel ok with that. I agree with the sentiment in this thread that there's not really enough footage to get as clear a picture as you'd like, but what we have he looks amazing. I don't agree that he's a better Santo opponent than Negro Casas...but I wouldn't like go crazy arguing it. Not many people (anybody?) had a 2nd best rivalry with matches as good as Espanto Jr. I want to dig my teeth in more to see as much out there as I can. Based on what I've seen I feel better including him than leaving him off. 

[Tim Cooke]

Now that Roy Lucier continues to put out stuff that only Lynch had, we've gotten more Esapnto/Santo Negro/Pentagon Jr. AAA matches and damn if he hasn't been at least solid in all of them.  He will make my top 100 again.

[cad]

No wrestler has ever done a better job of leaving me wanting more. There are plenty of Espanto matches out there, far more than many other wish-we-had-more candidates have, but I still dream about all of those missing ones. Espanto was one of the slickest wrestlers you'll ever see, and it wasn't because he was following the textbook to the letter. I loved the little twists he'd put on stuff, like his bellyup slides out of the ring on armdrags, his flipping bumps off catapults and his unique powerbomb applications. A joy to watch. Espanto got a decent amount of action on the dying UWA's TV, and one nice thing about that is that the UWA ran a lot of inconsequential 2 vs 2 matches. Sometimes you get a clearer picture when a guy has to share ringtime with only one teammate. 1 on 1, he has three great matches out of four total matches, which must be one of the best ratios out there.

Espanto Jr. matches:
Espanto Jr. vs El Hijo del Santo (mask vs mask)
Espanto Jr. vs El Hijo del Santo (lightweight championship)
EJ and Negro Casas vs Super Pinocho and Halcon 78 (an interesting match for comparison's sake, as Casas was one of the best in the world at this point)
EJ and Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Villanos IV and V
EJ (as Santo Negro), Eddy Guerrero and Psicosis vs Octagon, Hijo del Santo and La Parka