MLJ: Santo vs Casas '95 2: Negro Casas vs El Hijo Del Santo [mano a mano]

1995-09-29 @Arena México
Negro Casas vs El Hijo Del Santo

This was unfocused. It wasn't bad though. It was functional and hate-filled. Like I said on Monday, they were still wrestling a year later. They were still in the initial stages of garnering heat here and this was heated. It was unconventional, despite having some semblance of structure.

The opening matwork was interesting. It was gripping but not sound or elaborate or smooth. There was a messiness to all of it due to the emotions of the wrestlers. Does that make sense? It wasn't what you'd generally expect from these two. Neither could keep a hold on for long. It made it all seem sloppy but it wasn't due to any lack of skill. There was a real passion to it where, maybe they shouldn't have been grappling at all, but the rivalry between the two of them wasn't just about dislike and aggravation but also who was better, so they had to go out and try to prove it. The emotion was driving it though. It's a remarkable difference from what we often see, but it also felt like a bit of a let down because the usual exchanges are so good on a different level. Ultimately, Santo kept getting the upper hand (including a fairly deep headscissors flip series of spots) and Casas kept resorting to a mount with punches. In the end, Santo hit the biggest move, with a top rope elbow drop, but he kept wanting to punish Casas and missed a dropkick, leading to a quick recovery and the Scorpion Deathlock for the fall.

The segunda turned up the violence. Santo began to pound back, but Casas managed to rip his mask, leading to the first real advantage of the match. It had been back and forth almost to a fault up until this point. Now, Santo had to cover up to protect his identity which let Casas pound him in the corner. The ref eventually tried to intervene and ate a really strong back elbow by Casas for his trouble. Everything pretty much broke down from there. People came in to check on the ref. Casas continued to pound away but was eventually distracted by all of it, which let Santo come back.

It ended with this nasty bump to the outside on a Santo sunset flip bomb from the inside out. He took the brunt of the bump but that didn't really matter since it felt so novel. Apparently it was taking things too far in the ref's eye because even after what Casas did to him, he DQ'd Santo for it. Much like the previous trios where Santo won by DQ but Casas was left standing, here Santo had the moral victory even though Casas took the winner's purse.

They really brought something different to the table here. It didn't make for a great match necessarily but it was a very solid cog in the story to keep the heat going and drive things forward. Certainly a good performance by both showing great versatility and something a little different in a series where things can sometimes threaten to feel the same.