MLJ: Recent Uploads: Hijo del Santo y Octagon vs. Fuerza Guerrera y Negro Casas (Juarez)

Hijo del Santo y Octagon vs. Fuerza Guerrera y Negro Casas

We live in blessed times. This popped up yesterday and has 38 views so far. 38. I'm looking at this mainly so that more people can see it. It's not on the match finder. Really, I don't see any sign of Octagon and Negro Casas on opposite sides there. I am cautiously excited about more matches popping up from Juarez on this youtube channel but I know nothing about this otherwise. It's got about everything could want out of this sort of footage: lots of different camera angles, relatively high video quality, a full crowd hot for it. I don't know what the stakes are. I don't know when this was. I know nothing, but it was sure fun.

Everyone was good here. Octagon was less good, but still had some great foils to work with. I'll get back to that in a minute. They cycled through pairings throughout the match, everyone getting to work with everyone else a lot. There wasn't a ton of heat as this was more of a traditional tecnico showcase but the rudos were able to keep up and look strong. They'd control the start of an exchange with something underhanded and then end up getting out-wrestled. This had a long primera, a shorter segunda with a bit of heat, a pretty much non-existent comeback, and a lot of action in the tercera, with a few dives and chaos (down to a very chaotic finish).

Fuerza and Octagon did their part but it was Santo and especially Negro Casas that really stood out. Casas is one of my favorite wrestlers ever and I was still a bit surprised by just how good he was here. It's a shame we don't have more of him against Octagon because it was a great pairing. Casas oscillated between Memphis-level stalling (which was extremely effective at getting Octagon's strikes over as dangerous) with heavy-rudo antics (like asking for a test of strength and just walking up with a killer uppercut or goading Octagon to the mat with a second one and then dropkicking him in the face). He was also able to carry a mat section with him. Fuerza and Casas were pretty much made to feed tecnicos, but Casas was so emotive here, stooging and selling and posturing and making everything feel like it mattered. Basically, he out Fuerza'ed Fuerza, which is a stark contrast to the way someone like Blue Panther would retreat within himself when paired with Guerrera.

Santo really brought it too. Occasionally, he works this bully-styled aggression into his work, the sort that you'd get out of Bruno or Hogan. It's just human nature. Each and every one of us, deep down, want our heroes, even the purest of the pure, to have a mean streak. It came up here now and again, with a brutal Belly-To-Belly I've never seen him do before, with a great short clothesline, with a few wrenching submissions (and did Casas ever sell the pain of them!)

Like I said, everything sort of fell apart in the end, but at least it all fell apart in novel ways. Watch this for the lengthy, mat-driven primera and for the classic pairings and to see Negro Casas closer to his prime and at the height of his power (which is saying so much). Watch it to see him match up against Octagon. It's good stuff and hopefully we get more of the same soon.