MLJ: Hijo Del Santo vs Blue Panther 9: El Hijo del Santo vs Blue Panther (WWA Welterweight)

2000-05-28 - Monterrey
El Hijo del Santo vs Blue Panther (WWA Welterweight)

This is a really tricky match to break down. So, I don't watch a lot of current AAA. I know there are exciting things going on there with some of the talent influx and people seem to like the TV somewhat. I have caught a few things, and the way they get heat drives me nuts. The stuff with the refs just feels so cheap. It puts all the heat on the ref instead of the wrestlers and it happening once in a while is fine, but they seem to go to that well not as the exception, but as the rule. It reminds me of the Jarrett main event style of the early TNA years and no one wants that. This match was NOT AAA, but it was similarly full of that bs, dripping with it even. Here, though I think ultimately it came off a little more like Memphis in Monterrey than what I see from AAA, which is a testament to the sheer talent of the wrestlers involved. Santo and Panther can get away with things that others can't, and in so many ways this was a smart, smart match, playing on what came before and playing with emotions. It was also, obviously, a match with just excellent execution, but that was a dual-edged sword, because you see what they could have done, really turning it up a notch from the last, absolutely wonderful, match, and while it was all skillfully done, the bs distracted more than it added.

I think I need to explain just what all the BS was first. This was a title match, but it was in Monterrey, not Mexico City, and there is a very distinct feel that the Commission is far less of a presence here. Maybe I'm just reading too much into that, but I've not seen a title match quite like this, with the usual, storied, trappings so intertwined with interference. Your seconds in this match are a fairly young and very rudo Ultimo Guerrero, sporting a LWO shirt, and Super Porky. Guerrero is all over the match, basically doing his best Bobby Heenan impression. He teases coming in when Panther is on the ropes or in a hold. He successfully distracts Santo once or twice. He goes so far as to grab his leg from the outside at key moments to hold him for Panther to attack. It's never overly broad. He's not stomping on him repeatedly when the ref isn't looking, but for a title match, it's pretty distinct. The big transition in the segunda caida is in part because UG distracts Santo but that only starts the shift. It's not until Santo misses a dive from the apron that UG really gets to take over. The ref's in on the act too, though it's still somewhat subtle. He admonishes Santo for inadvertently pulling on the mask in submission holds. He seemingly misses Panther tapping on one occasion and is distracted by UG pulling his leg on another. He's pretty heavily involved in both the primera and tercera caida decisions.

In some ways, all of this is a clear line from the previous match and there are plenty of smart callbacks there. That matched ended with Panther getting an arm over the rope on a pinfall, and that's exactly how Santo won the segunda caida here. I think, more than that, though, what Panther did opened up the floodgates for this match. There's a more distinct sense of rudo vs tecnico. There's more heat. There's more emotion. There's also a bit more stalling and a bit more build up to them touching. They milked things more to high effect. There were other callbacks too. Santo wins so many caidas with that high lifting sunset flip from a 'rana position. He won the primera caida in the previous match with it and here it was a clear tease.

The work itself is masterful. The submissions are much more complex than in the previous match and save for one sort of weird reversal out of the camel clutch leading to a Santo submission on Panther's back, none of it seemed overly cooperative. The match really had something of everything, with plenty of anticipation. Santo missing his first attempt at a dive and getting worked over by Panther led beautifully to the start of the tercera caida, where he hit three dives in a row, the third one being a crazy flip through the second and third ropes. The selling afterwards was both hugely deserved and very believable, maybe the best selling for a dive that I've seen.

While there were lots of exciting near falls in the tercera, it all came back to BS in the end. The ref had decided the first fall by saying that Santo's camel clutch had been accidentally (?) pulling on Panther's mask. When Santo wouldn't break it, he DQed him. In the tercera, Panther rolled Santo onto the ref to get out of a pin and then missed Santo on an elbow and KO'ed the ref for a minute or two. During this time, Panther got a phantom win with a submission, bringing Porky to outright tears. Panther started to celebrate and Santo rolled him up a moment later causing the crowd to erupt and some of them to storm the ring. It's definitely the sort of finish that takes away from matches, but here I didn't mind it at all. With lucha, matches ending like this often have a kernel of justice in them. I think that was the case here. Panther ate his comeuppance. It works much better as a two match set than as a standalone, match though, and again, while it's all quite masterfully executed, it's maybe a bit of a pale reflection of the sort of match that these two could have had in a slightly different setting.