MLJ: Hijo del Santo vs Blue Panther 14: An Arts Show at the University of Essex?!

2004-10-6 - Arts Exhibition "Arena Mexico"
Colchester Arts Centre, UK
Hijo del Santo vs Blue Panther (One Fall)

First up, I want to thank Eduardo for reposting this for me after it'd been taken down. Also, thanks to Ohtani's Jacket for his review of this match which helped me figure out the context. He came in looking for the missing link of great Panther singles matches and that's not what he got at all. Now then, this was an absolutely fascinating match to watch. It's completely surreal. This was in the UK (this one at the University of Essex) as part of an arts presentation centered around the work of Demián Flores Cortés. Here's a press release on it. It had the most surreal crowd of what I assume are hipster art students and iintelligentsia actual wrestling fans, though not necessarily lucha ones, and kids, and they wanted what they wanted, and to their credit, for the most part, Santo and Panther tried to give it to them.

Unfortunately, it didn't necessarily lead to a good match, even if there were some quite good moments. I'd say that there were a few easily spotted reasons for that. First, you got the sense that they were afraid to engage the crowd too much in some ways, mainly through selling, instead trying to force constant action. I think they were wrong and actually underestimated the crowd a little. This led to both the feel of exhibition at times and a lack of escalation since there were no real stakes. It also led to the next problem: Blue Panther seemed to have ended blown up; maybe even both of them were. Let's face it. This was a match where Santo had something like five dives. It was wrestled as only one fall so there weren't any natural breaks. They tried for constant motion even if it was just working late submission holds and positioning, some of which really didn't work. There started to be real execution issues (both in actually hitting stuff and in the work seeming way more collaborative than usual) halfway through the match which might have been the nature of what they were trying to do or it might have just been the two of them getting older. It was a little shocking to see though. Without much selling or real stakes or a crowd that was emotionally attached to the idea of victory or defeat, even if they enthusiastic, there was just never enough escalation. There was one moment that I might call a comeback, when Santo dropkicked Panther off the top, but it didn't have the emotional weight behind it and there was never a feeling of payoff.

I need to talk more about the crowd. You almost had the sense of this being like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show coming to the UK over a century ago. There was the sense of spectacle but it was all taken in by a distanced audience. I'm not saying they were sipping their tea and tutting and commenting "Oh, yes, well, then, would you look at that," (in fact it was more like "oh, someone in the crowd teach the kids some spanish words quickly so they can count along with the ref during action on the floor!") but there was a surreal sense of not really knowing what to do at certain points. From the get go, upon his entrance, Blue Panther, in his great jacket and with his awesome mask, was cheered. Then when the Master of Ceremony (and I can't tell if it was Cortés or not), says "from the corner of the bad guys," in front of his name, everyone starts to boo, because they suddenly realize they're supposed to, and Panther, who had been working tecnico all year, changes gears immediately, rudoing it up in a huge way. That's actually the best part of the match. I really like jerk Blue Panther. It's a role he didn't get to play nearly enough in what I've seen since he was always tagging with Fuerza or Psicosis or Espanto. Here he would be really broad, especially once the match hit its second third, trying to get the fans to chant for him and using heel tactics, and just being a jerk. The fans ate it up. On the other hand, whenever there was a lull in the action, a Santo chant would break out. I really think the crowd, even if they weren't emotionally engaged, wanted to play around and if they had gone for a bit more selling in the last third, it would have paid off for them.

That said, there were some pretty masterful moments. My absolute favorite was a course correction by Panther mid match. He had blown a couple of things and they had a miscommunication or two. It wasn't anything horribly egregious, just an inverted surfboard not quite working or Panther barely getting over for a Rana, but suddenly, Panther REALIZED it wasn't working, switched gears, and started to rudo it up heavily, kicking Santo in the back, working the crowd and just being a proper villain, ending it by giving Santo a move to sit up out of, which I swear is the thing Santo does best in the world (it was a knee-assisted lean-back chinlock), and ending it with a dropkick out and the Santo corner tope. I fully believe Panther came into the match half thinking that he'd work tecnico vs tecnico, until that "from the bad guy corner" moment, so that he was able to turn it into as good a performance as it was, and the smartness of that moment was the best of it.

It just wasn't enough to make up for the rest. They were pretty obviously supposed to go thirty and what they ended up with instead was a very good twenty minutes out to be found within that thirty, a very strange crowd that was trying as hard to enjoy and be part of things as the wrestlers, and a match that's well worth watching but can't help but be disappointing. They did it again a couple of nights later (and had some awkward thanking of the crowd through the masters of ceremonies, including Santo thanking all the kids, because he's great that way, to set it up). I'll check that out next week.