El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas is Everything Lucha Libre is and Could Be

CMLL

Some matches come back to you at exactly the right time.

I still recall how I first heard of this famous apuesta from the 1997 CMLL anniversary show. As with so many of these classics from outside the mainstream Western canon, I found it through the defunct puroresu.tv forums, linked in someone’s 5 Star Matches thread to a grainy 240p copy uploaded to Vimeo. At the time, I can’t say I fully understood the match at all, although the finish remained with through all these years. More on that later though. The main point is that I first saw this match at a time when I knew close to nothing about lucha libre, and as such its full appeal just didn’t click with me.

I’ve maintained a respectful distance from the match ever since, primarily because I was aware of my own ignorance in this regard. It’s a match I haven’t cared to return to, simply because it felt like something better understood with a great understanding for not only these two workers but for the entire tradition that helped mold them to begin with.

It’s 2024 now. CMLL is currently on a promotional run that stands among the best of the decade, I’ve spent much of the year exploring the highly vaunted classics of lucha, and it’s lucha month at BIG EGG. It’s the right time.

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By the time El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas come to their famed apuesta match in 1997, they’re already old rivals. The 97 bout isn’t even their first apuesta, with the two having famously wrestled in a mask vs. hair bout in Los Angeles all the way back in 1987. This bout is great too, for entirely different reasons as the match we’re focusing on today. This first apuesta acts more as a baseline template, an excellent example of what to expect from what I’d term a classical lucha match. It has the three fall structure, and takes its time escalating from the slick llave stylings of the opening fall to the spectacular dives and bumping of the third.

In 87 too, we find Santito and Casas in their most comfortable roles—with Santito as the tecnico and Casas the rudo. What results is two performances perfectly suited to that dynamic, with Casas stooging and bumping for our hero, while Santito’s impeccable technique ends up winning him the day. Even at this point in 1987, it’s clear that these two have an undeniable chemistry and comfort working together that can be seen in basically all their work together. All through the early 90s, the match happens with regularity for UWA before finally arriving in CMLL in the mid-90s.

Many of the UWA matches I saw from this rivalry stick fairly close to their standard formula of tecnico/rudo championship-style matches. But when this pairing finally arrives to CMLL, something definitely switches with their dynamic. I felt it most concretely in their September 29, 1995 bout in Arena Mexico.

What we see in this match from September 29, 1995 is a much harder edge to the rivalry. The slick, classically-styled chain wrestling isn’t entirely displaced, but its given a rougher texture with the sort of petty violence these two throw into the spaces between holds and big bumps. There’s a scrappier energy to these two now, taking these mean-spirited potshots, throwing stiff strikes and kicks at each other, and the violence steadily escalating to the point that the match feels like an all out brawl waiting to break out.

While this energy gets tempered in other occasions—their title matches still hew closer to the neat tecnico/rudo dynamic, when touring in Japan or for the World Wrestling Peace Festival in LA, they opt for a more abridged take on their familiar match up—the violence becomes a key part of the rivalry through the mid-90s. 1996 especially follows this track, with a crazy brawl breaking out in the middle of what should be a standard trios match in July, all leading up to Santito aligning with the rudos as a means to spite a newly tecnico Casas in November.

The shift to Santito as the rudo and Casas as the tecnico really does stoke the flames of aggression between the two. Now unleashed into muddier moral waters, Santito embraces the role of rudo with gusto, putting a little extra malice behind things like his gorgeous knee lifters, and in general working like a spiteful pitball anytime Casas is in the ring with him. It’s met with mixed results as these Mexico City crowds can’t help their love for Santito more often than not (and who can blame them, he’s one of the greatest and I don’t care to boo him much either), but it does serve to further escalate matters with Casas. On Casas end, despite turning tecnico, there’s always been a smugness to Casas’ demeanor that never really vanishes.

What results is two angry men, constantly crashing up against each other in 1997. The main build for the aniversario match centers itself primarily around Casas costing Santito the WWA World Welterweight Championship in a match against Casas’ younger brother El Felino on July 5, 1997. A singles rematch between Santito and Felino later in the month would end with a run in from Casas attacking Santito, and setting the stage for the aniversario main event.

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Before anything else, the production here is blow away great. The two men enter to these gorgeous split screens that have a pre-taped promo on one side seamlessly superimposed onto the live footage of them making their entrance in Arena Mexico. Despite being the rudo of the night, Santito’s entrance really takes the cake for being so dazzling. He’s flown in on wires, as befits the Son of the Saint. It’s a beautiful visual, and the split screen is well utilized again in the pre-match introductions to highlight the two wrestlers in simultaneous close ups. Just straight up a beautiful presentation of pro wrestling in a way that CMLL has shown they’ve understood for decades now.

When the bell rings though, it’s all about these two men.

I’ve spent a great deal of the piece now talking about how more and more violence crept into the work of these because it’s important to understanding what makes this bout stand out so much. Even before these two, lucha libre was certainly no stranger to violent wrestling. Just think on all the lucha apuesta classics centered around big wind up punches and blood pouring down the luchadores’ faces. It’s a beautiful expression of lucha libre, but it is not the same kind of violence that Santito and Casas offer us in this match.

In line with their September 1995 bout, this match, more than any other I think I’ve ever seen, conveys the internal tension between having to outwrestle a highly skilled opponent and the raw satisfaction of just popping a motherfucker right in his mouth. There’s this constant push and pull that each wrestler has with themselves where they’re working to accomplish clever strategies, but there’s a combustibility that always threatens to send the match sprialing into absolute mayhem.

There’s no blood here, which distinguishes it from many of the more famous apuesta brawls, but I’d say that here it’s to the matches credit. What Santito and Casas achieve here that feels so truly distinct is not only introducing that more aggressive and petty style, but doing so in a way that feels coherent and tonally consistent with everything else they’re doing. When they’re working holds and going to their limbwork—Casas targets the leg early while Santito makes great headway going for the arm—they’re scrapping for those holds. Smacking at limbs to soften them up, kicking at faces to get free, it’s really some of the most contentious feeling mat work I’ve seen in lucha libre, where typically llave work has a more exhibitionist flare to it. Here, it’s all hatred. Note the way that Santito grabs a cavernaria, for example, and yanks on Casas’ hair to wrench him back.

That constant tension in the more wrestling-based moments, means that when the animosity really starts to bubble over it feels so earned. When these two get caught up in the ropes especially, they seem to take it as a sign of weakness that needs to be exploited for all its worth. Casas uses the ropes to set up an attack on Santito’s leg, for example, but more often than not seeking the refuge of the ropes just leads to one’s opponent charging in to get their blows in. It culminates in this wondrous exchange about halfway through the bout where they’re headbutting and fighting while tangled up in the bottom rope. Just this perfect spurt of violence that the viewer can see them have to actively overcome—giving into the hate is satisfying, but only by tempering it can either of them achieve true satisfaction and victory.

To that point too, it’s the wrestler that balances those ideas the best that ends up victorious here. Santito comes in not only with a strategy, but the adaptability to shift with the tides of the match. He spends much of the match weakening Casas’ arm, perhaps to make it easier for him to lock in his La de a Caballo. And in the closing moments of the match, it’s exactly the hold that he turns to in order to seal the deal. But when that fails and Casas keeps slipping his arms free, it’s a final audible Santito calls to go for a cross armbreaker instead that wins him the day.

What Casas and Santito achieve here is a stunning synthesis of so many elements of lucha libre. The classical technique gives way to a more struggle filled mat work, the big dramatic brawling refined into a more spiteful closed quarters scrape. In doing so, it has none of the tonal shifts of something like an MS-1/Chicana, with each element building upon each other instead. It’s that seamless combination that distinguishes it from something like the much vaunted Atlantis vs. Villano III apuesta, for example. Where Atlantis and Villano III feels like a celebration of all the lucha is and always has been, Casas and Santito honest to god feel like their blazing their own path here.

There’s time to be corrected, and there’ll be joy in that occasion too, but for now, it’s worth being bold.

It’s the greatest lucha libre match of all time.

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IS IT BETTER THAN 6/3/94? Misawa and Kawada craft an examplar of their time and style, where as Casas and Santito transcend theirs with an almost effortless poise and skill. This one’s not close—a great match compared to the raising of the bar for an entire national tradition of pro wrestling. The luchadores seal the win.

Rating: *****