El Hijo del Santo y Black Shadow Jr. vs. Espanto Jr. y Eskeletor (12/1/85)

[Phil Schneider]

El Hijo del Santo y Black Shadow Jr. vs. Espanto Jr. y Eskeletor (12/1/85)

[tim.]

I really enjoyed the first fall, really fun matwork and rope running armdrag-y stuff.  What we got of the brawling on the floor between the second and third falls looked cool.  Technico comeback in the last fall was really good but after the technicos look to have put it away the ref declares for the rudos presumptively due to Santito tearing at Espanto's mask.  Black Shadow and Santo abuse the ref after the match and the teams keep on skirmishing for quite a while.  A lot to enjoy here but this is a weak match relative to the set and will go low for me.

[Graham Crackers]

I thought this was mostly good but had a really bad finish. I can't get enough Santo vs Espanto and their exchanges here were pretty good though not as great as they would be in the near future. They mixed up matwork, brawling, and cool flying in some fun ways and thankfully that was the focus. Black Shadow Jr. was alright. He threw some decent punches and I liked his slingshot spinebuster but unfortunately he spent most of this matching up with Eskeletor who wasn't really any good. That said, I am a sucker for bootleg lucha gimmicks and his Skeletor costume was pretty endearingly bad. Bottom half, but I feel like that's the case for most of this 1985 stuff so far (with one major exception).

[Curt McGirt]

I just lost it for the Eskelator costume. Holy FUCK is that great. All he needs is muscles and a staff with a ram's skull on it and he'd be all good. Or he'd just be Antichristo. He further sells the gimmick like a total wimp, just like Skeletor. 

 

Don't really mind the clipping much as Espanto and Santito are super fluid and gel perfectly, taking it to the mat amateur-style for a second and then just bringing it. Three nut shots unseen by the ref is a bit much. Eventually things go completely sideways and the tecnicos lose due to a ref bump, but Black Shadow Jr. pastes him anyway and raises Santito's hand. Then he dropkicks Eskeletor off the apron and I lost it again. Then he kicks the piss out of him AGAIN! Everyone's scrotum ends up getting punished, Santito leaves on someone's shoulders and I am a very happy man. Dunno whether it's the post-side camerawork, insanity, or my childhood love for He-Man, but this is one I absolutely love.

[Matt D]

I love the idea of Espanto, Jr. He's the perfect nemesis for El Hijo Del Santo. Eskeletor is, of course, beyond description. I can't find a thing on this guy on the internet. Black Shadow, Jr. I think is not the son of Black Shadow and he loses his mask to Santo in 91? This is pretty surreal. I like that it's not even a bonus. This is one of the top 100 lucha matches we have from the decade and it has Skeletor in it. Anyway Black Shadow is pretty brutal with him, including that that powerbomb into a face buster off the shoulder and Oklahoma spine buster slam. The lift out of the pin into the sunset flip was pretty cool. There's something hilarious about Eskeletor's body language. He's really performing broadly.

 

I don't entirely know where they are in their feuding which, as best as I can tell, lasts years after this, but watching Espanto and Santo is fun. It's like goofus and gallant in this match between the Shadow beating on Eskeletor and this pairing. This is almost like a mixed tag. Anyway Santo's great at just launching a flurry of offense where he moves his opponent around the ring in well excited and varied ways. The visual at the end of the first fall with Skeletor running to save Espanto only to get taken out from above is great. 

 

Second fall has Espanto laying some mean looking offense in on Shadow and Eskeletor being an overglorified manager getting his shots in. Eventually Espanto works over Santo while Skeletor holds Shadow at bay. Santo's particularly good at taking those head into the second turnbuckle bumps. I think Espanto does the Satan Knot which feels like gimmick infringement somehow, but he gets the second fall with it. The cutting gives us a heinous looking toss of Shadow by Espanto outside the ring. Eskeletor sure stalking around doing nothing a lot.

 

Third fall has Espanto going for Santo's mask as Eskeletor watches his back. The cutting makes everything feel chaotic here. After the next cut the rudos are trying to rip at Black Shadow's mask and Santo runs in to save him, including a crazy camera angle bulldog that looks like it's right over your head. Santo goes to town on Espanto's mask and tees off on the ref (who then gets dropkicked for virtually no reason hilariously). rudos try to double team in the confusion but eat a miscommunication spot and the visual pin. The ref DQs the tecnicos though. That was fun but I can't imagine a world where it does that highly. I am glad that we have another couple of Espanto vs Santo matches upcoming though. And hey, good on the guy playing chickenshit Skeletor!

[Exposer]

The best way to sum up this match is "really fun." Santo-Espanto was a blast and their exchanges were seamless and pretty smooth in the first fall, then pretty heated and aggressive in the third fall. Eskeletor didn't do much for me here although I did like him stooging in the post-match. I wish we could have gotten more of the brawling on the floor in the start of the third because it looked great. That body press was crazy. The mask ripping was a blast and the chaos of the third fall and post-match was a lot of fun. However, the finish was abrupt and this didn't reach beyond "fun." I'll throw this just around two and a half stars or so. 

[Lee B.]

I thought this match was great and a lot of fun.  I'd love to see these two teams again, but especially Espanto and Santo.  The matwork and reversals in the first fall were crisp and nice.  The huge slam on the floor was amazing.  The third fall's chaos was delightful.  I had no problem with the DQ.  Santo kind of reminded me of Hulk Hogan, self-righteously punching and shoving the ref, even though the ref was a big weasel.  I loved the ref trying to hold Santo back and then holding Santo while Espanto kicked away, and then fouled him.  I had no problem with Eskeletor; he took his lumps just fine.  This could be in my top third easily.

[soup23]

This was certainly fun shoddy finish aside. Eskeltor is an amazing man not only because of his persona but in his innate ability in this match to switch on the fly from good looking stuff to pretty bad looking stuff. One moment he is working through a nice armdrag sequence, the next he is throwing crappy punches. Still, black Shadow Jr. had no problems making him his whipping boy whenver needed. Espanto vs. Santo really elevated their hate throughout the three falls and this made eagerly anticpate their upcoming match. This will end up low because I again have it far more fun than good and it has things against it (clipping, shit finish, Eskeltor in general) but still on the spectrum of fun vs. pretty bland ( Caras vs. Vera, I'm looking at you), I will choose fun. (***)

[goc]

Eskeletor & Black Shadow Jr. look pretty green but they do some cool stuff especially Shadow's move where he bounced Eskeletor off the ropes and into a spinebuster.Hijo del Santo and Espanto have much cleaner looking exchanges. The match is night and day depending on whether it's Santo & Espanto in the ring or Black Shadow & Eskeletor. Santo & Espanto seem to have no interest in getting in the ring with the other 2 guys and I'm not sure I blame them.

 

The rudos end up beating down Black Shadow for most of the second fall and then Eskeletor looks lost when it comes time for the finish to the 2nd fall.

 

We get a lot of clipping to start the 3rd fall and now Espanto is trying to take of Hijo del Santo's mask. He starts untying it and then start trying to rip it off instead. Some more clipping and now the rudos are trying to rip off Black Shadow's mask but Hijo del Santo runs in and saves him and now the tecnicos start their comeback. Santo is out for revenge as he starts ripping at Espanto's mask. Shit gets wild as Santo ends up slugging the ref and Black Shadow then takes him down with a dropkick! All 4 men start fighting in the ring but eventually we see the ref award the match to Espanto Jr. & Eskeletor only for Hijo del Santo to attack the ref again and then there is a lot of trash talking and fighting afterwards. This was super fun but the clipping and Eskeletor being pretty shitty will keep this from getting ranked too high.

[Robert]

I thought this was just... there. The Santo/Espanto stuff was pretty good but the other two really brought nothing to the table and you had that horrid finish. It was a nice glimpse into a typical 'just do enough to get by' match from the mid 80's but as usual with lots of the matches I'll be ranking low it felt like if we just had more stuff from the 80's something like this would never make the cut.

 

It did get me thinking though as to Espanto Jr.'s overall ranking as a secret super worker. So much of his older footage is exclusively with Santo so it's hard to gauge whether he was just a good opponent for Santo or a forgotten great until drug issues ruined him. I mean more towards the latter since he was spectacular in his AAA run working undercard trios matches & then in his short time as Pentagon. I would love to see him more as a youngster not working against Santo to see the true extent of his greatness.