This takes place one day after Chicana’s legendary hair vs. hair match against MS-1. In this match, he takes on MS-1’s Los Infernales stablemate, the NWA Middleweight Champion El Satanico.
Where the apuesta against MS-1 played out as a bloody drag out brawl, this is a much more standard championship style match. The primera caida have these two trading some very smooth and clean looking wrestling. Arm drags, takedowns, running the ropes. It all looks great and they do it with a finesse, even Satanico who I haven’t previously scene in this kind of setting before. Classic tecnico dynamics come in to play as Chicana outmaneuvers Satanico out of a pinfall into his own pin to get the three and go up one fall.
It’s an act of desperation that earns Satanico the segunda caida. He nails a huge tope suicida that drives Chicana four, five rows deep into the crowd and nearly sends a lights man on the crew tumbling down. Both men sell the tope the way you’d imagine the move was meant to be sold when it was first invented. They’re wiped out by the impact with even Satanico struggling to return to the ring to beat the referee’s ten count. Chicana doesn’t have the same luck though. The dive completely takes him out and he loses the second fall by count out. Even after taking the loss, Chicana has trouble recovering from the dive. Part of this is surely because of the damage he sustained in the match against MS-1. He’s out of breath, splayed out on a chair in the front row as his seconds tend to him. His face is pale, he looks clammy and out of it. It’s lovely drama that sets the stakes heading into the tercera caida.
While Satanico tries to maintain control, Chicana’s superior technique earns him the opening to nail a tope suicida of his own. Sweet retribution. The two struggle for holds through most of the third fall, culminating in Satanico reversing a Reverse Boston Crab into a surboard on the mat that looks like absolute torture the way Chicana sells it. Satanico overexerts on the surfboard, landing Chicana’s shoulders on the mat. The referee counts the three and the way the camera is angled, it’s not quite certain what happened at first.
The referee raises Chicana’s hand and Arena Puebla erupts. But the referee raises Satanico’s hand as well and the truth becomes clear: the match has ended in a double pinfall draw. An unsatisfying finish, sure, but not the worst I’ve ever seen and certainly doesn’t do anything to invalidate the action the came beforehand.
Another thing worth noting in this match is that this might be some of my favorite footage in wrestling history. It’s filmed entirely from a handheld camera at ringside which means the sound of the crowd in Arena Puebla has no trouble translating on the footage. We’re close enough to the action that we hear the cries of pain, the grunts of exertion. Whoever was manning the camera had a keen sense of imagery and timing as well. Zooming in at key moments to capture the faces of the competitors–Satanico’s grimace, Chicana’s determination. We get close ups of Satanico and Chicana’s hands battling over a submission. It’s genuinely lovely stuff that had me smiling all the way through.