Once again, the Gambe Lucha Libre YouTube Channel dug something out of the crates and delivered another Santito singles from Monterrey. This time around, we have Santito up against a post-unmasking Shocker. In this match especially, there’s a great display of Santito’s sense of pacing and escalation through the three falls. It follows a fairly standard structure of a tecnico-controlled primera, a rudo heat in the segunda, then a big finishing stretch to make up the tercera. It’s in the sheer confidence and nuance that Santito approaches that standard structure that we find his greatness though.
The best thing about the first fall, other than the truly beautiful llave work these two focus on, is just how well both workers foreshadow the tone the match will take down the line. While the first fall is played mostly straight with Santito tying Shocker up in knots, flustering him with his signature headscissor sequences, there are also these brief bursts of violence that threaten to explode over the whole match. At one point, Shocker attempts the double handstand leg lock spot that’s pretty well known in lucha, but when the two loser their balance and tumble to the mat instead, it quickly devolves into this really heated scrap that spills out to the floor. Cooler heads end up prevailing but it’s an instant signal to the audience that things can and will get far grimier.
Shocker controls much of the second fall. He builds it around working over Santito’s ribs and body, but he also is the one introducing the more violent elements into the match. He hits a really vicious low blow, claws Santito’s mask open, and even drives Santito’s head into the ringside chairs. Even through the grainy, warped footage, one can picture Shocker’s smug face through it all. He’s such a prick about all of it, that when the heat turns up in the tercera and Santito’s able to return the action in kind, it feels all the more justified.
And my god, does Santito return it in kind.
I’ve written before about just how violent Santito can get in scrappy situations. Here, having been wronged and cheated repeatedly, he can indulge in his more vicious streak without ever crossing the moral line. But wow, does it feel real close sometimes. The major turning point in Santito’s favor comes when he reverses an attempt by Shocker to ram him into the ringpost. Shocker gets busted open (sadly unclear on the footage we have) and Santito has no qualms about going right for that cut. There’s a point where Santito has the rudo up on the ropes and just hits these really nasty punches straight to the wound. Later on too, when he reverses Shocker’s attempt at La de a Caballo, Santito really makes him pay for even daring. He basically dribbles Shocker’s head right into the mat in one of the grossest little spots I’ve seen in a minute, another testament to the amount of drama that Santito could get out of even the most standard of wrestling holds.
Even the few shenanigans with the referees is done so well here. In typical rudo fashion, Shocker causes his own demise here. While charging at a vulnerable Santito tied up in the corner, Shocker doesn’t anticipate Santito sitting up to dodge him. This leads to Shocker taking out the biased rudo referee on the floor instead, leaving only the other referee to justly call in favor of Santito at the finish.
Everything as it should be. Our hero victorious, the villain punished, and all the blood and punching that got us to that point. Keep digging, Gambe, we need more.
Rating: ****1/4
