Santo, remembered

Today is the 25th anniversary of Santo’s death. Lots of stories about him all over the place; thiis is just a small sample.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa173/thecubsfan/Santo.jpg

– Jornada has two very good articles. One is look back, starting with a story about El Hijo del Santo filming a movie in Cuba, just hours before the revolution. The other is Santo’s last interview before his death, talking about his career in his own words. He explains, before he retired, he passed out three times in the ring and his family got scared. He was sad to go, but the final ovation he got was one of the greatest moments in his life. There’s some strange stuff – his brothers Pantera Negra & Black Guzman are mentioned as passing away in the ring some 40 years before we actually have them dying. Also, Santo does the same “back in my day, we wrestled on the mat – using holds that could kill a man – and now all they do is flying and clown stuff” rant people are still doing 25 years later.

– In it’s own look back over Santo’s life, Ciudania Express mentions two causes of death brought up elsewhere:
* revealing his face on the Contrapunto show caused his death; he was tricked and did not know it would air, and the shock of it turned him ill. (Some flip the cause->effect and say Santo somehow knew he was close to passing and so decided to show his face)
* after effects of suffering a stroke while wrestling the Misioneros de la Muerte (his opponents in his last match, 18 months prior)

Both of those sound too romantic to actually be true. The World of Lucha Libre book mentions a different cause I never see elsewhere: Santo was working as an escape artist and suffered a heart attack during a performance. (It’s kind of mentioned in El Sol de Cuautla’s look back.

Ciudad also has a video version of their story.

– Ovaciones reprints the obit written 25 years ago.

– News agencies EFE & El Universal write about all the festivities in Mexico City and Santo’s home town of Tulancingo. El Hijo del Santo started the day at the DF Santo statute, and he’ll be visiting Tulancingo (and their statue) tomorrow.

– El Hijo del Santo talks about growing up the son of Santo with ESTO

– WagnerMania has as detailed bio as I’ve seen today. The luchawiki bio is still very good, even if we haven’t done much with it for many years.

– Box Y Lucha has lots of Santo photos from back in the day.

Looking for some way to celebrate the day? If you’re in LA, you can go see Los Campeons de la Lucha Libre and an El Santo movie at the Egyptian Theatre. More info back at this post.