Bestia Salvaje

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Exposer]

I've only scratched the surface with him, but I think Salvaje was a pretty great 90s rudo. I've seen several trios from that period where he works his shtick in really well. He can bump, throw a nasty strike, and do comedy exceptionally well. He was particularly good in a trios with Los Supremos against Aguila Solitaria, Ciclon Ramirez, and El Pantera bumping and stooging. I will say I didn't like his singles hair match versus Casas. I was structurally poor and not worked in a traditional stakes match style so I came out of it pretty disappointed. I want to see more of his stuff before I can make a definitive answer on him. I am considering him at this point.

[Gregor]

Weird wrestler. He and Emilio Charles Jr. had the same basic skill set. Emilio was a little better at bumping, and Bestia was a little better at offense and maybe selling. His celebrations were always great. For whatever reason, though, when he was backup in someone else's trios match he usually put in a solid performance rather than doing anything to stand out the way Charles would. As a result, you get a year like 1992, when he was one of the most pushed guys in the promotion and also one of the best, and other years in which he has a lot of solid outings but nothing outstanding. He has some good stuff in 1996, when he started getting pushed again, but physically he wasn't the wrestler he'd been in the early '90s.

[ohtani's jacket]

Shockingly few comments about Bestia. Gregor's assessment above is fair in the sense of addressing Bestia as a star, but as a pure worker, I think he takes the best elements of rudoism and combines them into a single package. He pretty much excels at every staple -- bumping, selling, gloating, comedy, brawling, you name it. He was more impressive offensively during his physical prime of '91-92, but still enjoyable ten years later trading chops with Casas. He may have wore out his welcome a bit with how long the Santo/Casas feud drags on, and he was a different worker at that stage with his broken down body and W.C. Fields' nose, but I love the Arn analogy. I would probably rate him over Emilio Charles, Jr at this point, but that's something that could change with the next batch of lucha I watch.  

[cad]

I agree that Bestia could do it all. The problem is that he doesn't have that one performance where it all comes together, everything working for him in full flow so that he looks like one of the true greats. I know for some people it's the hairs vs masks match from 1999, or maybe the 4.5 star match with Huracan Sevilla or the hair match with Casas. None of those really did it for me. If I had to pick my favorite Bestia performance I'd go with this one. He's good and he's consistent, but I can't recall many times that I watched him and thought that no other rudo could have equaled his contributions in a given match.

[cad]

Bestia, Pirata Morgan and Fuerza Guerrera vs Dandy, Guerrero Samurai and Mantuz, 1988-90
Here's a look at Bestia before he became a CMLL fixture and a chance to see elusive Arena Coliseo Guadalajara footage. I can't figure out when this is from or what it's building to. He's feuding with Dandy and their listed matches from around this time all took place in the capital. The uploader cut out most of the first fall, so most of Bestia's offense in the video is just low blows, but he gets good heat and bleeds more than I've ever seen him do. I don't know where or if Bestia registers on the long list of Dandy rivals, but this made me wish we had the whole match and made for a fun watch on its own.