Black Shadow

[10.0] "One of the best Luchadores of all time and heralded by many as the best "pure" Luchador of all time, with his Apuestas match against El Santo setting business records and hailed as one of the best matches of Santo's career if not THE best. He was wonderful as both a tag and singles and unquestionably the commentator below is correct. He deserves more recognition even in this era. A total Lucha Libre legend."

[9.0] "A total legend, he deserves more recognition than he has. According to the media he was one of the best technicians being at the level of Blue Demon or Santo, but when he lost the mask he would start to lose places on the billboards, but that does not mean that he is a great legend."

[8.0] "Black Shadow had a much shorter career than most believe: he effectively retired in 1970 and when he came back in 1976 he was in such bad shape the DF Box y Lucha Commission (of which he was the treasurer) ended up withdrawing his license. But in that short career he achieved a lot, in part helped by his real-life friendship with Blue Demon and in part by his for the time unorthodox style. He popularized planchas and topes and invented quite a few submission moves. He also shocked other luchadores with his training methods: eschewing the traditional gym, he only practiced aerobics and yoga at a time when they weren't as popular as they are nowadays. As part of Los Hermanos Shadow he was massively over in EMLL and their feud with La Pareja Atomica (El Santo and Gory Guerrero) made Salvador Lutheroth a fortune. Black Shadow's rivalry with El Santo turned into a singles affair and in what is to this day considered the most important lucha libre match of all times, Black Shadow lost his mask to El Santo in 1952 at the Arena Coliseo. Black Shadow had another big money feud with Tony Borne (Matt's father) a few years later, which he won, but after that his body started to break down fast and he had to wind down his career, often working as a part-timer."

[8.0] "An innovator, Black Shadow was, by all accounts, a technically sound wrestler. Having one of the most remembered matches in Lucha Libre history against none other than El Santo, I think he deserves this 8. 0 rating"