El Santo

[8.0] "i watched some matches for el santo but i did not like him that much , to be honest he is good for his time but in our time no ."

[9.0] "Amazing charisma and longevity. He was basically a national hero. His movies weren't very good but they're still a lot of fun to watch."

"There are two matches on the entirety of this website featuring El Santo that have received any votes. The fact of the matter is, we do not posses enough footage of El Santo's work to paint an accurate picture of who he actually was as a wrestler. Give him a 10 on legacy if you want - he'll always be a 10 on legacy - but nobody born after 1970 and nobody who wasn't actually in those arenas in Mexico have any idea how talented a wrestler El Santo really was."

[10.0] "Mexico along with Japan is one of those few regions that just seems to understand professional wrestling. True lucha libre operates differently than its North America counterpart on an ideological level. (Less patriotism and moral drama, more acrobatics and secret identities.) In the world of lucha libre, it is safe to say El Santo stands apart as one of the greats, if not the greatest. Similar to Bruno Sammartino or Hiroshi Tanahashi, there was just something naturally likable about our silver-masked hero. Nevertheless, there was a lot more to El Santo than natural charisma and by all accounts he worked a solid technical style in the ring. Granted, this was all before the days of home video, so finding footage of him in his prime is nearly impossible. Still, El Santo was in a lot of bizarre monster movies, in which he'd typically fight vampires along with Blue Demon. In many ways El Santo transcended professional wrestling and became a folk hero to the people of Mexico. For historical importance alone he gets an easy 10/10. Some might equate him to Hulk Hogan or The Rock in terms of popularity, but El Santo goes beyond anyone from the WWE factory."

[10.0] "El Santo is one of the legends thanks to which wrestling in Mexico has acquired the status of a religion. Santo is also popular outside of the wrestling community, as he starred in a large number of old-school horror films, in which he mainly opposed different monsters. He has a unique achievement on his account - he never lost his sacred attribute - a mask - and was even buried in it. One of the most recognizable luchadores around the world and national hero, who left his contribution in the history of the industry, 10 points."

[10.0] "Forget being a wrestling icon, this man was a national hero. A mainstay in Mexican s popular culture. Sure, he was not the best luchador of all-time in terms of workrate, but for his incredible charisma, his popularity and what he has meant to the country of Mexico, and you know, being very good for his time, he gets a 10"

[6.0] "El Santo undoubtedly played an important role in wrestling history, and his undeniable charisma made him a fixture in popular culture, but he was still pretty average when it came to his in-ring performances. Since Hulk Hogan isn't at the top of the top rated wrestlers on this site, I see no reason to rate El Santo too high, who was a good technical wrestler, but not an outstanding wrestler if one does abstraction of his charisma."

[10.0] "I think it's fair to say that El Santo is the most culturally significant professional wrestler to ever live."

[10.0] "El Santo is one of two men to transcend the business, and the other is Hulk Hogan. Santo was arguably a bigger pop culture icon than Hogan was. He kept his face covered until he had to say goodbye, the man doesn't get nearly as much recognition as he deserves. See Adam Blampied's video on him from the WhatCulture days to find out how big this guy was."

[9.0] "One of Mexico's biggest cultural icons, that's for certain, but let's judge him as a wrestler. Santo's best days are lost in the mist, before the days of television: all we have are pictures, magazine articles and books written decades after his physical peak, when he was already a superstar if not more. From what we know he was an excellent wrestler, and the fact he was a big name rudo says he was an excellent worker as well. We also do know his tag team with Gory Guerrero, La Pareja Atomica, was a massive hit. When television arrived in Mexico in the 50's, and lucha libre was one of the driving forces behind it, Santo was already a major star, respected by his peers because he had earned his place the hard way and well known to the fans: it's now known he had wrestled for several months in the Texas territories in the late 40's/early 50's, unmasked and under an alias, to learn new holds and moves and to earn extra money. From a strictly technical point of view, it was a no brainer that Santo would become a star of televised lucha libre, since he was a far better in-ring worker than Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin would be decades later, he had earned enough pull to have a saying in how he was booked and he made promoters lots of money. What was not a no-brainer is how huge he became outside of lucha libre, especially considering how cheesy his films were, even for the times. To his credit Santo never forgot his roots and kept on wrestling until his body held up: yes, he was paid very large sums of money by contemporary standards, but I suspect the fact is he just loved wrestling. The only reason I don't give him a full rating is because his best years as an in-ring worker are forever lost (unless we invent a time machine) and it would be great to see him at his physical peak."