This match happened in the defunct UWA(Universal Wrestling Association), which was a place many luchadors made their names from it’s founding in 1975 to it’s doors closing 1995. 20 Years of matches from some of the biggest Lucha names at the time. They were basically the AAA promotion of the time, with AAA founding in 1992, UWA basically got squeezed out of existence. This particular match happened on August 18th 1989.

Who’s Who?

Blue Demon was famous for facing off vs the original El Santo. Handing Santo his most humiliating defeat at EMLL 20th Anniversary in the main event for Santo’s NWA World Welterweight Championship… that was in 1953, almost exactly 35 years prior to the match we are looking at today. An amazing amount of longevity, which isn’t uncommon for Luchadors.

Still you’d hardly be able to tell he was 66 when this ‘89 match took place. This would be his last Luchas de Apuestas feud, though the next match in the feud was actually a triangle match also including Rayo de Jalisco who Blue Demon unmasked before this match.

Blue Demon is most widely known for his roles in various El Santo films where he often teamed up with his rival Santo to defeat greater evil’s like mummies, aliens and vampires. Though Blue Demon had his own solo films and 3 films where he was the leader of a luchador Justice League-like group that would include guys like Mil Mascaras, Tinieblas, and Rayo de Jalisco. Santo was never in those films as he was busy off making his own solo films.

Blue Demon’s legacy is carried on by his adoptive son Blue Demon Jr. who continues to wrestle in 2017 though at 51 and his older peer El Hijo del Santo(54) retiring it remains to be know how much longer Blue Demon Jr. will wrestle or if he will ever have a relevant run again. In AAA this year he as only wrestled once in their Torneo TripleMania XXV(A 30 man match) and in The Crash he has been in 3 trios matches, so he is basically working the light semi-retired schedule.

El Matematico(The Mathematician) is one of the many names that was big in UWA, but never really recovered from its closure in 1995. He held both the UWA World Welterweight and UWA Lightweight belts there holding both separately for about 3 years over 2 reigns, being champion for roughly 15% of UWA’s existence where he worked for pretty much all 20 years of it’s run as a promotion.

Since he mostly worked in UWA which died out before the internet became prevalent, records of his career and UWA in general are hard to come by. I’m not even certain if he is dead or alive. Cagematch doesn’t have a death date, so I’ll assume he is still kicking(his most recent match listed on there is 2015).

An interesting note about this feud is that El Matematico means The Mathematician and Blue Demon’s nickname was El Profe or The Professor.

Matematico had 2 sons who both took on the name Matematico II and III respectively, though neither became big stars from what I can tell. One important relation of Matematico is his uncle, the famous Huracan Ramirez. Whose name may give away the fact he innovated the Hurricanrana and was a huge Luchador in his time.

How’s the match?

Good, but it’s really a technical match. People who find Zack Sabre Jr. to be tame or boring will say the same of this match. I don’t mind it, it’s actually a pretty interesting reminder that wrestling is… well wrestling. Lots of ground action and exchanging holds. Mathematico working the leg of Blue Demon throughout while Demon painted a bullseye on the arm of Mathematico.

I’m stunned how old Blue Demon was here, I thought like many grey luchadors he was probably in his 50′s. Not in his mid 60′s! At 66, this might be the best match any 66 year old has ever put on at least one on one. I’ll have to check out a Terry Funk match out from 2010 and compare. Still at 66 this match is quite the feat!

For some fans, this may feel limited and might even not feel like Lucha Libre. The one dive is saved for the ending and is really a huge blunder for Matematico, though it helps really establish the dive as a ‘high risk’ move with it ultimately costing Matematico his mask.

While this match isn’t going to usurp Ric Flair’s great run from ‘89, this is a good swan song for Blue Demon/Matematico/UWA. Though all 3 continued on past this point, this really feels like a closing chapter for all 3 in one way or another. I wish it was with better quality, especially the unmasking portion. I could also do without the ‘Mascara Y Carabellas’ text at the bottom right throughout.

3.5/5.0 Probably the best 1v1 match featuring a 60+ Luchador I’ve seen… probably one of the only ones as well.