Not really. Hulk Hogan is everything Santo was and then some but no one votes for him just because a match happens to take place in the heart of America. Absence of information is a terrible reason to ignore all the other criteria we use for the rest of the wrestlers.
Was one of the main pro Punk arguments in the previous round not that the match was in Chicago? That's the exact same thing. It is a categorical wrestling fact that people who's career is based on defending the national name do well. Santo is one such person, Rikidozan another. When Santo fought Austin in this tournament a few years ago, he lost in a total landslide, and a common reason given was that Austin was at home.
Can you provide a source that gives us match length?
I have seen several over the years, please don't portray me as a liar. I have to get to the train station, but I promise I'll edit this/post one later. I just haven't got the time to trawl the net right now.
In wrestling? Not so sure. It takes a lot of pesos and most of Santo's in-ring career wasn't even on tv.
That's not really true. They started showing Lucha Libre in Mexico in the early 1950s, I would contest that his prime pretty much exactly coincided with that, from about 1951-1962 or so, though I guess the point stands as few had a TV.
It is only reasonable if you do something we do for no other wrestler in this tournament, that being assume the biggest pop culture star goes over regardless of anything else.
I still have yet to see any convincing evidence Santo was an unbeatable singles wrestler. For instance, I would love for someone to tell me when his prime was and what he did that was impressive in a wrestling ring at that time. If his prime was his funeral, then I like Sting's chances.
You keep going down this road, and I sort of understand why, but it's a bit bizarre.
1) He wouldn't have been a popular culture star if he wasn't a popular wrestler first. If you compare the other crossovers, even within Lucha Libre, they are all huge stars. Look at the WWE's crossovers, and it becomes even more apparent - The Rock has made lots of money as a crossover, and Mr. Kennedy's film was widely panned.
2) I've already told you several times that his prime was the late 50s early 60s. Did he win every match then? No. Did he win most? Yes. You completely ignored the last time I pointed it out as being about the most important thing in lucha libre is lucha de apuestas, and he won no fewer than 35 such matches without defeat. 16 of those were masks. I don't know of a single luchador with a record even approaching that. Looking at the other big names records in hair/mask matches (I've drawn attention to the mask wins, as because everyone can only lose this once, it makes it more prestigious):
El Santo - 35 wins, 16 masks
El Canek - 25 wins, 9 masks
El Solitario - 24 wins, 1 defeat as a previous character, 13 masks
Mil Mascaras - 13 wins, 5 masks
Blue Demon - 11 wins, 6 masks
Konnan - 10 wins, one defeat, 2 masks
Gory Guerrero - 1 win, 1 mask
Do you not see how that is an impressive in ring career?
3) More on the history. Santo was not popular because he was in films. Santo was popular because a) many of his big wins were against foreigners and b) many of his big domestic wins were felt too, because of the economic situation at the time.
Santo was born elsewhere, but moved to Tepito in Mexico City whilst still a young child. During this time there was a rebellion in Mexico called the Cristero War, basically caused by the fact that the government were anti-catholic. The resulting migration turned Tepito into a slum, with many poor people. Somebody called The Saint, a child of an area made poor because of their devotion to catholicism, beating the established stars of the day was always going to be popular. The ability of the man to connect to that crowd is what made him a far wider reaching star than just in the wrestling ring.
