My Lucha Journey: Rush vs Shocker Part 1: Rush vs Shocker vs Negro Casas

I am actually really excited to watch the recent Rush vs Shocker cabellera vs cabellera match because it's the first CMLL match of this sort since I started to follow modern lucha. I've seen my share on the 80s set, of course, but there's something about being in the moment that makes wrestling pop. I love watching matches from the 80s and there was absolutely a sense of newness to the lucha set for me, but there's a difference between thirty year old footage and thirty day old footage. You just feel so much closer to the latter, even if the former is likely many times better.

Therefore, I'm going to go back and watch a few matches in the build before actually watching the match itself. I had to find some cut off point though, as it feels I could go back a few years with these two (or Casas since he's a part of it too). I picked the Shocker vs Rush vs Casas match from November of last year. It seemed as good a point as any even though there are probably a few matches that led up to IT.

Rush is fascinating to me. I've seen my share of heels with something of a babyface act, be it Kurt Angle's initial three I's run or Bo Dallas now or Mr. Wrestling II in 1984. They claim a moral high ground, but completely contradict it with their actions. Usually, there's a kernel of truth in what they're saying but it's completely overshadowed by what they actually do. Now, tecnico and rudo are not the same things as face and heel, but I'm still working out the meanings behind them. It can't all be as simple as Satanico using magic to turn you evil, after all. It feels more like a code, of how you carry yourself, of what tactics you use in the ring and the meaning behind them. That's all fairly abstract. It's also somehow codified. The affiliation is listed on the name graphics. It's how the parejas increibles tournaments operate. It's even more marked than the old fashioned babyface and heel locker rooms in the States.

Despite all that, Rush is just a phenomenal heel. This isn't a John Cena case where the kids and the women root for him, though I imagine some of the women might. This isn't a guy being so good and true blue that he annoys the crowd. No, Rush is an outright heel who just happens to be a tecnico, and he's great at it. He ambushes his opponents, kicks,stomps, and headbutts the crap out of them with a red hot intensity, fouls freely, grabs the tights, and takes advantage of every opportunity. He carries himself with this petulant, entitled arrogance, posing and taunting and getting outright pissed off when the crowd dares to cheer for someone other than him. You get the feeling that he couldn't go rudo because there's no way the other camp would ever accept him. You wonder if his mother would even accept him. I'm not entirely sure the logic behind it or how it draws, but it's pretty exciting to watch.

Shocker is someone I heard a lot about a number of years ago but never had an opportunity to see. Now he comes off as slightly bloated and over the hill. He's a bit bulkier than a lot of his opponents and uses that to move them around the ring and he still has a lot of charisma and is good at working to crowds, but you do get the sense that he's not the man he once was, even if I don't have a great picture of exactly who that man was.

Aired 2013-11-24
Taped 2013-11-11
Negro Casas vs Rush and Shocker

I came in to this not knowing what to expect as I'd not seen a three-way lucha match before. It's both fun and fairly organic. In some ways, that's not too surprising. One of the biggest problems with triple threat matches is finding natural ways to take out one of the three wrestlers for a while so the other two can work together. In what I've seen so far, it's common for luchadors to drop out of the ring, and for a time the match itself; it's a staple in trios, though obviously the idea is a little different here. Ultimately, the action kept moving and stayed mostly logical with plenty of character flourishes.

The story here was pretty straight forward: these three just don't like each other. Despite the fact they're both tecnicos, Shocker and Rush don't work together at all against Casas. In fact, Shocker and Casas managed more of a temporary alliance and the one time it looked like Shocker was going to work with Rush, it ended almost immediately in hairpulling and backstabbery. You can hardly blame Shocker, though. Rush heeled it up throughout, ambushing Casas as he made his entrance and nailing Shocker from the outside when he had Casas pinned in an elimination match. It's the little things, like the way he went for the tights or how he kicked Casas' leg out in order to better beat the living hell out of him in the corner.

No one kept an advantage for long. Casas had both finesse and his kicks. Shocker was able to push his opponents around the ring. Rush was explosive in his strikes and suplexes. The third man made it back in anytime one of the other two started to get momentum. There was a nice moment of build as Casas and Shocker cut off Rush's corner dropkicks before he finally was able to hit them both in rapid succession. Casas went out first but remained well protected. He fought back briefly after being superplexed first by Rush and then by Shocker before finally eating Rush's side suplex/powerslam combo for the fall.

The match's ending presumably set up everything to come in the feud, including planting the seeds for Shocker's inevitable rudo switch. After Casas was eliminated, Shocker took the advantage, including almost winning the fall with his clothesline-counter cradle, and then momentarily locking on La Reienera. Rush rolled him up out of that and couldn't keep him down. Seeing the writing on the wall, or maybe just pissed off, Rush fouled in front of the ref at his first opportunity. Post match, he taunted Shocker on the mic, only to ungraciously defer when Shocker shot back with a hair match challenge. They both leave with plenty unresolved.