My Lucha Journey: Rush vs Shocker Part 3: Atlantis, Shocker, Valiente vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

Aired 2014-01-25
taped 2014-01-17 @ Arena Mexico
Atlantis, Shocker, Valiente vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

On my trip through the lead up to Shocker vs Rush, cabellera vs cabellera, this was probably a skippable match. It's one of the last matches before Shocker goes rudo and doesn't involve Rush at all. I'm going to run with the idea that Casas was originally supposed to be part of the luchas de apuestas match, and anyway, this gives me a chance to see some old man Atlantis and more Valiente, who I haven't seen much of, and frankly, I'm not going to say no to a Casas match.

Just to remind everyone of how little I know, it was in the process of watching this one that I learned about La Peste Negra. Casas is part of a awesomely named trio and has been for years. Who knew, right? Not this guy. That's one of the best parts of watching lucha for me. I've just scratched the tip of the iceberg on all that there is to see and learn.

Anyway, these guys are a unit and they sure showed it. The sheer brazenness of rudos coming in to break up any early tecnico advantage is one of the trickier things to get used to in watching trios matches but it's not THAT hard to wrap your head around. They managed it so well and so non-chalantly, almost too much so since it made Valiente, especially, look like a huge goof (Felino serving as Casas' hype man at multiple points was a bit weird too). He kept putting on holds only to see an outside man come in and pop him in the skull. Meanwhile, Casas jutted around the ring like some sort of trickster-god, showing outright joy in stifling his opponents and drawing the elation of the crowd like he was Brer fox or Robin Hood. He doesn't do it here, but one of my favorite things he does, even if it's probably terrible when it comes to suspension of disbelief, is how he occasionally seems to actually direct the camera man from inside the ring. What he did do here was turn around and has a really great, heated, quick and fairly complex exchange with Shocker, just like that. Shocker, to his credit, held his own and at least somewhat tried to appeal to the crowd with his goofy hand motions and poses. Speaking of goofy, Felino continued with his Brian Knobbs-as-a-cat gimmick (though some of the misdirection rope-running with Valiente setting up the first fall with Valiente's super goofy finisher was fun) and Niebla got to do his crazy goblin dance, taunting Atlantis, who barely got to touch him.

The latter played into a big theme of the match (and to one of the most primal of all wrestling themes, even if it presents itself a little differently in lucha): delayed gratification. In the midst of all this silliness and swagger, Atlantis came off as an icon, as a grumpy force for good. I instantly bought into the "idol of the children" hype  (and I JUST found out he went rudo once or twice and that sounds great. It's on my long list of things to go back and watch someday). He and Niebla were captains and one throughstory was Niebla not really getting his comeuppance until the end of the match along with some steady teasing of the technicos getting in their dives before it finally happened. They were able to get a quick, out of nowhere win in the first fall, but even then Niebla had rolled out of the ring to avoid the fall and defer the brunt of his punishment (Atlantis just got a few shots in on the outside). Valiente almost laanded a dive on Felino, but ended up doing a Hamrick bump to his feet instead because of positioning. When Shocker knocked Casas out of the ring, Felino cut off his dive. Finally, due to a rudo miscommunication, Niebla hit Felino and Valiente was able to nail him with a crazy tope. This led to Atlantis getting his hands on Niebla who he made short work of and hitting a tope of his own. Payoff galore.

All of this brought us back to the reason I'm watching this match, Shocker vs Casas. They had been going at the whole match. Chops, brawling, technical exchanges, a few big stikes and moves and that cut off dive. After all the bodies go flying, they were the two left in the ring. Shocker set up a leglock but Casas fouled and then immediately went for the pin. The ref saw it and awarded the win for the tecnicos. It's amusing to me that Rush was able to get away with the foul the week before but Casas wasn't. The takeaway here for me is that it was a shame they took Casas out of this feud (be it due to a collarbone injury or due to planning). It will make the eventual big blowoff match with Rush mean all the more to be one-on-one later this year, but he was working really well with Shocker here and in the three way that preceded this, and I would have liked to see more.