My Lucha Journey: Valiente Interlude 3: Valiente vs Negro Casas
aired 2/11/13
taped 2/4/13 @ Arena Puebla
Negro Casas vs Valiente for the NWA World Welterweight Championship
I was going to soldier on with Rush vs Shocker, especially because I found a trios match that I really liked, but in trying to date it, I realized I had missed one that had come before it, so we're back to my exploration of whether or not Valiente is as good as people would seem to indicate.
Therefore I'm still looking for that Valiente exclamation point. The Virus match was definitely AN exclamation point, but not the one I was looking for. This was, on paper, what I would consider to be a ringer: a title match with Negro Casas from the date period that we're looking at. As a side-note, while looking through the history of the belt, I do want to go back and see how Mephisto did during his 213 days as champion. He's a wrestler I don't have a great sense of. Anyway, back to the task at hand. This was a Casas title match, with a pretty lively crowd and was absolutely a chance for Valiente to shine.
And it was okay. I've seen it called disappointing and it probably was, but it's hard not to have high expectations for a match like this. I am still not totally sold on Valiente yet, but he unquestionably brings some very definitive skills to the table and Casas is a guy who's good enough to make use of those. Even though this match wasn't the smoking gun I was looking for, it was still worth watching.
The opening matwork was fairly interesting as it wasn't quite what I expected and now, I immediately want to see another Valiente title match to see if he always works this way. I would not say that there was any great level of complexity here, save, maybe for a few exchanges and reversals that looked like Casas physically led Valiente through. What there was instead, however, was a thoroughly character based sense of struggle. Valiente utilized a lot of stretches and cranks and pulls. He has a different body type, one that emphasizes strength and that really came through in his matwork. On the one hand, it meant less complexity, but on the other I bought into it completely. Even his chinlock (a rare sight in lucha?) seemed dynamic somehow. Casas, of course, had both the technicality in his matwork and the character in his theatrics, kicking outside the ring at the second or grabbing a quick advantage by going for a cheapshot in the midst of the noble counter-wrestling. You can't mention everything he does. There was one killer elbow for instance that just took Valiente's head off, but it was really a blip in the grand scheme. I especially loved when he set up for a chopfest and then ducked the first one in order to launch a sneak attack. He was then caught in a fairly impressive looking feat of strength by Valiente before getting plopped down and stretched, but it was the effort that counted. I liked the finish of the Primera Caida a good deal, as Casas tried something screwy on a chop exchange again only to get outfinessed, flipped, rolled, twisted, and finally ground into a nasty enough submission. It was a fine first fall, not a lot memorable, but all mostly sound. Thing would get shakier from there.
The segunda caida was a very slight chunk of nothing, a bit of arm wrenching, the dropkick to the knee, and the casita. The dropkick to the knee, however, unlocked a fun bit of legwork that started off the third fall. Unfortunately, it was shrugged off completely when it was time for Valiente to run around the ring and hit his stuff. As a general rule, I try not to let dropped limbwork bug me in lucha. It's something where, when the selling is good, I give a few more points, but I don't take away when it isn't. I might say "it's a shame," especially in title matches, and it was that here. I will say that Casas' legwork/controlling was fun, all the way to the ending with its awesome cutoff clothesline, great reversal/transition clothesline and the giant Valiente tope suicida. The rest of the tercera caida is full of some memorable stuff, like a big plancha by Valiente from the turnbuckles out and a giant superplex. I could have done without the double powerbomb nearfall though.
I was going to soldier on with Rush vs Shocker, especially because I found a trios match that I really liked, but in trying to date it, I realized I had missed one that had come before it, so we're back to my exploration of whether or not Valiente is as good as people would seem to indicate.
Therefore I'm still looking for that Valiente exclamation point. The Virus match was definitely AN exclamation point, but not the one I was looking for. This was, on paper, what I would consider to be a ringer: a title match with Negro Casas from the date period that we're looking at. As a side-note, while looking through the history of the belt, I do want to go back and see how Mephisto did during his 213 days as champion. He's a wrestler I don't have a great sense of. Anyway, back to the task at hand. This was a Casas title match, with a pretty lively crowd and was absolutely a chance for Valiente to shine.
And it was okay. I've seen it called disappointing and it probably was, but it's hard not to have high expectations for a match like this. I am still not totally sold on Valiente yet, but he unquestionably brings some very definitive skills to the table and Casas is a guy who's good enough to make use of those. Even though this match wasn't the smoking gun I was looking for, it was still worth watching.
The opening matwork was fairly interesting as it wasn't quite what I expected and now, I immediately want to see another Valiente title match to see if he always works this way. I would not say that there was any great level of complexity here, save, maybe for a few exchanges and reversals that looked like Casas physically led Valiente through. What there was instead, however, was a thoroughly character based sense of struggle. Valiente utilized a lot of stretches and cranks and pulls. He has a different body type, one that emphasizes strength and that really came through in his matwork. On the one hand, it meant less complexity, but on the other I bought into it completely. Even his chinlock (a rare sight in lucha?) seemed dynamic somehow. Casas, of course, had both the technicality in his matwork and the character in his theatrics, kicking outside the ring at the second or grabbing a quick advantage by going for a cheapshot in the midst of the noble counter-wrestling. You can't mention everything he does. There was one killer elbow for instance that just took Valiente's head off, but it was really a blip in the grand scheme. I especially loved when he set up for a chopfest and then ducked the first one in order to launch a sneak attack. He was then caught in a fairly impressive looking feat of strength by Valiente before getting plopped down and stretched, but it was the effort that counted. I liked the finish of the Primera Caida a good deal, as Casas tried something screwy on a chop exchange again only to get outfinessed, flipped, rolled, twisted, and finally ground into a nasty enough submission. It was a fine first fall, not a lot memorable, but all mostly sound. Thing would get shakier from there.
The segunda caida was a very slight chunk of nothing, a bit of arm wrenching, the dropkick to the knee, and the casita. The dropkick to the knee, however, unlocked a fun bit of legwork that started off the third fall. Unfortunately, it was shrugged off completely when it was time for Valiente to run around the ring and hit his stuff. As a general rule, I try not to let dropped limbwork bug me in lucha. It's something where, when the selling is good, I give a few more points, but I don't take away when it isn't. I might say "it's a shame," especially in title matches, and it was that here. I will say that Casas' legwork/controlling was fun, all the way to the ending with its awesome cutoff clothesline, great reversal/transition clothesline and the giant Valiente tope suicida. The rest of the tercera caida is full of some memorable stuff, like a big plancha by Valiente from the turnbuckles out and a giant superplex. I could have done without the double powerbomb nearfall though.
The finish was pretty nebulous to me. Valiente went for a moonsault, fell, tried again, and ate a great boot to the face from a prone Casas, who then tossed on the Casita again for the win. It's one of those cases where I have no idea if it was a flub or not. It worked into the finish, especially considering the advantage Valiente had at the time, and it absolutely worked with the earlier legwork (as did Casas recovering first after an earlier dive), but it wasn't sold that way by Valiente, so I just have no idea. All in all, I was glad to see how Valiente hung for the better part of the primera caida especially how he let his strengths shine instead of falling into a more cookie cutter approach, but ultimately, I don't think this match was any great evidence of a banner 2013 for him.
Labels: CMLL, My Lucha Journey, Negro Casas, Valiente
posted by Matt D @ 8:14 AM
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