MLJ: Rush vs Casas 9: La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Rush vs Felino, Mephisto, Negro Casas

Aired 2014-06-09
taped 2014-05-26 @ Arena Puebla
La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Rush vs Felino, Mephisto, Negro Casas

Variation is really key with these matches. They switch out one or two of the wrestlers and things feel fresh. They have to because they're working the same crowds every week or close to it. Here we've got Mephisto and Felino on the rudo side. If I had to pick I'd take Felino over Niebla probably. He can bring it a little bit better even if his brand of comedy is more offensive. It's not more offensive structurally. I'm sure Mephisto is wonderfully happy Averno left. He's stuck in this match getting Felino's armpit stuck in his face as a pre-match ritual. Sombra and Rush have Marco with them, which is the unofficial Ingobernales unit I like the best. Visually and even in his work, Mascara's sort of a poor man's Sombra in a lot of ways. Marco at least brings something different to the table but he's more than happy to work in the Ingobernales style and forget he's a tecnico.

This was a rare beast, a 2014 match that didn't start with an ambush. Despite the fact that Marco does fit in well with Sombra and Rush, there was a moment at the start of the match where there was a slight disconnect. The rudos actually got to act like rudos to begin. After a bit of Mephisto/Rush sequence and matwork, Mephisto drew him into the rudo corner and the cheapshots and interference started. Then Casas tossed the newly-battered Marco into the tecnico corner because he wanted Rush and everything inverted. Sombra and Rush charged the ring together and the tecnicos became rudos and the rudos became babyfaces and the beatdown was on. It was a nice little transformative touch, which means they're probably going to reuse it in the next three matches.

Marco was quick to join in on the act, participating in the beatdown and suplexing Casas to take a very brief primera, that was really all that transformative moment and not much else. The beatdown continued between falls, with Rush sticking Felino's leg in a planted chair in the crowd and tossing Casas into the wall. No one has the energy for a beatdown quite like Rush. There was a nice whip into a Rush superkick too. Some of this, then led to parallel spots in the comeback. It began with Sombra holding Casas for another Rush superkick only for him to move and Sombra to eat it in the face. Then Casas stuck rush's leg in a chair so he could beat him down while Felino choked the hell out of Marco. For some reason Mephisto got to get the shine here, pinning Sombra with the Devil's Wings and Marco after he tied him up. Looking at results, I don't see what they were building Mephisto up for but it was pretty heated and effective altogether.

It led to a reset in the tercera, and one with some comedy at that. I think we've seen this before, when you have a heated match and they break it up with shtick or sequence. Sometimes it can drain the heat away, but if it's done quickly, and leads right back into, say, rush and Casas beating the heck out of each other, it can be effective. Here it was Felino and Marco and it was perfectly fine except for the fact I think I've seen this exact bit with the armpit and the slow delay punch thing a half dozen times. I actually paused the match to try to figure out if I'd seen it before, but no, it was just the act. That took me out of the match more than it would have if it was all fresh. Thankfully, it did lead right into Casas and Rush again and the second Rush hit his headbutt out of the corner, they had me again. It also worked because the end of the Fall wasn't going to be focused on Rush vs Casas. Instead, Marco and Casas did a bit more comedy and took themselves out of the equation, Rush finished off Felino with his side suplex and Mephisto ate Sombra's moonsault.  In the end, it worked. Again, this isn't one of those matches that'll be a MOTYC but it was well worth watching, and was really satisfying. It had a clever set up for the beat down, a solid beat down, a great, heated comeback, and then some straightforward and fun trios wrestling with both heat and comedy to take things home. Matches like this are just a simple joy.