MLJ: Rush vs Negro Casas 8:La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Ripper

Aired 2014-05-10
Taped 2014-05-02 @ Arena México
La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Ripper

We soldier on towards Rush vs Negro Casas. On the rudo side here we had Ripper again, this time in a match not set up to focus on one of his feuds. He also had (and someone correct me if I'm wrong here) Cuije with him, complete with mini snake, which is always pretty awesome. On the "tecnico" side, we had the full Ingobernales line-up, including Mascara doing the ring introductions for his side, which is entirely the best thing he does. It adds a lot to the act and it's not like he stands out with much else. Niebla's with Casas and that made me a bit wary considering the bullshit he pulled in the last match I saw with him, but this was actually significantly better. It was both tempered and had some pay off.

So about 80% of these matches seem to begin with Rush and company ambushing Casas' side, to the point where when it doesn't start that way, it's refreshing. Here it wasn't quite refreshing, but at least it was done well with Mascara and Sombra hiding on either side of the ramp to ambush Casas when he came charging towards Rush. Thus began the mauling, and it was a pretty good one too, lasting all the way into the tercera since Rush tossed a chair at Casas' head to end the primera on a DQ.

Sometimes I wonder if I don't want enough out of lucha, or maybe, if I want the wrong thing. All it really takes to make me happy is a great beatdown and a great comeback. If there's a really good shine in the primera or alternatively a triumphant showing by the tecnicos(or let's say the faces since the lines are blurred here), then that adds a lot too, but really it's satisfying beatdown to charge up the potential energy (the heat), and then a comeback to pay it all off. That's all I want.

We got it here. The beatdown was full of fun stuff, past the chair shot. They tossed Niebla into a nasty Rush dropkick. Rush pulled Casas around by his hair and slammed him into the sideboard. When Niebla tried his no selling BS (and there was one guy in the crowd in a Niebla match that was all about it) he got kicked in the head. Rush hit a huge senton on Ripper and stomped on Casas's throat repeatedly and they took the segunda with the running corner attacks, with Sombra punctuating it during the pins with his fantastic hyper knee on Ripper.

The comeback lived up to the hype of the heat. There are two or three things that Niebla does really well. One, he can fall off the apron successfully and get a great laugh when the situation is right. Two, he can catch his own spit and pop the crowd when the situation is right. Three, he's got a hell of a punch when he wants to use it. He used it here, as Rush was charging in at him after slipping out of being held by the others. We ended up with some Casas vs Rush, a machine gun dive-fest with Sombra cutting off Casas' dive with an perfectly timed kick, Niebla hitting a tope anyway, Mascara hitting him with a tope in return, and Sombra finishing things with an Asai moonsault to set up Rush vs Casas again. Casas dropkicked the knee, hit La Casita, and the rudos picked up the win (complete with Niebla tying up Mascara amusingly).

Post-match, Sombra sulked in the crowd again and everyone yelled at each other on the mic. Definitely a satisfying trios. If they're going to start things off with an ambush, that's a great way to do it.