2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

44. Negro Casas, Puma & Tiger vs. Guerrero Maya Jr., Atlantis & Delta CMLL 1/26

ER: It's amazing how refreshing a match like this can be when compared opposite Arena Mexico main events. I've been watching Casas get his butt handed to him for months by Rush, and here we jump back to the beginning of the year and Casas is an awesome stooging heel, tripping over himself as he runs from Atlantis, hiding behind moms, taking pratfalls down the aisles while his nephews jump in to protect him. The bulk of the match is taken by the nephews opposite Delta and Maya, and every time Casas gets in opposite Atlantis he either bails or runs directly into a quebradora. Puma and Tiger look really good in this, they've really jumped out to me this year and wrestle like a couple of vets. They really know how to work rudo and bring more to a match than "athletic guys working athletically" which while it can be fun, really seems like 70% of CMLL matches are worked in that style and it can make things forgettable fast. Puma and Tiger both helped carry the psych of the match. Delta can be silly sometimes (and is here) but also throws out a neat headscissors to the floor and an awesome tandem dive with Maya past the turnbuckles. Maya is a favorite of mine and I love seeing him with a big role in a match like this. And we all do this to build to the Casas/Atlantis moments which are a blast. I just said a week ago that Casas might be the best current sympathetic babyface in wrestling, well it turns out he might concurrently be the best chicken shit heel in wrestling. He puts on a clinic here and it's funny to see him punt Atlantis in the balls considering what the fate of his own balls has been lately. Post match we get Casas riling up the crowd with Atlantis' mask and this was all a bunch of fun.

PAS: I really dug watching Casas go back to his roots as a sniveling heel. He is great in his current roll, but this is where he is a master. Atlantis is great too, and this is the kind of match that he and Casas have probably done a thousand times, and I could watch a thousand more. I thought all the young guys in this were fine, but this was all about the maestros being maestros.


2014 MASTER LIST