MLJ: Rush vs Negro Casas 12: Negro Casas vs Rush (mano a mano)

Aired 2014-06-14
taped 2014-06-03 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Negro Casas vs Rush (mano a mano)

This was short, super short, really, and it's hard to tell how much was due to edits and how much was just the way it was. From the live report I dug up, it sounded like the primera really was that short. It was the main event of a Tuesday show, and really, at this stage, it wasn't even all that certain if a hair match would be happening, let alone when. That's the impression I get at least. They'd only had one singles match aired as of yet (back in November of 2013), so despite having a thousand different match ups in trios, this felt a little fresh.

I wish there was more to the first two falls. It almost felt like a lightning match, or maybe it could have been one without much harm. We had no entrances on tape, but the girls were just leaving the ramp as this started so it must have started in the ring. Primera was basically this: Rush got the immediate advantage, pounded Casas in the corner, hit the dropkick there and stood on him for three. The segunda wasn't much more. Rush beat Casas on the floor. Casas reversed a whip in the ring for a double leg pick up/drop down (it's not a spinebuster; does that have a name? It's a very common lucha move to set up submissions). He did it again, then locked on a full Boston Crab for three. So far not very interesting at all.

Thankfully they gave us a spirited tercera. Despite not being in Arena Mexico, Casas had the crowd's support drawing a chant. Meanwhile, Rush would argue with the ref after every two count. Until the finishing stretch, this was a lot of what we've seen before, some of it even recently. For instance, after capitalizing on some of that arguing with the ref, Casas dropkicked Rush to the apron. When he tried to kick him out so he could hit a dive, however, Rush caught the leg and locked on the same hanging leglock over the ropes he got DQed for only four days before (I'd never seen him use it before that point). There's definitely an odd level of reiteration when it comes to these matches. This time he broke it only to lock it on back in the ring; Casas made it to the ropes. They also did the reverse course clothesline again, but I never have a problem with them using it. I think that Casas is well aware that Rush can use it at any point, but rope-running is so common in their exchanges it becomes a bit of a chess game. If he anticipates it at the wrong time, he'll pay for it.

This had a really strong finishing sequence that had plenty of callbacks to earlier in the match and to the looming effectiveness of Casas' finisher. This is a short enough match so I'll spell it out. After the in-ring leglock, Rush went for a second rope senton but took too long and Casas rolled away. He immediately went for the dropkick to the knee and the Casita, but Rush pushed him away. Rush went for the reverse course clothesline again, but Casas ducked it, hit another pick up/drop down and went for the crab again. He got kicked off, but only loosely and hit another low dropkick only to have the Casita foiled once more. Rush then hit a quick kick and a powerbomb, using the ropes to pick up the fall and the win. Just by the nature of the moves they were using, there was escalation and scouting, and fast action but there was never any sense of not selling. They did it all on counters and knowing each other. I much prefer that to escalating headdrops or whatever.

Short, sweet, certainly didn't wear out its welcome; I could have used more brawling to start but I think they showed here, very definitively, that they had a great (and surprisingly fresh) apuestas match in them to come.