MLJ: Rush vs Negro Casas 15 & 16: Tag Title Match and La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Shocker

A link, first, as I already reviewed the next match in the series. I loved the way they worked the primera caida of it, with a few teases of it being a traditional title match before Rush and Mascara acted like total punks, and thought it was effective overall, even if the back half of the match didn't live up to the front half. Eric didn't like it nearly as much.

This was followed, then, by:

Aired 2014-07-13
taped 2014-07-04 @ Arena México
La Máscara, La Sombra, Rush vs Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas, Shocker

I've watched dozens and dozens of matches in this project, almost 80 I think. Most of them are pretty easy to break down. Lucha is not hard to figure out. It's really not. It's all about setting up a desire for something and then paying it off. That leads to pretty straightforward momentum shifts and matches that are pretty easy to follow. A-B-A. B-A-Reset-Finish. That sort of thing. Matches fit into a few different formulae because they work; they're time tested, effective, and the crowds eats them up, as they well should. They're also a little limiting. Every now and again you get a match like this, a war, and while it's a bit of a mess, it's a frenetic, exciting, visceral and violent mess that shows you what things might look like if they stretched just a little bit more now and again.

The story of the match was that neither side could get the advantage for long. It went two caidas, starting with the Ingobernales having something of an early advantage (though not necessarily due to an ambush as Shocker was just about smart enough, for once, to wait for his teammates to arrive; I assume that his opponents weren't in a rush to attack because they'd just shown off their swank new mafia entrance gear). It was a very solid beatdown with lots of holding of the "rudos" so missile or springboard or just regular dropkicks could be hit. Eventually, Los Ingobernales got cocky and got yanked out of the ring while trying to attack from the outside in and we ended up with a mini comeback, and a spirited one at that (Shocker yanking Sombra's mask and what not). This cycled right what felt like a tercera caida finishing sequence with quick cutoffs and finisher attempts, ending finally with a huge double suplex on NC and the corner dropkick on Niebla.

After this, they staged a reset and tossed structure out the window. Usually in a reset final fall (which is what this would be), they run through the pairings, with one side or another holding a fairly distinct advantage until they start the rush to the finish. Alternatively, they might do a second beatdown/comeback. Either way, it would generally end in big dives, and then leave the captains or the fueding focus on the match in the ring to finish things up. Here it's just chaotic, with neither side allowing the other to get much of an advantage before the other side swarms and fights back. If not for the crowd being so behind Casas and company (and the way they played to them) and how much Los Ingobernales were stalling (and how THEY played the crowd heelishly), it would have felt like some of those crazy rudo vs rudo trios brawls from eras past.

Basically, they did a lot of stuff. They run Rush vs NC a few times. They did some Niebla jiving around, but it didn't really hurt the flow of the match. They did the fun sequence of Shocker vs the World sequence from a week or two before where he clotheslines one opponent, dodges a shot in the corner, stunners Rush, and then gets out of the way so the dodged opponent dropkicks him. They had Rush cut out Casas' leg on his seated senton from the apron attempt even after he gave Rush a great headbutt to get him out. They had Niebla hit his fun back headbutt followed by a really fun Santo style tope out through the corner of the ring.

And they brought it all together by getting Rush and company their heat back after losing the tag titles. Shocker had been going for the Scorpion on Sombra but it ended up as a stumbling pin attempt. Aftewards, Sombra rushed at the ref to complain and Rush slipped into the ring so he could foul Shocker. The ref missed it and Los Ingobernales won. This was a lot of fun. I'll be honest. I was sort of dreading another match between these six at Arena Mexico coming in but they really slipped the reins and the end result was chaotic and a bit of a mess but enjoyable.