MLJ: Rush vs Negro Casas 17: Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

Aired: 2014-07-20
taped 2014-07-11 @ Arena México
Marco Corleone, Máximo, Rush vs Cavernario, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

First off, a plug. Elliott is doing some really great work over at PWO examining Satanico (both late career and 90s), in light of the GOAT project going on there. It's worth checking out and while I'll probably not review them here, there are a lot of links to matches I haven't seen but really want to. Alright, back to Rush vs Casas. We're closing in now, which is probably a good thing as Eric and Phil just posted their MOTYC review of the hair match. I'll be able to add my views when we hit the end in a week or two. Then, since Eric is doing such a good job burning through the weekly TV, I'm going to hop back to 2010 and take a look at some CMLL from there (and also, no one wants to see me review another 200 Atlantis vs Ultimo Guerrero matches or however many it'd take to make it to the Mask match). To stay at least somewhat relevant, though, I'm going to use the Monday slot to focus on Barbaro Cavernario, who's one of the bigger stories of the year.

Which is a topical thought here, as he's on the rudo side for this trios match. I don't know how many times he'd been in a match this high up on the card at Arena Mexico but this was second to last, with only a Sombra vs Shocker singles match to set up a tag title rematch after it. He was teamed with Casas and Ultimo Guerrero too, so this was a great spot for him. Weirdly enough, Rush, Maximo, and Marco came out announced as El Bufete Del Amor, which seems fairly bizarre considering Rush's Ingobernales affiliation. In general, the match was sort of worked like a revelos increibles match, with Rush the rudo with the tecnicos and Casas the tecnico with the rudos.

Structurally, it was a pretty standard B-A-C sort of match. Rush ran out to attack Casas but UG followed right behind him and they were able to get in just enough of an ambush to hold the advantage for a (not particularly heated) beatdown which ended with a Casas corner clothesline on Rush, a big hanging UG suplex on Marco, and UG whipping Maximo into a top rope Cavernario dropkick. During the fall, Casas deposited rush over the barricade with a clothesline. The comeback came, as we've seen many times before now, with Rush hitting a dropkick out of the corner as Casas was whipped towards him. After a bit of revenge brawling, Marco hit Air Italia from the ramp for the fall. They reset for the pairings (Maximo-Cavernario, UG-Marco, Rush-NC) after this and ultimately, Rush stole the win.

The real story here was first the character work and second, the bullshit ending, which as far as bullshit endings go, was pretty bullshit, and I think a huge mark against Rush at a time where he's probably in Wrestler of the Year contention. First off, the character work. It was great. These guys are all pros. UG matches off very well against Marco as he's a guy who's over enough and established enough that he's very willing to eat comedy spots for the good of the match. I'm curious if he still feels the same way now that his mask is gone. Even better was Maximo and Cavernario, as the latter kept trying to kiss the former. Maximo being afraid of his opponent is probably my favorite version of Maximo, as I loved it in all of his match-ups against Terrible and it's even better here as Cavernario just dove right into the crazed caveman character and Maximo dove away from him at every point, until he finally eats a fall in the tercera after trying the kiss of death on UG, only to have Cavernario spin him around and hit him with it, followed by that fall back chinlock submission of his. Rush and Casas were Rush and Casas full of fire and aggression, as good as ever here. I could watch ten more matches with these six.

That said, the finish was highly frustrating. It had come down to Casas vs Rush, with Casas finally getting the advantage on the apron, hitting the apron DDT and following it with his seated senton off the apron. So far, so good. It was a really nice exchange up until that point and well punctuated. After that, though, Rush committed one of the worst cardinal sins imaginable. Casas positioned him on the floor as Cavernario ascended the ropes. He came off hard with a giant splash from the top to the floor, the sort of thing that if done too many times (read: at all) could shorten a career. I remember seeing a trios with Hijo del Santo and Psicosis where Santo ate a senton from the top to the floor and was stretchered out to huge heat. It was still a crazy and dangerous spot, a foolish spot, but it was one that meant something and probably led to money drawn. Here? Casas lifted Rush up and rolled him into the ring, following him in. Literally the next second, as if nothing had happened to him at all, Rush ambushed Casas on the way in, power bombed him, and put his hand on the rope for leverage to get the three. Afterwards he celebrated his victory. It was insane. I give Rush credit for how well he fights back in a three-on-one swarming, while still making sure to ultimately lose the exchange, because that makes him look strong and makes the beatdown more vibrant. All this did was ruin the match; it's something he does do now and again, a blatant no-sell, be it of a German Suplex from Shocker or this Splash, in order to get to the next spot or in this case, to get to the Finish, and it's by far, the weakest and most frustrating thing he does, and I do think it hurts his case in 2014 when putting him up against the very best of the best around the world. So, while this was a good, fun, match with more traditional rudo and tecnico roles, the ending really ended up hurting it.