MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 10: La Sombra & Volador Jr. © vs Felino & Negro Casas [CMLL TAG]

2009-06-29 @ Arena Puebla
5 of 5: La Sombra & Volador Jr. © vs Felino & Negro Casas [CMLL TAG]

This was another solid title match, so long as you had the right expectations. Obviously, they're not going to work a 1984 opening fall. Sombra and Volador weren't quite there on the mat yet. There was going to be a nice combination of extended selling, big dives, and shtick in the tercera. The comeback was going to be a little haphazard in order to get there. It got time, though, and all the highs were high enough with the lows minimal. It was exactly what you'd expect from this pairing on paper and I came out satisfied.

Probably the biggest problem was the novelty of Pesta Negra. I've watched a lot of CMLL from 2000-2015 by this point and I think the primary story of that time would be the shift away from clear tecnico/rudo delineation, or maybe the rise of "cool" rudos. It started with Guerreros del Infierno, then La Familia De Tiujana, then Perros Del Mal, then La Pesta Negra, and Los Ingobernables. It's not that Pesta Negra was cool, but they were very entertaining, very prone to play to the crowd, and depending on who's in the ring, somewhat willing to eat their opponents alive. They came off as colorful folk characters and it certainly split the crowd. They were more straight up rudo than they'd be in years later so it muddied the waters a bit. Casas even played to the crowd on the house mic between falls. Ultimately, within this match, I think it was okay because the crowd is hot and chanting the whole way through.

It also played into the story of veterans vs less experienced but plucky fliers that shows up at a number of points. In the primera, Felino and Casas have a pretty strong advantage (and I thought the Volador/Casas matwork was quite good) until Volador hits a superkick out on Casas of nowhere. Unfortunately for him, he then immediately runs into Felino's knee when bouncing off the ropes. Later on, during the segunda, they keep trying to come back only to be unable to shift the momentum. It's not til they clear the ring together and hit tandem dives that they're able to do so. Then in the tercera, Sombra really has to survive one big Casas submission after another, and when they finally take the win, it's with roll ups out of nowhere.

Good dives, good action, good heat. I think I'll take a look at an Atlantis/Rey Bucanero vs Sombra/Volador tag match too but the verdict so far was that they were good foils for older rudos during this period.