MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 30: Atlantis, La Sombra, Triton vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

Aired: 2012-04-28
taped: 2012-04-20 @ Arena Mexico
Atlantis, La Sombra, Triton vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

We're jumping ahead a couple of months here. I skipped over another Ultimo Guerrero singles match because I didn't want to watch the exact same match again (it probably was). What I was hoping for with this trios was a lead-in to the upcoming Dragon Rojo, Jr. title matches. Unfortunately, the 1 Week Ahead trios match with them isn't online, and that's probably all the build it had. this was close and had both Rojo and Sombra but that wasn't the focal point at all.

Instead, it was Negro Casas vs Atlantis, and this goes back to just how maddening CMLL's booking or lack there of can be. Casas was amazing in this match, just amazing, working rudo in a far more devoted and considerable way than he usually did in the Peste Negra era, playing chickenshit, getting his shots in on Atlantis, hiding behind his partners, just a brilliant performance, and because it was up against Atlantis and not Sombra or Triton, the crowd bought into it. Any other night, they'd probably be cheering for Casas in the same way that crowds tend to cheer for old man Flair no matter what, because he's that charismatic relative to everything else around him and because he's a legend. Atlantis is a legend too, though, and he's as tecnico as tecnico can be in this day and age. All well and good, right? Here's a trios with them up against each other, with the payoff deferred and delayed throughout the match until Casas was finally able to sneak out a dirty finish. That'd obviously lead to a heated singles match, be it a title match or just a mano a mano one, or maybe even an Apuestas (though, of course, Casas had JUST lost his hair in the Blue Panther draw). Nope. There's no sign that they had a blow off to this, or even an escalation. CMLL strikes again.

Past that, it was sort of business as usual for a match like this. They ran Guerrero vs Triton with basic and servicable matwork to start, ending with the rudo swarm. The best thing here was Casas throwing some crazy headbutts at Atlantis. I've seen hundreds of matches where he didn't use those headbutts but they made sense here and they were nasty and visually compelling due to the contrast of the white mask, and they worked. This ended with some of this era GdI spots, including the alley oop into Dragon Rojo's missile dropkick and the senton de la muerte in the corner, made all the better by Rojo putting his foot down upon Triton's foot to hold him there in the set up (which I'd not seen before but it's the little things that matter).

And lots and lots of Negro Casas being an awesome, loathesome rudo.

It all ended with the afformentioned nefarious mask-pulling and rolling up and I wish there was a singles match, but what can you do?

Sombra, here, was very effective as sort of the second tecnico in the match. He was in there to do some big spots, to eat GdI offense with Triton, to keep the match moving and add some excitement, to try to do his best to help Atlantis get his hands on Casas, and to hit the dive at the end. Speaking of little things, during an exchange against Dragon Rojo and Ultimo Guerrero, I like how he made an extra little grab at Rojo, one that had to be reversed, before doing some of the stock miscommunication spots. It was a tiny thing but it added just a little bit of struggle to something that often comes off as choreographed (benignly, mind you).