2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Casas/Ultimo/Euforia v. Atlantis/Mistico/Valiente

63. Negro Casas/Ultimo Guerrero/Euforia v. Atlantis/Mistico/Valiente CMLL 5/20

ER: Really fun Arena Mexico semi main, with Mistico getting to shine more than ever, Ultimo and Euforia putting on a catching clinic, and Casas showing off more of that criminally underseen matwork that we saw in the Hechicero match. I loved Casas and Atlantis rolling in the primera, with Negro showing off a couple variations on that neat pop up spin ankle pick that he used on Hechicero, here he keeps getting pushed off of Atlantis and every time Atlantis uses his legs to push him off Casas hangs on to an ankle. It's fun seeing a couple old dogs fighting and still coming up with new tricks. Segunda starts with some rudo bragging as they bend Valiente into a pyramid photo up, and as Euforia is standing on his back flexing Mistico springs in with a big rana. The rest of the match is a blur of wild Mistico spots with Ultimo and Euforia catching crazier spot after crazier spot: a springboard rana to the rampway, a HUGE leaping rana from the top to the floor (he really leapt crazy far too), a major flip dive that Euforia totally absorbed; none of them were easy catches and these two made them look flawless. Mistico doesn't get to have all the fun though as Valiente plasters Negro with a huge dive as well, and this was just a fun, consequences-free trios.

PAS: I enjoyed this as well. Nueva Mistico isn't a guy I have seen a ton of, and is clearly the least of his brothers, but I thought he was pretty great here, hitting nutty dive after nutty dive with some very impressive height on all of them. I especially loved his springboard rana counter to the pyramid spot, really flew out of nowhere to take Euforia down. Casas is really fun to watch even in small roles like this, he is amazing as both a star and a character actor, and this was the equivalent of Dennis Hopper coming in to True Romance for two scenes and stealing the movie.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST