Lucha Worth Watching: Soberano Jr. + Bonus Negro Casas

1. Soberano Jr./Guerrero Maya Jr./Fuego vs. Felino/Ephesto/Luciferno (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: Hot Arena Mexico trios where Soberano comes off like a star and Felino has one of those matches where it's suddenly 1997 again. You never know when Felino is going to have one of those memory lapses and slip back into actual awesome worker, but it happens a couple times a year and it's always awesome when it does. Felino was rudo extraordinaire here, showing off by working super fast armdrag sequences with Soberano, showing him up by doing fancier forward rolls, handsprings and rope running tricks, then turning mean and dropkicking him low, stomping him out with his buddies, and sticking him with a powerbomb off the turnbuckles. I have no idea what motivates Felino at this point, but when he shows up, he still shows up. Fuego and Maya hang back more but still get nice moments, Fuego ends the segunda with a trippy little roll up, Maya hits a fast and accurate tope, but the fans are going ape for the Soberano/Felino interactions. Tercera is when Soberano breaks out, flinging Luciferno with a cool slingshot armdrag on the ramp, hitting his Fosbury Flop on Felino. This whole thing is kept simple and everybody works quick. You get smooth work from the tecnicos and classic rudo misdirection worked at actual non-lazy speed, and the fans love it all. I love a hot lucha crowd more than most things in wrestling, and this was a crowd pleaser.

2. Negro Casas/Barbaro Cavenario/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Rush/Valiente/Mistico (CMLL 8/8/17)

ER: You know Casas wasn't going to get shown up by his brother on a hot Arena Mexico card! All of La Peste Negra were busting butt tonight, with Felino turning in his performance of the year, Niebla turning in his most spirited performance I've seen from him this year in the next match, and then Casas turning in a typical great Casas act in the main. The teams are all weird because Rush is on the tecnicos but and Casas is on the rudos, but the stuff between them is gold, peaking with Casas throwing tons of stiff kicks in the corner on Rush. Not long after Rush gets Casas prone in the corner, stops short on the dropkick, waits for Casas to peak out from his fingers, then pops him in the cheek with the toe of his boot. What a jerk. Valiente takes some big spills and works the match essentially nude (his tiny trunks are like awful early 80s bodybuilder Kevin Sullivan levels of yuck), UG acts as a great base for Mistico, Barbaro turns in a wonderfully hammy performance, and the best part of his ham is when it turns suddenly violent, like in the tercera where he catches a Casas Thesz press off the apron and powerbombs him into the ringpost. I don't know what got into the crowd tonight, not sure if a hot crowd made the workers all kick it up a notch, or the hot workers got the crowd going bananas, but this was one of those Arena Mexico night where everything clicked.

3. Barbaro Cavernario vs. Soberano Jr. (CMLL 8/25/17)

ER: Two wild and crazy guys pulling out all the stops in a 10 minute lightning match? Yes, please. The first 6 minutes of this are a total Barbaro mugging, setting the tone right out the gates as he bullies Soberano around the ring with his chin. There's something awkwardly intimidating about him just jamming chin into jawbone and shoving a guy around the ring with it. But Barbaro is totally coconuts and hits this flat out amazing tornillo through the ropes, I mean just a crazy spot for a bulky guy to do. Soberano takes a mammoth back body drop on the floor and the beating continues, with Barbaro hitting some double stomps and a big reverse springboard splash. Even Zacarias hits a 619 (a 55?). Soberano comes back when Barbaro misses a splash on the rampway, and Soberano superkicks him down the ramp (with a big spit take from Barbaro). Soberano - as you might expect - hits a bonkers tornillo off the top of the entrance way, does one of his effortless double springboard ranas back in the ring, and follows that up with a gorgeous Fosbury flop dive to the floor. Crazy. We get some nice nearfalls and reversals: another tornillo crossbody from Soberano; a vicious package vertical suplex by Barbaro that whips Soberano into the mat; a long, uncomfortable slow zoom shot of Zacarias plaintively looking at the action; a super dangerous looking crucifix bomb gets reversed into a rana by Soberano, and then reversed convincingly into a nice roll up nearfall by Barbaro. Sadly the finish features a vintage Tirantes fuck up (seriously get this guy the hell out of CMLL), as Barbaro goes to dropkick Soberano off the top and gets stuck with a powerbomb, which Barbaro clearly kicks out of. Tirantes calls it the finish, even though the two continue with the actual finish. Ugly stuff, all because of one doofus. But this was the best lightning match in a year or so, and not just for the nutso spots. Barbaro was gluing things together nicely and not just moving from spot to spot. Every pin saw him lay a hard fist or forearm across Soberano's jaw, he moved him into position with big strikes and kicks to the back of the head. This wasn't just guys putting on an exhibition, this stuff had meat.