2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Adonis v. Casas for the Hairs!!

Negro Casas v. Sam Adonis CMLL 1/1

PAS: Our week of Casas continues with the first entry in our 2018 Ongoing MOTY list. Casas representing Mexico goes into the temple of lucha and shaves the lucha avatar of our current toxic waste dump of a President. The triumph of lucha good over gringo evil is a good emotionally healthy way to start the new year. I wasn't in love with the super quick first two falls, although I thought Casas catching him early with a win was nice. Third fall was also shortish, although it had some really good moments. I loved how Casas sold getting whipped into the guardrail, he clutched his stomach the whole match like he at some really bad tamales. I also really enjoyed the finish, it was a nice bit of old rudo trickery, as he egged Adonis on to keep throwing his high kicks and suckered him into a Casita for the pin. I liked some Adonis stuff, but he does throw some questionable forearms and there were a couple of moments of real telegraphing. Still great to see Casas get a big win in a big main event.

ER: Phil watched this match the day before I did, and my what a difference in perspective a day makes. Going into this match knowing Casas breaks a rib or two, it's pretty obvious when the break happens, and pretty obvious how badly he's hurting at points after the break. Would I have been able to tell the difference between selling and injury had I not known? Impossible to say, that's the problem with talented wrestlers. A couple weeks ago I just thought Brian Kendrick sold the Go 2 Sleep better than anybody else, the way Tenryu sells an enziguiri. Turns out he just had his face broken by KENTA. So it gives the match an entirely different story from an entirely different perspective. Instead of an excellent selling performance, it's a freaking small triumph of human perseverance. King Fuckface looks shaky as hell going up top to end the segunda, and then just crushes Casas with a 450 splash (which I have not seen him use in CMLL), and Casas is immediately grabbing at his side. The rest of the match had so much more heft for me, knowing what Casas was going through. They could have easily cut to an improvised finish with the same result, but Casas went through with everything, even continuing to take bumps! You could see the pain on his face as he couldn't snap his kneelifts off as quickly as normal, and as he pushed Adonis away from him during pin attempts so Adonis' full weight wasn't on him. But then this lunatic goes and gets superplexed, takes a fireman's carry slam, a Michinoku driver, every one of those had to be sending hell through his body. The guy goes and hits another running Thesz press off the apron, making his rib break one in the tercera look just as good as his press in the primera. Adonis still has some issues but brings what he brings. He's the kind of guy you would slot around 400 if you were crazy enough to do a 500. But he's got a punchable mug and works enough shtick to rile up a crowd and allow for a big performance from a lucha hero. So yeah, what a difference a day makes, and the difference is Negro Casas.