2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Casas vs. Soberano

32. Negro Casas vs. Soberano Jr. CMLL 4/13

ER: Casas is back and it seems like his new goal is to just break out any offense he can think of and go speed for speed with youngsters. We get tons of Casas maestro submissions, I love how he goes after a leg and stretches hammies, and it looks cool on Soberano's long legs. Casas is equally adept and bumping appropriately for offense, I love how he takes an armdrag, and I liked how he escaped and hot stepped out of the way of Soberano grabbing for an ankle pick, but then didn't notice the legsweep that knocked him on his butt. We've seen a lot of work on the apron in recent years, but I think Casas is the best at making apron stuff seem epic. The whole shot looked really great: Lucha being filmed in HD, the expanse of Arena Mexico growing behind the two competitors, shot from low on the ground making it seem like they were having a scaffold match; Casas is great at milking these moments, leaning way back and hitting his straight kicks, working tiny moments of drama, and eventually planting Soberano with a DDT (which Soberano takes vertically and sticks there frozen in time). To add insult, Casas bends Soberano's arm over the corner of the apron. We get a nice nearfall section with Casas getting more and more exasperated while not being able to put the kid away. Everything about Soberano's surfboard hold was great, with Casas doing all sorts of great things, like gripping his arms close to his body to keep them from Soberano, to reaching quickly for the ropes but snapping them back to keep them from being swiped, to fighting mightily when they do get swiped, to then paddling his arms in the air to try to swing his momentum over. I wish we would have gotten an actual finish, but the fans did seem genuinely excited when they realized Soberano went the distance, and we got a nice false finish with just a couple seconds to go, when Casas gets a high tight roll up after Soberano had missed a cannonball and dropped on his head. I'm not sure what it would take for me to not love a 10 minute slice of singles match Casas.

PAS: Casas is a really amazing TV worker, I can just imagine how great Casas would have been in 90s WCW working random dudes on Saturday Night for six minutes. Soberano is about Super Calo level talented, but Casas can find enough fun things to do with him to make an entertaining match. I really enjoyed all of the apron stuff, and Soberano's bump on the DDT was totally goofus and uncalled for. Time limit draws are always a bit deflating, but it does nicely set up the revanche match, which I am excited to check out.


2018 MOTY MSATER LIST