2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ageless Negro Casas Teams w/ Pentagon

62. Negro Casas/Penta El Zero M/Cavernario vs. Dragon Lee/Caristico/Mistico CMLL 7/20

ER: This match ends in straight falls with Cavernario stripping Caristico of his mask after kicking him in the balls. And everything before that abrupt but expected finish was straight fire. Pentagon worked way more inspired than we typically have seen from him over the past couple years. Watch him fly recklessly into the front row fans as the match starts and create energy all around ringside. One of my frequent complaints about him is how sluggish he can come off in the ring, especially between moves. But here he's lighting up the tecnicos and not just hanging back when he's not the featured guy. The crowd was into him, and he beats the brakes off of Dragon Lee around ringside. Lee takes that over the barricade fast bump so crazy, he looks like OJ Simpson on the stretcher flying off the second deck at Dodger Stadium in Naked Gun (man that description was a mouthful). Caristico takes his own bump into the front row, getting beaten by Cavernario while fans tried to keep their distance. Cavernario was a bulldozer as well, not giving the tecnicos time to breathe during a beatdown, landing hard kicks and a big springboard splash. But Negro Casas was the main man in this one. He picks apart Mistico in the primera works over his knee and twists his ankle, and after he and Cavernario have beaten him Casas even lifts him up at a 2 count and soaks in the boos. Casas kicks the hell out of Lee on the apron, and I still think Casas is the most exciting apron wrestler in the game. I mean, maybe I can just take the word "apron" out of that sentence. Lee comes close to kicking Casas' chin while draped in the ropes, Casas comes up holding his chin and shows Lee how to land a kick by punting a hole in his chest. Casas hits one of the most violent/gorgeous standing kicks to the face I've seen, hitting the best Kick of Fear on the apron, then gets absolutely leveled by a leaping Lee knee. We get some nice dives and ranas to the floor down the stretch: Lee gets crazy height on a flip dive, Cavernario tries to send his body through the barricade catching a dive, Penta eats a rana, just a fantastic rudo performance. These guys had so much natural charisma together, hopefully we see them team more than this one time.

PAS: This is a match where Negro Casas who is in his late 50s, is teaming with arguably the cream of the crop of luchadores in their 20s and 30s and not only is the superior performer, but also looks on their level athletically. He is 35 years older then Dragon Lee, Dragon Lee is a freak athlete, and Casas looks right there with him move for move. What kind of black magic is this? Pentagon was making his Arena Mexico debut, which I am sure was a dream of his, and he really worked hard, flying around the ring and laying in his shots. Straight falls was a little disappointing, as I really think with a big time Tercera Caida this could have been a real top tier match. Still really cool stuff, and the influx of indy guys has seemingly upped everyone's game.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST