Negro Casas Worth Watching

Rush/La Sombra/La Mascara v. Negro Casas/Shocker/Mr. Niebla CMLL 7/4/14

ER: Oh man, Rush and his boys come out in suits, pork pie hats, Mascara is wearing a vest, Sombra has his dress shirt unbuttoned way too low under a suit jacket, Rush is wearing no shirt under his jacket. They look like the three most aggressive dry humpers at the club. They look douchey enough that one of them should have "Don't you know who I am?!" tattooed on them. And this match was awesome. It was way more even than most matches between these two teams, and while there was never any real flow to it, that was because each team kept cutting off the other in logical ways. It was a really great use of 6 people as right when one side would gain an advantage, a guy who had been on the floor or apron would come in and cut the momentum right off. The work in this was as stiff as expected, with Sombra rattling Shocker's teeth with plenty of elbows, Mascara delivering plenty of on-point superkicks of the non-thigh slap variety, Rush and Casas each leaving boot imprints on the other's face. Shocker had a great showing here with some of his best selling ever. At one point he fell on his butt after some Sombra elbows and it was downright Kawada-esque. Earlier while selling his knee he valiantly limped right into a Mascara superkick. Niebla hits a dive out the corner past the turnbuckles like it was 1999, Rush boots a charging Casas right off the rampway, Sombra goes full douche by posing while splayed out across the middle rope, and this shit was all awesome. Go watch this.

Negro Casas v. Volador Jr. CMLL 5/31/15

ER: Fun short match with both guys working fast and tossing in little extra dickish things, and Casas almost rubbing it in Volador's face that the Arena Mexico crowd will always like him more. Both guys work stiff here but also really fly into the other's offense. Volador flies fast and nose first into a Casas DDT (with Casas adding a stiff senton afterwards to an unsuspecting Volador), both guys take a few really fast bumps over the top to the floor. You can tell right from go that they were working hard, with Volador jumping him and hitting a dive right before the bell. Later Volador hits a flip dive and then "slips" back first on Casas' face, but slow mo replays clearly show him doing it on purpose. No wonder he got that little senton receipt later. Casas brings some atmosphere and gravity to this, both things normally absent from Volador singles matches. Strikes were on point throughout, both guys gunning for the other's knee on dropkicks, Casas going jaw first into a superkick, Volador manning up into a Casas Thesz press. The whole thing was worked like they were trying to prove something, and this made it a cut above other match-ups I've seen between these two.

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

45. Negro Casas/Shocker v. Rush/La Sombra CMLL 7/18

ER: I was not a fan of their tag title match a few weeks before this, but this I liked. I thought that match lacked intensity and drama. Seeing this match shows everything that previous match lacked. These four were at each other's throats the whole match, and both teams actually felt like teams. A key part of what made this match so great was the team work. Not the double teams, but each person saving their partner at key moments throughout the whole match. Saves are a great way to build drama and cut down on silly kickouts, and I loved all the saves in this. Sombra has really come into his own under his rudo persona. It added an edge his character needed and just didn't have as a faceless flier. Now he's a smug shrugging prick who gets bailed out by his even tougher buddy and opportunistically dishes out violence of his own. His running knees to Shocker were brutal, but he has no problem giving back (watch him fly ass over elbow over the barrier off a clothesline). Shocker breaks out his fat guy tope, and some other cool stuff like his abdominal stretch slam (which sends Sombra right onto his head). Casas looked on fire too, having some fun scrambly matwork with Sombra, locking in one of the snuggest STFs onto Rush that you'll ever see, kicking Sombra's chest in while he's tangled in the ropes. This match builds off stuff from their previous tag match, and I especially loved Casas setting Rush up for the Thesz press and Sombra saving him out of nowhere by clotheslining Casas right in the shins. Awesome, heated match.

PAS: One of my favorite Sombra performances ever. He was working at a faster pace then the other three guys and it really adds something to the match. He and Casas rip off some incredibly fast and intricate mat work, and he is great at throwing in these athletic saves and cheap shots. The out of nowhere chop block to Casas as he was going for his dive was totally awesome. We of course get another great Rush and Casas stomp party, and a great turn back the clock performance from Shocker, who looked like he showed up mostly sober and ready to rumble, loved his tope as is was way less athletic then his heyday, but still super violent.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

49. Rush/La Sombra/La Mascara v. Negro Casas/Mr. Niebla/Volador Jr. CMLL 7/25

ER: Awesome short match, full of guys working stiff and with a hot surprise finish. Rush and Casas beat the holy hell out of each other here. I'm not sure how Casas' throat can stand up to some of the stomps that Rush unleashes on it. Both guys throw some nasty kicks to the other's chest and face, shove each other violently into the ring barricade. At one point Rush charges Casas in the corner, stops short, whips his hair back and slaps Casas right across the ear. Great dickhead spot. Niebla is a guy who can wrestle lazy when he's not feeling things, but then we get *this* Niebla and all is well. He slaps guys the whole match, really laying the shots in to a nasty degree, and at one point even breaks out his great back bump to the floor (Rush front kicks him and he falls through the ropes backwards onto the floor). Volador stayed out of most of this, spending a lot of it getting kicked and stomped by Sombra/Mascara, but does hit a spectacular top rope moonsault to the floor. And obviously he plays into the finish which I really dug. Sombra is kinda manhandling him, but Volador gets the surprise flash pin by reversing a Sombra samoan drop into a brutal Sombra head drop. Flash pins don't feel like they get used in lucha that often, and I really love how the match just ended since Volador pinned the captain. Felt like they finally outsmarted the rudos and the cuts to a surprised Rush on the floor were a nice touch since Rush hasn't shown tons of ass in this feud. This could have been epic with more time, but for a straight falls match I can't imagine it being much better. This was some of the stiffest ring work I saw in lucha that year, and no matter how long it was this was a hot match.

PAS: Man I had forgotten what a great act Rush and his boys were. Sombra is such a dick bag, I loved him lounging on the ring barrier. I agree with the greatness of Niebla here, he really gets his ass kicked and him spitting on the heels while he gets beaten is a fun bit of babyface fire, as was his lighting fast slaps on the outside, with this match and the awesome 2017 Caifan matches I think a Neibla reinvestigation maybe on deck. I liked the use of Volador here too, one cool dive and otherwise getting gang stomped is about the only way I can tolerate that dude, although his finishing move was some goofy Will Osprey looking shit. Rush and Casas are the headliners and they are great as always, just violent asskicker with Rush having Bruno level awesome stomps, and Casas landing his great chops and his all time awesome looking facewash dropkick, I have no idea how that move doesn't put Rush's nose into the third row.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 32: Dragón Rojo Jr. © vs La Sombra [CMLL MIDDLE]

2012-04-30 @ Arena Puebla
Dragón Rojo Jr. © vs La Sombra [CMLL MIDDLE]

10:40 in

Dragon Rojo, Jr. had that great match with Guerrero Maya, Jr. a few months ago. Apparently, he hadn't done a heck of a lot between 2012 and now, four years later, but that's no reason not to dig into these Sombra matches. I'm glad I did too, since I really liked this one. I think the worst thing that ever happened to Rojo was him leaving the Guerreros. It wasn't great for the Guerreros either. There's a sort of homogeneity to them now in appearance. They've got similar mask and color schemes. Euforia and Gran Guerrero and when he's there, Niebla Rojo, all kind of come off as the same. It's a big difference from the sort of diversity you'd get over the years from Bucanero and Olimpico and Toscano and Atlantis (obviously), and yeah Rojo, Jr. There's a certain purity to them, which was nice during the year or two where Los Ingobernables were the main heel act while still being tecnicos, but that wears a little thin week after week, especially when there's Mephisto/Ephesto/Lucifierno hanging around too.

This was really straightforward, but that's part of what I liked about it. Solid matwork. Solid progression. Solid escalation. Solid payoff. I'm not saying a title match can only be one thing, but there's definitely a sense of something primal when it's this. They started on the mat straddling the line between fundamental locks and agile one, picked up the pace, and cut it off with Rojo's slingshot off the ropes Power Bomb (which is still very effective as a fall ender/late match near-fall today).

One of the things I like the least in lucha is a burst after a move. You usually see this in a corner clothesline, where after getting hit, the victim will rush back out of the corner and hit something of his own, sometimes in the opposite corner. We also see it as a finish in Ultimo Guerrero matches, whether it be a quick roll up after the Special or the hilarious roll through he did with Stuka recently. In the latter case, I thought it worked, but it's certainly not a well they can go to often. The segunda ended with something like that, with Rojo countering a Sombra springboard into the ring with a dropkick, celebrating for a scant second, and walking right into a roll up. I was okay with it here, for the most part, because Sombra sold his midsection heavily after the fact and they did have that moment of celebration. Plus the execution of the roll up was good, which helps, but it's such a fine line. The selling after the fact is really what makes it work (and part of why I was okay with the UG/Stuka gimmick too).

The tercera was very measured. There were near-falls and an escalation of violence, but they were smart too, using the ropes as a break to justify the split-legged moonsault not finishing the match, for instance, and believable (and earned) exhaustion for why Sombra couldn't keep the bridge after the roll up suplex, and using repetition and call-back spots well. Very good stuff that showed how good Rojo was in 2012 and again, how far Sombra had come.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 31: La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Shocker vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.

Aired: 2012-05-05 

taped: 2012-04-29 @ Arena Mexico 

La Sombra, Marco Corleone, Shocker vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr.

I took some time off after hitting the two year mark. I'm hoping to keep up a 2x a week posting schedule on lucha and other things now, including the DVDVR 80s Puerto Rico set. Here, I'm going to try to push forward on the Sombra spotlight. It's been a bit, so I wanted a match to catch up before hitting the Dragon Rojo title matches. I was hoping for some Rojo/Sombra interaction too, but Volador was here so it wasn't meant to be.

This was lucha libre comfort food, a Guerreros match with a beatdown to start, heat, some comeback, and exchanges to finish it out. Matches like these are tough to watch as part of a larger show (especially if you're watching live on Friday, Monday, AND Tuesday) but in a bubble I really enjoy them. They're pure, distilled CMLL and as such, so much depends on how the rudos interact with one another (especially if there's a cog out of place, like Volador), how charismatic the tecnicos are in hope moments, how imaginatively they're cut off, and just how they manage the comeback. Finishing stretches are finishing stretches, of course, but that payoff means a lot less without a solid build.

And this was all solid. Volador fit right in with the Guerreros. I'll take him in a trios match over a singles match anyday, especially as a rudo. He's in and out, works well with his partners, and is a sufficient dick to his opponents. In a singles match, they probably wouldn't use his corner headscissors into a Canadian destroyer until the tercera, and then probably as a near fall to set up the finish. It's such a game-ender, though, that I like it here a lot more as the finishing move as the primera. The finish was perfect as Sombra and Volador did a bunch of that built-to rope bounce posing, only for Volador to rip his mask right off and deny the fans another heated athletic exchange.

Marco was used really effectively here. He still had a little more gas in his tank so he was able to supplement the great punches and size discrepancy spots with a few big dives and more frenetic exchanges. He had the comeback with a bunch of leapfrogs and a twisting top rope move. And I especially liked this exchange (which cuts off right before his clothesline doesn't look all that great. 

I could have used just a little more Sombra vs Volador here as it's endlessly more tolerable in a trios match, but the whole point was to put heat on Volador by denying it, and it was ultimately effective, so I was happy with what this was. 

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Sombra (Manny Andrade) Spotlight Master List

With Manny "La Sombra" Andrade very likely debuting on NXT shortly, I thought it might be helpful or interesting for people to map the early stages of his career in Mexico, mainly using footage online that people could check out themselves. I know lucha, especially the CMLL style which has its own distinct trappings and psychology, is less familiar to many NXT watchers. Moreover, there is years of footage to go through, and much of it can be hard to comb through because matches are buried within larger uploads of TV shows on youtube.

Therefore, I am in the process of putting together chronological reviews and links to a number of his matches. I've tried to pick up big title matches or singles matches, which serve as good barometers for his progress. I picked up trios matches that I thought looked interesting as well, though often times that may be an excuse for me to watch yet another Negro Casas match, or something. If you're looking first and foremost for quality, while I like some of his earlier tag title matches with Volador, he seemed to really put the pieces together towards the end of 2010 (around Match #16).

As we get towards 2014 and when I started looking at matches for this site, I'll link back to reviews I've already written. I'd also like to link in reviews that Eric has done at some point as well. Keep in mind that I'll occasionally talk about finishes in the reviews and yes, I know, the gifs are at 1.5x speed but sometimes that just makes them better.

For people brand new to lucha, I've tried put together a guide to the structures of modern CMLL trios style wrestling that looks more at the narratives and storytelling than more superficial things like the rules. You can find that here.

In general, you can really see his development as a wrestler through these matches and I think some of them, especially as we get into the 2010s, will get people excited for what's to come in his NXT run.

Match 1: Black Diamond, Brillante, Principe de Oro vs Charles Lucero, Susto, Tigre Universitario
Match 2: Euforia, Nosferatu, Virus vs. Brillante, Leono, Stuka Jr.
Match 3: Dr. Wagner Jr., Euforia, Último Guerrero vs La Sombra, Místico, Negro Casas
Match 4: Felino vs La Sombra 1 [mano a mano]
Match 5: Sombra vs Felino 2 [Lightning]
Match 6: Felino vs Sombra 3: La Sombra, Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. vs Felino, Místico, Negro Casas
Match 7: Felino vs Sombra 4: Felino, Místico, Negro Casas vs La Máscara, La Sombra, Volador Jr.
Match 8: Felino vs Sombra 5: Místico & Volador Jr. vs Felino & La Sombra
Match 9: La Sombra & Volador Jr. © vs Heavy Metal & Negro Casas [CMLL TAG]
Match 10: La Sombra & Volador Jr. © vs Felino & Negro Casas [CMLL TAG]
Match 11: La Sombra & Volador Jr. vs Atlantis & Rey Bucanero [CMLL TAG]
Match 12: La Sombra vs Mephisto [NWA WELTER]
Match 13: Volador Jr./La Sombra/Sagrado vs. Sangre Azteca/Black Warrior/Dragón Rojo [MEX TRIOS]
Match 14: 2010 CMLL Universal Tournament Part 1
Match 15: CMLL Universal Tournament 2010 Part 2: Sombra vs Jushin Liger
Match 16: La Sombra vs Dragón Rojo Jr. (2010)
Match 17: La Sombra & Mascara Dorada vs Jushin Liger & Hector Garza
Match 18: Hijo del Fantasma, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada vs Averno, Mephisto, Negro Casas
Match 19: La Sombra vs Mephisto © [NWA WELTER]
Match 20: La Sombra vs Psicosis II
Match 21: Blue Panther, La Máscara, La Sombra vs Atlantis, Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero
Match 22: Atlantis, Hirooki Goto, Negro Casas vs La Sombra, Rush, Strong Man
Match 23: Blue Panther, Hijo del Fantasma, La Sombra vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Shinsuke Nakamura, Volador Jr.
Match 24: Héctor Garza, La Sombra, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Texano
Match 25: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Héctor Garza, La Sombra
Match 26: La Sombra vs Averno [2011 CMLL Universal, final]
Match 27: La Sombra © vs Volador Jr. [NWA WELTER]
Match 28: Blue Panther, La Sombra, Shocker vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas
Match 29: La Sombra vs Negro Casas [NWA Welter]
Match 30: Atlantis, La Sombra, Triton vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 30: Atlantis, La Sombra, Triton vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

Aired: 2012-04-28
taped: 2012-04-20 @ Arena Mexico
Atlantis, La Sombra, Triton vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Último Guerrero

We're jumping ahead a couple of months here. I skipped over another Ultimo Guerrero singles match because I didn't want to watch the exact same match again (it probably was). What I was hoping for with this trios was a lead-in to the upcoming Dragon Rojo, Jr. title matches. Unfortunately, the 1 Week Ahead trios match with them isn't online, and that's probably all the build it had. this was close and had both Rojo and Sombra but that wasn't the focal point at all.

Instead, it was Negro Casas vs Atlantis, and this goes back to just how maddening CMLL's booking or lack there of can be. Casas was amazing in this match, just amazing, working rudo in a far more devoted and considerable way than he usually did in the Peste Negra era, playing chickenshit, getting his shots in on Atlantis, hiding behind his partners, just a brilliant performance, and because it was up against Atlantis and not Sombra or Triton, the crowd bought into it. Any other night, they'd probably be cheering for Casas in the same way that crowds tend to cheer for old man Flair no matter what, because he's that charismatic relative to everything else around him and because he's a legend. Atlantis is a legend too, though, and he's as tecnico as tecnico can be in this day and age. All well and good, right? Here's a trios with them up against each other, with the payoff deferred and delayed throughout the match until Casas was finally able to sneak out a dirty finish. That'd obviously lead to a heated singles match, be it a title match or just a mano a mano one, or maybe even an Apuestas (though, of course, Casas had JUST lost his hair in the Blue Panther draw). Nope. There's no sign that they had a blow off to this, or even an escalation. CMLL strikes again.

Past that, it was sort of business as usual for a match like this. They ran Guerrero vs Triton with basic and servicable matwork to start, ending with the rudo swarm. The best thing here was Casas throwing some crazy headbutts at Atlantis. I've seen hundreds of matches where he didn't use those headbutts but they made sense here and they were nasty and visually compelling due to the contrast of the white mask, and they worked. This ended with some of this era GdI spots, including the alley oop into Dragon Rojo's missile dropkick and the senton de la muerte in the corner, made all the better by Rojo putting his foot down upon Triton's foot to hold him there in the set up (which I'd not seen before but it's the little things that matter).

And lots and lots of Negro Casas being an awesome, loathesome rudo.

It all ended with the afformentioned nefarious mask-pulling and rolling up and I wish there was a singles match, but what can you do?

Sombra, here, was very effective as sort of the second tecnico in the match. He was in there to do some big spots, to eat GdI offense with Triton, to keep the match moving and add some excitement, to try to do his best to help Atlantis get his hands on Casas, and to hit the dive at the end. Speaking of little things, during an exchange against Dragon Rojo and Ultimo Guerrero, I like how he made an extra little grab at Rojo, one that had to be reversed, before doing some of the stock miscommunication spots. It was a tiny thing but it added just a little bit of struggle to something that often comes off as choreographed (benignly, mind you).

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 29: La Sombra vs Negro Casas [NWA Welter]

2012-02-13 @ Arena Puebla
Negro Casas b La Sombra © [NWA WELTER]

There's a small chance I might have covered this one before, but I don't think I have. Regardless, it's a fit chronologically and I sat through the Volador title match, so I consider this one my reward. Casas was over 50 here and about to draw Blue Panther in an apuestas match at the next big show. Sombra was more or less at the height of his power, having won the Universal Tournament a few months before. It had to seem very unlikely that Casas was going to walk out with the belt. I do feel that sometimes CMLL's booking geniuses do that, though, giving someone about to lose their hair a bone in that regard.

So, this was good, pretty much as good as you'd think. For one thing, the crowd at Puebla is somewhat different than Arena Mexico, so even though the latter had started to turn Casas face and Sombra heel (while still being a rudo and tecnico in the booking), that wasn't the case here. Sombra was well-cheered. Therefore, when Casas tried to appeal to the crowd, it had the more desired effect of just getting him more heat and making him come off as flippant and frankly "wrong."

They also had a really solid primera. It was straightforward in that the matwork wasn't extremely tricked out or anything, but it was heavily focused, and felt worthy of being part of a title match. The best stuff was centered around them dueling over cross-arm breakers. It was a more focused struggle than I was used to in a match like this and that just made it stand out more.

If the Volador match was more, more, more, this match was far better at whetting appetites. Casas, for instance, took the segunda in part by running down the entrance way to freeze Sombra on a dive and throw him off his game. Just as important, it meant that the big dive was pushed to the tercera so (again) when it happened, it had build behind it and actually meant something.

The tercera was dynamic, building on the damage throughout the match to justify the selling. It had some really nice counters and inversions too, like the best camera-caught version of someone blocking Casas' seated senton dive.

It also had its share of really good near falls before Casas locked in just a beautiful pulling back pin after countering the second double jump moonsault of the match. Not only was it a call back spot, as that was how Sombra took the primera, but I'd never seen Casas (or maybe anyone else) break out that exact pin before. Sombra lost, but he looked just as good coming out as he did coming in, which was important for how they were using him at the time and is always an accomplishment.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 28: Blue Panther, La Sombra, Shocker vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

Aired: 2011-12-03
Taped: 2011-11-25 @ Arena Mexico
Blue Panther, La Sombra, Shocker vs Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

I needed a fairly disposable trios match to wash the taste of Volador vs Sombra out of my mouth. This fit the bill as it had Blue Panther and Negro Casas, relatively early on their road to a March, 2012 hair match. It'd be the sort of light, gif-worthy affair that I tend to enjoy.

In the context of what I had been watching, however, it was pretty weird. As far as 2011 tecnico teams go, this is a pretty crowd-pleasing one. Shocker, broken down as he might have become, was hugely charismatic. Blue Panther, sans mask, was a sympathetic seller and a fiery old man who the crowd could get behind. We saw back in September, 2011, just how over Sombra was in the match against Averno. So three tecnicos up against three rudos. It should have been pretty straightforward.

It wasn't. Something had shifted in the DNA of CMLL. While Sombra and Panther might not get booed as much as Rush or Mascara would, the crowd was thoroughly behind La Pesta Negra. This wasn't unprecedented. CMLL had a history of "cool heel" groups in the 00s, with the Guerreros and Perros Del Mal, but they always had a different level of tecnicos to go up against, be it Santo or Casas himself or Dr. Wagner, Jr., or Mistico. This was a post-Mistico world and in the wake of his departure, and with the end of the boom, there really wasn't anyone left on the roster ready and able to hold the tecnico line against a weekly crowd that no longer bought into that ideal. In short, Sombra, while ascendant, simply wasn't enough.

La Pesta Negra weren't cool heels by any means, but they were lovable scamps of rudos, ridiculous and fun and charismatic. They'd ham it up, Zacarias in tow, and play to the crowd, hyping them for exchanges. Here, the tecnicos didn't help their cause, ambushing them before the fact as they were making their goofy entrance, both Niebla and Zacarias dressed like Hellboy, of all things. Niebla is the lord high king of diminishing returns, breaking out the same "catch the spit" spot, the same pratfall, the same drunken antics in every match, but he puts more care than almost anyone else into his gear and his look and the crowd eats it up and he comes back again and again, sort of like a lucha Captain Lou with the same endless chances and a much better slap-punch.

I like to believe there are certain cosmic forces in lucha libre. Tecnicos get punished for certain things. One is going to mask ripping first without a damn good reason. Another is ambushing the rudos on the way down. It's a cute little inversion, but it lost them the mandate of heaven, and they quickly succumbed to a Pesta Negra comeback. Even later on, Sombra would go out of his way to kick Zacarias down the ramp, which in some matches would have been warranted. Here, not so much.

There was a spirited comeback in the tercera, including plenty of Blue Panther ankle lock foot biting and some good action towards the end. The tecnicos won on a DQ that made Pesta Negra look especially strong and that kept the heat on Negro Casas going into their next match and on the march towards the eventual hair match, but it was very clear the dynamics here that would lead to the crowd turning on Sombra the rest of the way and the to the birth of Los Ingobernables, even if that was still a couple of years off.

(you miss it here, but he totally kisses the head of the guy in the crowd after the dive).

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 27: La Sombra © vs Volador Jr. [NWA WELTER] (Sorry)

2011-09-18 @ Arena México
La Sombra © vs Volador Jr. [NWA WELTER]

I have no one to blame but myself. I made a promise at the start of this process not to watch any of the 24 Sombra vs Volador singles matches. I've been trying to get a good cross-section, but mainly jump between matches that look like they'll be good. I have absolutely no faith in the pairing of Sombra and Volador. This is based on a few bad experiences. Volador, Jr. is a very talented luchador. He's someone who apparently cares deeply about his craft. He's someone that I actively like in big trios matches. I think he's striking when he's being a jerk in the ring, and could portray a Miz like character exceptionally well. He hits his stuff as well as anyone in CMLL, is smooth and precise a lot of the times and is extremely athletic. Unfortunately, without restraint, focus, and resonance, those are skills rendered not just nearly useless but at times, actively harmful to matches. Even without some of that, in a wrestler, they can be utilized by others and by the sheer structure of the form, in a trios match beautifully. Singles matches though? Not so much.

This one fooled me, and it fooled me for three reasons. The first is definietly on me. I thought that, hey, maybe I should just give them another chance. Why? Well, the second is that I've been enjoying 2011 Sombra a lot, and just two nights before this, he had the match with Averno which was smartly laid out and paced so well, and just full of emotion and meaning. It was great. It also felt similar to him having a really strong match with Liger and then a dynamic high flying match with Psicosis II just one night later back in 2010. It felt like a natural bit of symmetry.

The third was that it was only 19:14 long. That is, the video was only 20 minutes long, maybe 16:30 of action. That's what fooled me the most. I thought that there was no way they could, in that little time, have one of their bloated, spot-laden, no-selling, empty matches, especially given the other factors. If nothing else, the first two falls would eat up some time, and maybe, just maybe, rudo Volador meant that there'd be some actual heat and control to the match. Just like every other match between the two I hit the 2/5th mark, thought to myself just how well they hit their spots against each other, and wondered if maybe, just maybe, it'd be ok. Then, I realized just how long was left, the fact that they'd blown through the first two falls, and that there was so much time left, and I realized that no, things were not going to be okay.

There are a thousand ways to have a good match, and a lot of people do like this pairing because it's dynamic and they do hit their stuff well and they have lots of counters and what not, but none of it means anything. There's a moment at the ten minute mark where they trade some big submissions, including a Cavernaria which feels like a big deal at almost any point in CMLL, and it was just washed away by the next three spots. In order to contrive top rope moves, Volador does the same kick to the head of Sombra when he's on the top twice, at two different points, with no rhyme or reason or strategy or payoff, once at 11:52, once at 14:49. I'm not sure I've ever seen that in a match before when it wasn't them fixing a flub and I don't get how that happens in a match with two wrestlers who are as imaginative as these two are. The transitions, the connective tissue, the underpinning of the match that turns spots into a narrative... none of that mattered. It was all just means to the end of getting to the next OOH or AAH! It's pure finisher spamming and bomb throwing. Given the sheer amount of stuff they were doing, they could have ended it again and again and it just droned on, spectacular and terrible. And the finish? The finish is Volador hitting a twisting Canadian destroyer out of the corner, Sombra no selling it, popping up and hitting his own.

I do think anyone going through Sombra's career should check these matches out because they're dynamic and the people who do love them love them for a reason. I am just not compatible at all with them. They go against so much that I love about lucha. They show that he could do exceptionally well in an 8 minute TV match, but more is not always better, especially when it's more for the sake of more. Like I said, this one's on me. I should have known better. Sorry.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 26: La Sombra vs Averno [2011 CMLL Universal, final]

2011-09-16 @ Arena México
La Sombra vs Averno [CMLL Universal, final]

I'm mainly coming into these blind, picking matches that seem significant or noteworthy or just plain good. This wasn't something that jumped out at me. I think it almost has to be a CMLL MOTYC for 2011 though, and looking back at discussion from the time, people seem to agree. It was a really great main event title match, one that doesn't face many of the pitfalls that such matches in CMLL tend to have.

I'm not going to go through the entire tournament here, but Sombra went over Angel De Oro and Diamante, both of which were interesting because they were tecnico vs tecnico, and Rey Bucanero as well, which wasn't as interesting as it was mainly to set up a big apuestas cage hair match with Felino and others for the Anniversary. I don't have in front of me who Averno went over but it's a bit less novel than Liger, so I didn't feel the need to look into it.

It's easy to take Averno for granted. He was Mistico's arch rival in a lot of ways and I love his stuff against Satanico, though that's more of a guilty pleasure. Going back through this stuff, he's felt very interchangeable with Mephisto for a number of years. He had lost his mask just a few months before this, though (not against Mistico, as that ship had sailed), and I think it revitalized him. For one thing, he had a great look without the mask, and great facial expressions, and he really was able to use them to the fullest now. Also, he had a theme which was almost orchestral and bubbly, in a techno way and it was a great bit of dissonance. I'd love to hear Kevin Sullivan come out to something like this, or something.

And he worked this match very fun, too. In the first two falls, he wasn't just working it straight, as title matches are often worked, bu the was working like a tecnico, as if he was trying to out Sombra Sombra. Volador was at ringside as his second and they had switched shirts, which added to the surreality of this. It was sort of like Lucifer's hubris, that he was not content to defeat Sombra as a rudo. He had to outdo him at how own game. It kept backfiring on him however, though he was able to recover in the primera and catch him off a springboard with a power bomb. It cost him in the segunda, as after he did a needless tecnico backflip, Sombra was able to catch him with his Brilliante Bomb (the roll up into a suplex). It's worth noting here just how thoroughly the crowd was into Sombra. He felt like a star here, even more so than he would a few years later in the start of the Ingobernables creation where Rush consistently came off as a bigger deal.

The tercera was exactly what you'd expect, a lot of bombs, near falls. The selling felt absolutely deserved considering the fact they let the first two falls go a little longer (cumulatively) than usual. It started with a bang, with the flip to apron rana (and thanks to Cubs for giffing it years ago):

and just kept going from there. I'm not going to go play by play on it, but it was good, building and building until a top rope Devil Wings attempt where it seemed like Averno lost Sombra, causing him to end up crotched on the top. They handled it like total pros though, both of them, and especially Tirantes as the ref, who played it up as if he might DQ Averno and end a great match on a wrong note. They recovered, however, and cycled back into things organically, without making it seem like they were trying to redo a spot.

Great match, way better than I was expecting coming in. Check it out. On this night, Sombra was undisputedly a star, one that had come a very far way.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 25: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Héctor Garza, La Sombra

2011-09-06 @ Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Terrible, Texano vs Black Warrior, Héctor Garza, La Sombra

I'm interjecting this one in as it's between the opening round and the finals of the Universal tournament. I saw Sombra vs Liger, Nakamura, and Goto, and I thought that I should hit this one against Tanahashi too.

This was loads of fun, just full of schtick and sequence. Terrible and Texano were really good together. I love how they were able to really dominate a match with a solid beatdown in the Bucanero match  vs Sombra with a lot of heat that I looked at previously, and then here got to have a real crowd pleaser. They had a really great little stretch against Sombra where he played the dominant tecnico countering everything they did which was probably the best of such I've seen out of him in this process. Warrior brought a lot of energy to things as well. I like him in almost every match I see him in, no matter the year.

Tanahashi fit right in too. He was such a flouncy heel, which is really the natural role for him, holding his own on the mat vs Sombra (and that was simple stuff but good and competitive) losing chop battles, getting clowned by Garza and just selling it huge.:

Garza was a comedy machine here. I like his reactions more as a rudo and I like Terrible more as a dangerous wildman but both played their roles really well in this one:

There was at least a bit of the wild beatings too:

Structurally, this had a few inversions (the tecnicos cutting off a rudo takeover at the end of the primera, the rudos coming back out of nowhere at the end of the segunda) which may not seem like much but are really satisfying when you see a lot of these that feel the same.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 24: Héctor Garza, La Sombra, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Texano

2011-08-26 @ Arena México
Héctor Garza, La Sombra, Shocker vs Rey Bucanero, Terrible, Texano

I'm being a little choosy here. I can't watch every trios match and pick out the best one. Some of what's interesting in watching lucha is doing just that, looking at how a wrestler works the same opponents (or the same set of opponents) week after week, in front of the same crowd, quite often when there's almost nothing at stake. I'm trying to hit more of a broad cross section with Sombra though. I had picked a trios against Negro Casas, Mr. Niebla, and Felino, because it's worth everyone seeing La Pesta Negra at least once (and maybe only once), but when I went to watch the match, it was actually Olimpico in there instead of Casas, and while I like Olimpico more than most people, I don't like him nearly as much as Negro Casas.

So we're going with this instead. TRT (Terrible, Rey, Texano) was another perfectly serviceable trios with matching white hoodies and a lot of dynamic tandem offense that leads to a gif worthy match. It's a good match to see what Sombra could add when he's not the focus too. Much more of the story of this was Garza clashing with ref Tirantes. Garza's irascible scamp act worked equally well whether he's tecnico or a rudo. Sombra was there to provide some of the big action mainly.

Structurally, this started with a rudo swarm and ambush, which let TRT get in all of their offense in the primera, which they won handedly. The comeback in the segunda was more chaotic and less iconic than usual but that sort of felt novel. There were just bodies everywhere. It culminated with Garza reversing an assisted power bomb attempt off the top into a Rana. I always like it when the comeback is just a little more earned than usual and that was the case here. Tercera had a lot of cutoffs and spots, with the overarching story focused on Garza and Tirantes. Generally, I hate rudo heel focuses to matches but here it was just at the margins, not driving the action but affected by it. In the end, he allowed a rope assisted pin on Garza, but called for the DQ after a triple foul on Shocker. I think that was supposed to be a big moment for Tirantes. I know he's considered fairly lovable now.

As for Sombra, he mostly stayed out of the way of the storytelling while adding that flair and flash, which can be a very important role to play in a trios match. It would have been a lot clunkier and tedious without him. He hit this one flip to apron handstand rana outside that was just nuts, as well as some fun "vs the world" sequence in the tercera and eating hot death on a redirected dive to help set up the finish (by getting himself out of the way) I'm not sure I'd ever seen that specific rana before. Good stuff, but we'll move back to a tighter focus next time with his Universal Tournament win (probably skipping the actual tournament itself and going to the finals).

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 23: Blue Panther, Hijo del Fantasma, La Sombra vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Shinsuke Nakamura, Volador Jr.

2011-06-12 @ Arena México
Blue Panther, Hijo del Fantasma, La Sombra vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Shinsuke Nakamura, Volador Jr.

I wanted a Nakamura match from this period and this was the one that looked the best on paper. People who have followed me on this know that I'm no big fan of Volador, but he's perfectly acceptable in trios as someone who can hit a lot of stuff. That's one of the great things about lucha. The nature of trios is one where people's flaws are very often hidden and their strengths are emphasized. You need to be great to be great in one, but if you're great at certain things, those can shine through. EVeryone else here is pretty great, though. I especially loved both that Panther was called El Jefe de Jefes on the way out and how Nakamura had a weird executioner's mask and interacted with the ring girls.

And this was another hugely fun match. Nakamura was able to interact with just about everyone. He had a lengthy mat sequence with Blue Panther to begin which was everything you'd want from the two of them together. He was great during the beatdown in the segunda, including fun strikes and plenty of choking. He had the chop off with Sombra. All good stuff.

Volador and Sombra matched together well too. Them doing two or three minutes of spots works so well in this environment and never quite becomes overkill like it might in a singles match. That's not to say everything hit, though. There was a moment in the tercera where Volador wanted a handshake and a hug, even appealing to the kids to get Sombra to go along with it, and it ended up lasting just a little too long, with him shushing everyone way too obviously before chopping. The idea was good, but the execution just wasn't there.

It was the only down part of pretty exciting tercera. The segunda had ended with a very earned comeback and Fantasma's arrow from the gates of hell (or whatever they call his tope in Lucha Underground) and things didn't really let up after that. There were lots of cutoffs and dives and resets and saves with Nakamura fitting right in (another reason why I grabbed a match towards the end of his tour instead of the beginning). The string of fun Sombra trios continues. Either I'm picking well or he just had a very good, even if slightly unmemorable 2011.

(And for some reason the only thing I decided to mark to gif was BP being especially hurty to Nakamura):

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 22: Atlantis, Hirooki Goto, Negro Casas vs La Sombra, Rush, Strong Man

2011-04-08 @ Arena México
Atlantis, Hirooki Goto, Negro Casas vs La Sombra, Rush, Strong Man

I probably shouldn't linger too much on trios matches that are just fun. That said, there are a bunch of title matches in this period for Sombra, but we don't have them online so I am lingering a bit out of necessity.

That said, there's a lot to see here. First you have Goto as a fish out of water. Then there's Casas and Atlantis teaming as rudos, which is enjoyable. You have Strong Man, Jon Anderson, who's pretty terrible, but a really wonderful foil for someone like Negro Casas to play off of. They did things like hit a double suplex on him in the primera only to have it backfire in the tercera. And there's Rush, who, by this point, while bood heavily by the post-Mistico crowd, was willing to hit really hard and lean into things. His entire current existence as an Ingobernable was probably because he got a bum deal here. He was working hard and deserved something other than the boos.

Sombra sort of disappears here until the end of the match, more than I've seen him do lately. Some of that is Anderson taking up a lot of the screen. Some of it is Rush's eagerness. His one big exchange with Goto in the tecera felt a bit disjointed. He did have a much better one with Casas shortly thereafter and finished things up with Atlantis and a big step up plancha on Goto. The difference in reaction to him and Rush was striking.

Another quick and fun trios. Strong Man was the captain here. Rush more of the focus, with dynamic strike exchanges against both Goto and Casas (including brawling with Goto after the match). Sombra was more of a background role but he played it well.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 21: Blue Panther, La Máscara, La Sombra vs Atlantis, Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero

2011-03-29 @ Arena México
Blue Panther, La Máscara, La Sombra vs Atlantis, Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero

5:37 in

There's something to say for predictable ritual in pro wrestling. Hulk Hogan was the most successful thing in the world for six years by giving the fans what they expected again and again. Some shine, a beatdown after cheating, the hulk-up, the bodyslam, the big boot, the leg drop, five minutes of the ear cupping. It worked, in part, because you only saw it once every couple of months, either live or on a TV Special or Pay Per View. It never really had a chance to wear out its welcome.

So imagine it on a weekly basis over twelve years or so. That's Ultimo Guerrero. There are wrinkles, but he's presented the same trios match to the Arena Mexico crowd, generally in the main event or second-from-the-top match for well over a decade. It's intentional. It's ritual. He draws a crowd for his big matches. It's what the people expect. It might even be what a large number of them want to see.

Either there's an ambush to begin or, like here, there's at least one exchange. Here it was Sombra and Dragon Rojo, and they did a good job with it. They match up very well at this stage of their careers. The singles' matches for the title are still a year or two off here, but I'm bet they'll be good when we get there. This ended with Sombra chasing Rojo outside and Atlantis and Guerrero swarming out after them. That gave us a pretty good beatdown on the floor.

and the start of their standard tandem offense. That's one reason why this match is acceptable week in and week out. The tandem offense (the alley oop body splash; the drop toe-hold/elbows; the flip up facebuster; the triple corner attack ending with the senton de la muerte; here, the press up drop kick) is zingy and iconic.

And the transition, pretty much the same in every match. They go for the alley oop body splash for a second time (the first usually being on the ramp, the second in the ring), and it fails. It's pure, excessive hubris, predictable but stemming from an eternal well of ego, which is why it probably works.

Sombra fit into this formula well. He could match up with Rojo evenly, with Guerrero as a slight upstart, and with Atlantis as a young rebel against the grumpy old legend. He felt like an equalizing force in the ring, especially in the tercera which was full of cut offs and resets. By this stage, he came off as a star.

As Guerreros trios go, this was a fun one. It was zippy. It kept moving. There was little fat to cut. Rojo was a really solid part of the act, even though rudo Atlantis was probably wearing thin by this point. Fun match.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 20: La Sombra vs Psicosis II

2011-03-14 @ Arena Puebla
La Sombra vs Psicosis II

0:10 in

I have a lot of ground to cover still, but this match feels especially notable beacuse it came one night after Sombra's title win over Mephisto and for the most part, it's a very different match with a number of different spots, a different pace, a different layout. There were elements of commonality but I think the differences help to show how he'd come into his own by this point.

Psicosis II is currently Ripper/Reaper and he doesn't have the attitude or flair as his predecessor but he's a perfectly competent rudo flyer. Unlike the title match which started the requisite minutes of matwork, this hit the ground running (soaring). Psicosis ran straight into the ring, was rana'd and tope'd. The cameras missed it as they were getting the opening match graphics out of the way. That's how quick it was. Sombra plancha'ed back in, went for another one off the top, and was hit by a Michinoku Driver off the top for a quick fall.

It was a tradeoff. There was more to the Mephisto match but this was instantly dynamic. Moreover, while that was back and forth throughout, Psicosis catching Sombra here led to the heat segment that would encompass the segunda. Different matches with different builds but neither was one of A or one of b completely.

Sombra sold well in the segunda, including layering in a hope spot or two, which you don't always see in CMLL Singles matches with heat. Psicosis was focused and had some pretty solid offense. This ended with Sombra reversing a whip for a short powerslam and the double moonsault. It was a dumb move, especially in the midst of Sombra's selling but I did like it as yet another move Sombra could take a fall with. He wins just one fall with it, now and again, and it becomes a viable nearfall for the finish of matches, especially in chaotic trios terceras.

The tercera was back and forth with big spots. I like how Psicosis took advantage early by working on the leg. It was entirely to soften Sombra up so he could hit big power moves, which isn't the sort of thing you see too often. Sombra had a mini comeback there too, or at least a chapter break, leading to a flip dive. Despite the short first fall, the exhaustion in selling here felt earned. It allowed for a balance in the kickouts. Psicosis' offense was high end but it never felt outlandish that Sombra was kicking out. It made the near-falls more believable in both aspects of the word.

Good, high-octane match that stayed on the rails, and another solid, yet different, performance for Sombra. They have a title match shortly after this and it's a shame it's not online because I'd like to see it.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 19: La Sombra vs Mephisto © [NWA WELTER]

2011-03-13 @ Arena México
La Sombra vs Mephisto © [NWA WELTER]

6:49 in

I'm still under the notion that some people not at all familiar with CMLL might be reading these because they want a primer on Sombra's career. In that case I should take a moment to explain the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship and how it differed from the NWA World Welterweight Championship, but it really doesn't matter. I could go into Mephisto too, but all you really need to know is that he was a former tecnico that Satanico used dark magic to make into a rudo. He's good at his job, but his job is never very interesting.

This was a big match for Sombra and also a good way to see how far he'd come in singles title matches. And he'd come far. This was a very competant match, which doesn't sound too impressive, but it felt like it accomplished what it set out to do and that doesn't always happen in a match like this.

The hardest part in a title match, debatably at least, is the wrestling-centric primera. It needs to be long enough, with enough competitive, engaging matwork. None of what Sombra and Mephisto did was particular dynamic, but it  hit the other marks. Past a nice Mephisto bridge, they were basically doing simple things well, but they spent enough time doing it well that Sombra came off as credible and deserving. Like a lot of these, it escalated into rope running including the first of a few Devil's Wings counters by Sombra, to set up for the twisting split legged moonsault.

The primera was short but sufficiently back and forth, with Mephisto dropping the sportsmanship and mounting a couple of ambushes, only for Somba's athleticism to allow him to fight back. He went for one too many springboards, however, and landed in a Mephisto powerbomb for the second fall.

The tercera was, once again, exactly what it had to be, with bigger and bigger bombs, selling, and near-falls. Sombra hit the perfect dive, starting by setting it up by tapping the turnbuckle and telegraphing it for the crowd, then running across the ring, leaping and twisting to the top rope and moonsaulting off, finishing it by ending up in the crowd.

Nothing says "Proof of escalating bombs" quite like a muscle buster:

and a sloppy splash mountain:

and other Satanic Rudo Averno hyping the crowd?

And I'll stop the gifs there, but it continued to go back and forth, including Mephisto getting his knees up on Sombra's stupid double moonsault, and the godlike inverted flip dive, before Sombra finally took it with a dragonrana. One great thing about Sombra in this era that he really had four-five ways to realistically win a fall. That's not uncommon in CMLL but it added a lot to the layout of his big matches in the period.

This wasn't the best title match I've seen recently, but it was perfectly fine for a big single's title win for Sombra. He looked like he belonged in the spot and this thusly felt like a big deal.

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 18: Hijo del Fantasma, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada vs Averno, Mephisto, Negro Casas

2011-01-28 @ Arena México
Hijo del Fantasma, La Sombra, Máscara Dorada vs Averno, Mephisto, Negro Casas

0:40 in

I'm kicking myself a little for skipping over the La Aguila singles match from a little before the Dragon Rojo one, as Cubsfan says it's good, and he'd know. He also said it, with the Rojo match, was a sign that Sombra was finally putting it all together, which has been my sense too, going through this. Again, the problem is that there don't seem to be a ton of great looking stuff in 2011, so I'm going to have to pick a bit wildly.

This is a trios match with a few guys I like. For anyone here just for Sombra, Fantasma is the current King Cuerno in Lucha Underground. He's great as a rudo. He was really good as a tecnico here too. I was high on Averno when I started watching CMLL in 2014 because he was a rudo being a rudo which felt a little rare in the midst of the Negro Casas vs Rush/Shocker feud. The big disappointment in these matches is that the Mascara Dorada of 2011 was not the Mascara Dorada of 2016.

It's a fun match but nothing standout. It's got an initial ambush/beatdown by the rudos and I haven't seen one in a little bit so I enjoyed that. The best part of the first two falls were easily the mascots.

Kemonito looking bemused as his guys are getting beaten on:

Zacarias (Maybe before he was even called that) doing some nasty legwork on Dorada:

And this amazing Zacarias splash and antics in the segunda:

It was your standard beatdown with mask ripping, triple kicks, isolating of the tecnicos valiantly fighting back and all that. The biggest spot was Fantasma eating a double armdrag over the top.

which was especially cool because it actually set up the comeback in a way you almost never see. Tecnicos come back hundreds and hundreds of times with this bounce back of the ropes into a full nelson leading to rudo miscommunication, but here it actually made sense as it was Averno and Mephisto trying the double arm drag over the top once again. Stuff like that makes me way too happy. There's nothing sadder than someone whose day can be made by seeing Flair hit a validating top rope move or Tully hitting a double axe handle  from the second rope on a prone opponent without eating a foot in the face,

Of course, the CMLL Cameras missed the comeback almost entirely since they though it was a good time to go to the crowd. So it goes. Oh, speaking of that, I think, despite saying in the introduction and the graphic confirming it, that Negro Casas was the rudo captain, it was actually Averno. The sequence of falls seemed to indicate that. Not a big deal but it had me confused for a second.

If the mascot antics were the reason to watch the primera and segunda (though, to warn you, Zacarias never gets his comeuppance! The injustice), the tercera was carried by a lot of really good action. All of the tecnicos got to hit their spots. The dives were good even if some of the in ring tandem tecnico offense was a little off. Negro Casas got to be Negro Casas against multiple opponents, including this sequence:

and a great tease of an escape from Fantasma's German before he finally gets flattened. Sombra even hit his insane back flip dive, this time without three people standing around forever to catch him. It ended with a mask rip DQ and more rudo beatdown, which was still not as infuriating as Kemonito never getting his hands on Zacarias. Fun, if disposable, trios match,

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MLJ: Sombra Spotlight 17: La Sombra & Mascara Dorada vs Jushin Liger & Hector Garza

2011-01-04 @ Tokyo Dome (Wrestle Kingdom V - Road to Fantastica Mania)
La Sombra & Mascara Dorada vs Jushin Liger & Hector Garza

This isn't at all my sort of match, a spotty, sloppy eight minute lucha spotfest. It's sort of what I thought all lucha was in 1998. It was fun and it achieved its goal for the most part and the idea of Garza and Liger as a team was too good to pass up. They're two of the best jerk heels in the history of wrestling, after all. It's worth it just to see them come out:

This was the big 1/4 Tokyo Dome show for 2011 and this match particular was to whet appetites for the upcoming Fantastica Mania tour, the first of such. The match had to be as stereotypically lucha-y as possible, with contortions and dives and armdrags and whatever else. There was a dive train in the middle and another at the end.

And there were botches. Lots of botches. Mascara Dorada was the worst offender as he consistently went for the most challenging things (including hitting that step up flip dive that is all the rage now five years before it was all the rage). He barely managed his rope walking at the start of the match, blew a run up arm drag on Liger (but recovered), and had some really rough headscissors. He's much more poised and polished now.

Sombra took it up to an extra level too, not conent to do planchas but having to spin on them. He put an extra rotation into his split-legged moonsault and finished the match with a twisting bodysplash of the top, scoring the pin and plenty of trash talk on Liger to set up their title match during the tour.

My favorite part was Liger and Garza working together. They had double team offense that ranged from fun (a lifting set up by Liger ending with a Garza kick:

to ridiculous (a catapult moonsault that just didn't quite work).

The crowd seemed to enjoy it, and it probably got people hyped for the tour, which was obviously a success as they're still doing it annually. It was nice to see Sombra stretch his athleticism just a little further both to see that he could hit some more advanced moves but also that he was savvy enough to show restraint and not do it every time out. It's nice to have something to escalate you.

I will say that this was probably the worst "Let's wait for the dive!" I've ever seen, but it's forgivable in the context: the dive was so insane that it probably sold tickets. How can you fault them not wanting to have Sombra kill himself with that in mind?

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