My Lucha Journey: Rush vs Shocker Part 4: The Turn

La Sombra, Rush, Shocker vs Averno, Mephisto, Negro Casas

aired 2014-02-01
taped 2014-01-24 @ Arena Mexico

This was a total non-match, but it was still ten minutes of fun. Shocker's had enough of Rush and goes after him straight from the get go, and once again,whenever the tecnicos start to get any momentum at all. I'm not a huge Sombra fan, as of yet, but you really feel for him here as he tries to keep peace with his partners. If he fails, he's going to get swarmed and pummeled by the rudos. Casas, of course, was in his glory watching all of this, from the first moment of coming out from the back belly laughing, to the great reaction to the turn itself.

One thing I've been meaning to stop and ask someone is just what the revenue base for CMLL is. House Shows? TV Deals? PPVs? Merchandise? Here, the main reason I want to know is that I don't entirely know how Rush makes money. Do people buy tickets to see him get beaten up? Do a lot of the crowds outside of Arena Mexico cheer him? Are they going to show up regardless (or due to the TV deals, whether they show up or not is irrelevant?) so he's just a way to engage people once they're already there?

It's interesting because he's not always booked consistently. The story here was obviously about Shocker going rudo in order to really gets his hands on Rush, but for the most part, Rush was fairly plucky here. Yes, he rushed down the aisle to get Shocker, but he's taped up and Shocker immediately got the advantage. Later on, after the Rudos took the first fall and pressed the advantage, he came in and saved Shocker from a triple team, only to run right to a cheapshot from the guy he just saved. It was still enough for Sombra to fully come back though, and after a dive on Averno and Mephisto, things segued right into a fairly heated exchange between Rush and Casas. That was when Shocker came in, fouled his own partner, and took a dive. The logic behind it all was a little wonky. Rush was so irritating that Shocker punishes not just him but Sombra as well, and he lets his opponents pin him. I think they could have done it better, even just by walking out after the foul. He could get counted out. Do those happen? Maybe he was throwing a peace offering to the rudos since he knew he'd be teaming with them soon? I don't know. It all felt a little weird to me and maybe not the best way to heat up a blood feud even if I suppose that CMLL felt it was too early to fully turn Rush.