MLJ: Rush vs Negro Casas 3: La Máscara, Rush, Stuka Jr. vs Herodes Jr., Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

Aired 2014-04-12
taped 2014-04-08 @ Arena México
La Máscara, Rush, Stuka Jr. vs Herodes Jr., Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas

Well, this was short and weird. I've only seen a couple of Stuka, Jr. matches though. I'm a little confused about his gimmick. Google tells me that it might have something to do with the German word Sturzkampfbomber and he, and his older brother before him (who was Stuka) started out as basically German military dive bombers? I guess you can see that with the mask having the pilot's goggles of sort, and the iron cross on the side? It's a unique look at least. This was my first time seeing Herodes, Jr., even though I think his dad was pretty great. He seems like he has a way to go still offense-wise, even if he has a pretty effective savage look. Apparently, he JUST left CMLL after being part of the extended Peste Negra earlier this year, so I guess this is a little bit timely.

So yes, this was short, weird, and really not very good. I'd have to say that it was one of the weaker trios I've seen since starting this project and a lot of that was Niebla and Mascara. I know people tend to either resent Mascara for how he got in and got his push, with family connections or what not, or are just annoyed by him because he's not so great in there, but I haven't had much problem with him, protected as he's been in the trios matches I've seen. Here, though, especially paired with Niebla (wearing a KISS shirt, btw), who is just so hit or miss, he wasn't good at all. It wasn't even the jarring bright green and fuchsia gear. The nature of trios makes it easy to protect someone a lot of times. If you're paired up against someone who really knows what they're doing like Casas or 2014 Shocker or Ultimo Guererro or even a motivated Felino, it's almost hard to look bad, maybe? Against Niebla who is very savvy and charismatic but basically a giant goofball or against someone less experienced like Herodes, Jr., the cracks can show a lot more easily.

Pretty basic formula, with the usual sort of narrative twist that they have to give matches that only go two falls. They skipped the entrances, had a brawl to begin. The rudos won it, and stage a short and non-descript beatdown, but the tecnicos fought back when they tossed Rush out of the corner and he hit a huge dropkick; it's a great spot/transition move so long as they don't overuse it like they sort of do with Rush/Casas reverse course clothesline reversal spot. The crowd was definitely anti-tecnicos here and it's hard to blame them. Every time Rush did anything he was booed. When Mascara took off his shirt, he was booed. When he hit the casita to win the primera caida during the comeback, he was booed.

Probably the only thing that the tecnicos did that wasn't booed was Stuka's nice blind dive from the top to the outside towards the end of the match. They had reset between falls, and this was where we got the especially weak Mascara/Niebla exchange, which was shown to be especially lame when followed by Rush and Casas killing each other with chops. Stuka's choice to dive out on Niebla instead of trying to win the match was a bit head-scratching as things weren't especially heated between them during the match, but hey, at least the crowd didn't boo. It also cleared the ring for Casas vs Rush again, which was back and forth for a moment before, Rush hit an awesome headbutt in the corner and Casas fouled him blatantly to take the thing home. Part of me sort of feels like he just wanted to cut his losses considering the match they were having.

Post-match the rudos all mocked Rush's crotch hurting on the ramp, which was great fun. Pretty disposable match all around though and a shame because I liked Niebla a lot in the Atlantis trios match that had just preceeded it and because I wanted to like Herodes, Jr. more.