Negro Casas vs. Blue Panther, CMLL Guadalajara, 8/3/08

I enjoyed this.

It reminded me of those old school mano a mano contests, minus the blood. Mano a mano is neither a title match or a hair vs. mask match, so you have to take it down a notch (or two) in the event that one of those stips takes place. A Negro Casas/Blue Panther program is unlikely to happen at this point, but these guys were schooled in the old ways. They told a simple story about Casas cheating, the ref preventing Panther from retaliating and Panther becoming frustrated at rudo and ref alike, and while they weren't wrestling for anything as such, it became a matter of pride as to who would win. And while the work was enough to convince anyone that these guys can still wrestle, what I took away from the match is that after 30 years in the business they care enough to try and get a small Guadalajara crowd into an otherwise meaningless match.

All told it was just another night at the lucha, but the entertaining part was that while it was a matter of pride, the point of pride was of that of a rudo vs. that of a technico. Casas wanted to win by cheating. Panther, who'd usually win with technique, wanted the win as a matter of principles. Maybe that sounds old fashioned, but I think that heel/face dynamic is lost on a lot of workers today, who just wanna win with the most spectacular move they can conjure, regardless of whether they're a technico.

Anyway, I'm holding out hope for whatever Casas does as a rudo this year.