[2014-01-03-CMLL] Negro Casas vs Titan

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x198j4m_titan-vs-negro-casas-2013-leyenda-de-plata-final_sport

[FightingOkra]

I have been working on gaining a better feel for the Lucha product. I know the people who love Lucha are extremely passionate about it. Negro Casas and Titan put on a good match but not an all time classic. I admit I was struggling with the first two falls but they pull everything back together well in the third. The limb work, albeit short, was a good mix of holds and strikes. The hold Titan wins the first fall with is quite amazing and is one reason for Negro's knee issues later on. Sadly the varied limb work does not factor into the finish and it holds the match back from where it could have gone. ***

[Loss]

This is worked like a title match on fast forward and would have benefitted greatly from more time. Casas still looks great in 2015 and Titan is a worthy opponent, but it seemed like they were cramped for time and had to rush to get everything in. Now the work itself is excellent, but they go from zero to sixty way too quickly for my tastes. I don’t mean to bash it too much, as they really made good use of the time they had and built a full match, but it would have been even better with twice the time at half the speed. Setting aside the issue of time, Casas has great offense by any standard, but considering his age and time in wrestling, it’s extraordinary how well he moves around the ring. Someone needs to steal the vertical cross armbreaker over the top rope thing that Casas did too.

 

***3/4

[Kronos]

There's a sequence early on that includes a handstand, a headscissors, and a suicida. It's rather slow and choreographed, but it's still pretty awesome. I like how NC comes back into the ring all pissed off at having been manhandled that way. Titan pays him back with a badass stretch submission. It was nice to see a submission recognized quickly as such. That's probably a case of rushing the fall, as you guys mention. But it works for me.

 

How can you not love this dude? Watch him running around outside the ring, laughing and enjoying himself after a good spot hits well. Negro! Negro! Negro Casas!