[1996-07-07-CMLL] Negro Casas vs Great Sasuke

[PeteF3]

Very nationalistic crowd to start with, with a big "ME-XI-CO" chant, but Casas eventually seems to turn the crowd against him as this goes on. I hesitate to keep beating the phrase "meat and potatoes" to death and use it for any match in 1996 where a limb gets worked for 3 consecutive seconds, but that's the phrase that comes to mind here. Until the finishes, the first 2 falls are entirely mat-based and the third is about half matwork and a quarter apiece flying and shtick. There's not much overly advanced here but Casas continues to be a master worker--every time he gets near Tiger Mask in Sasuke's corner he pratfalls, framing TM for tripping or hitting him, and then takes the opportunity to low blow Sasuke or commit some other rudo act. That nets him the second fall and gains him an advantage in the third. Sasuke does his big spots well and holds his own in working holds, but he is showing a pretty consistent tendency to completely blow off the limb work so he can get his flying spots in, and it's as bad as ever here. This is still a very good match overall, sort of a lesser man's Malenko vs. Rey in terms of high-end technical stuff, but more smartly booked.