Casas v Ultimo Dragon - The Lead-In

I was planning on watching the Casas/Fiera hair match today, but then I kind of wound up down the rabbit hole and wanted to finally check out some build to the Casas/Ultimo title match that I also want to re-watch soon. I'm on a Negro Casas kick, basically. He was very, very good, you know.


Negro Casas, El Felino & Bestia Salvaje v Ultimo Dragon, Ciclon Ramirez & Oro (CMLL, 3/12/93)

This was pretty much everything you'd ask for in a lead-in trios. The early Casas/Ultimo exchange wasn't particularly flashy or grand in scale, but it gave you a taste of what to expect and that thirty second stretch where Ultimo continually dragged Casas back into the armbar was beautiful. It really set the tone for everything they did throughout the match -- Casas was Casas and arguably at the very peak of his powers, but Ultimo was rapid fast and getting better by the day. Plus he had those kicks, and Casas didn't seem to have a proper answer to them. I've shit on Ultimo Dragon plenty of times on this blog, but I thought he was pretty excellent here and Mexico is by far my favourite setting for him. The Felino/Ramirez and Bestia/Oro exchanges ended up going a similar route, with Bestia eating Oro's dust and Felino getting pissed that his partners allowed him to be humiliated so. At that point the rudos teased dissension and suckered the tecnicos into a gang beating. Casas took out his frustrations by seemingly tying Ultimo's leg to a fixed seat, and the beatdown continued into the segunda with Oro playing punchbag. Fittingly it was Ultimo clipping Casas' legs from outside that was the catalyst for the tecnico comeback, leading to an awesome revenge spot with Ultimo repeatedly kicking Casas into rows of seats. Oro's moonsault to pick up the fall on Bestia was gorgeous and of course Ultimo would pin Casas with another one of his kicks (this time it was an enziguri). That issue ate at Casas into the tercera and I loved that he just drove his shoulder into Ultimo's balls. I mean, what better equaliser? Ultimo repaying the favour with a dropkick was another awesome moment. Did he mean to go low? Did it actually CONNECT low or was Casas trying to pull the con job? Maybe it was accidental, maybe it wasn't, but either way it made you wonder if even the subtle low blow was something Casas couldn't beat Ultimo at. The short end run between them was great and Casas once more trying and failing to outdo Ultimo made for a great finish, but it was the Ciclon Ramirez tope leading into it that was the moment of the match. It was truly spectacular; he absolutely fucking torpedoed Bestia with that thing. Great match.