As a match I don't think this is quite as good as the one from March '93. That match is one of the best lucha title matches of the decade though, so it's a high bar. This one's still excellent, and at the very least it's worth watching for Casas' performance. My god he was sensational here. The primera is a great opening title match fall on its own, with a real sense of struggle and Casas largely on the back foot, working defensively while Ultimo swarms him. All through the Casas/Ultimo rivalry Ultimo would shred Casas with those spin kicks and it didn't take long for him do that here. There was one great bit where they did a pop-up into what would normally be a monkey flip, but Ultimo switched position in mid air and kicked Casas right in the face. Watch how Casas struggles against the German suplex at the end of the fall, trying to push against Ultimo even past the point where he realistically has any chance of stopping it. Belligerent even in the face of inevitability, is Casas. The segunda is where Casas really steals the show, or steals even more of it than he already had. He paints an almost pathetic figure at the start of it, cowering in the corner holding his midsection, zero impetus to actually engage. Ultimo keeps pressing forward where he can, usually with those kicks, but Casas will seek shelter in the ropes or the corner, at one point lying on his side intimating that Ultimo fouled him. It was sort of hilarious. When Ultimo takes him down Casas immediately scrambles to the ropes, wraps his legs around them and clutches his stomach. His selling was unbelievable, not just because it looked like Ultimo's kicks really had done a number on him, but because it felt like he was trying to buy time and frustrate Dragon. When he catches him in the Sharpshooter a couple minutes later you're not sure if it was genius strategy, a huge slice of luck, a huge slice of instinct, or a mixture of all three. Either way he'd evened the score, debilitated as he was, and I liked as well that Ultimo realised he'd be better off submitting quickly than trying to fight it just to suffer more harm in the long run. If you're looking for an epic tercera then you won't find it, but I thought they still concluded the story in a satisfying way. Casas' selling was again phenomenal, taking a bunch of suplexes and selling the midsection like he'd been gut shot, clutching his stomach again after every kick out. Ultimo held him in a bridge after a butterfly suplex and you'd think his appendix had burst, then he just started butting Ultimo in the chest with the back of his head to free himself. Ultimo wouldn't give him a second's reprieve, just like he hadn't from the opening bell. After Ultimo topes him into the seats Casas bides as much time as the ref' will afford him. Ultimo tries to apply a surfboard and Casas will not give up an arm, so Ultimo obviously punches him in the ribs, manages to hook the hold, and Casas rips an arm free and clings to the ropes like a drowning man to a lifebuoy. I could've gone either way on the finish at first, but I came around to liking it pretty quickly. On the one hand it's a total banana peel, but I think it fits with the story. A banana peel was about all Casas could hope for and it was a banana peel he laid himself. He was fucked, hobbled over and ready to puke. He was never likely to muster a proper comeback, but he could rely on his wiles and technique in the clutch. In the end you wouldn't have known he'd actually won. A spectacular performance from the greatest of all time.
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