Wednesday 12 May 2021

Sangre Chicana of the Day #2

Sangre Chicana, Mocho Cota & Negro Casas v Ringo Mendoza, Silver King & Ultimo Dragon (CMLL, 3/4/94)

This was tremendous. Very much not a Chicana match, but tremendous all the same. It's not that he wasn't good in it (obviously he was good in it), it's just that he was at best the fourth most important man in the thing and a distant third in his own team. So while it meant he wasn't the centrepiece, it did mean we got to see him as the C guy in a trios, which is worth looking at if you want to do the whole holistic examination of a person's career and whatnot. The spotlight here was on Mocho Cota and Negro Casas, which may actually have been the kick-starter to their feud that year (and gives a bit better context to the Relevos Increibles from a couple weeks later). You could tell pretty early on that this was going to be a story trios, and the story was that Negro Casas will be coerced by no man. If you've seen one of these trios then you've seen a dozen, where one of the rudos is trying to play it straight but the other two are only interested in shithousing. Casas was trying to have competitive exchanges, usually against his old adversary Ultimo Dragon, but the other two would come in and put the boots to the tecnicos, never letting anybody settle into a rhythm, clearly not interested in having an actual wrestling match. Chicana actively encouraged it, waving for assistance whenever Ringo had him in a hold. Initially Casas tried to settle things peacefully, but as it went on you could see him losing patience. Cota was unreal in this. Whatever he lost in athleticism from his stint in jail he made up for in elite tier horse shit. He could not grasp the concept of wanting to play this straight. No matter how many times Casas told him to stay on the apron he wouldn't listen and I loved how Casas would look at him like "fuck sake, here he goes again." Once or twice you thought it might even come to blows and there were a few subtle moments where Casas would thwart him, to the point where it allowed Silver King (who already had beef with Cota) to catch him with a superkick. That Cota/Silver King issue raised its head more than a few times and Silver King launching Cota into the ring post was one of the craziest spots like it you'll ever see. By the third caida Casas may as well have stood on the opposite side of the ring, so different was his approach to this than his teammates'. There was one bit where Silver King was tied up in the rudo corner, but when Casas came in - at Cota's behest - he not only didn't engage in the mugging, he let Silver King tag out. Whether it was a sporting gesture or one intended to rile up his partners, Cota was apoplectic. Cota and Chicana have been partners in crime (literally, probably) for a decade but Casas obviously wasn't the Fiera replacement they were expecting. Finish was great as well, with Cota seizing his moment and punting Silver King in the balls. At the end he and Chicana stood tall in the ring, while Casas looked on from the floor maybe questioning some life choices. 

No comments:

Post a Comment