We're watching 1997 CMLL!

Negro Casas, Silver King & La Fiera v Rambo, Gran Markus Jr. & Mano Negra (CMLL, 1/1/97)

This was some nice whimsical lucha libre. The primera had its share of comedy without veering all the way into slapstick territory and all of the pairings were really fun. The tecnicos made the rudos look foolish and the rudos never responded by trying to carve the tecnicos' foreheads open, so things stayed fairly PG. Rambo yanked Casas to the mat by the hair, then when Casas tried to return the favour his hands came away with nothing, because you can't very well grab the hair of a man whose head has just been freshly shaved, can you? So Casas dropkicked him out the ring instead and Rambo flew up the ramp, stole someone's beer and started walking back to the ring with it - presumably to use as a weapon - before thinking better of it and handing it to a different fan, who was visibly delighted at obtaining free beer. See, whimsical. Fiera stands on the top rope and practically lifts Mano Negra, who was standing on the canvas, up to eye level by the hair. Fiera at this point looks almost too scuzzy to be a tecnico but who am I to judge a book by its cover? Gran Markus is DEFINITELY too portly to be slammed by Silver King (he is extremely portly) and reverses it into his own with almost absurd ease, then misses a splash and when they end up on the floor he boots the ring board by accident. Markus essentially assisting Casas with a double powerbomb to finish the fall was a hell of a comedy spot. The segunda starts a little less whimsically as Gran Markus literally grabs Fiera by the junk and won't let go, while Mano Negra chokes Fiera so the referee admonishes that and misses the junk-squeezing. Which...I don't think I've ever seen before to be honest. After that the story of the match is basically Silver King turning rudo on his partners. I don't even know what set him off but I think Casas bore the brunt of his sulking initially. I wonder what it says that of all the matches I've seen like this, where a wrestler shifts allegiances mid-match, a good many of them have ended with at least one of Negro Casas' teammates wanting to beat him to death. Casas gets isolated and repeatedly tries to tag out, but Silver King is having none of it and won't even acknowledge Casas. Neither Casas not Fiera can understand why Silver King has a stick up his butt. It never breaks down completely and Silver King doesn't go full rudo or anything, but I get the sense they pulled the trigger on that a few weeks down the line. The closest it came to proper blows was when the rudos triple-teamed Fiera and Silver King just watched on from the apron, one foot on the bottom rope, looking like he could not be any less arsed. In the end he basically throws the match for his team, submitting under relatively little duress, clearly not bothered about putting up much of a fight. I'd be down for Silver King against either of his partners if that's what this is leading to. I guess I'll have a look, won't I?