These Hechicero v legends matches have the annoying habit of starting off with five minutes of phenomenal matwork. It's annoying because you want it for 20 and you imagine - nay DREAM OF - a world in which we get it. People who think Negro Casas isn't an excellent mat worker are out to fucking lunch. They can stay there as well, as far as I'm concerned. Stay out in the rain and enjoy your wee sandwich, the rest of us will bask in the warmth from the fire of Negro Casas rolling through three times on a neck crank to maintain a leg grapevine. He was a matador in this and used every bit of his guile and experience to avoid the bull that is Hechicero. It's one of my favourite old man Casas performances, though old man Casas is a different animal from old man everyone else as his deal with the devil allows him to never really look like an old man. There was a moment in the primera where Hechicero came flying at him to grab a leg and Casas lithely sidestepped it, wound up with Hechicero's wrist in his hand, flipped him over and walked away with a shit-eating grin. A Hechicero determined to dislocate one of your appendages is not to be trifled with and eventually he grabs an ankle lock, rolling around like a crocodile with an antelope between its jaws. It was like something roid rage gum shield era Kurt Angle would've done. Casas caught him with an upkick and Hechicero clotheslined him like a man who'd already had enough. When Hechicero runs the ropes Casas follows him in to sneak behind him, but Hechicero is ahead of it and turns to catch him with the Conjuro; a wonderful fall of wrestling that established the strengths of both guys and had enough breathing room to let the gigantic personalities be as gigantic as you'd want them to be.
The segunda starts with Casas yanking Hechicero over into a wrist lock and tying him up with a seated ab stretch, waving to the camera and smoothing out his hair just to show how in control of the situation he really is. Hechicero reverses it into a Backlund style deadlift slam that might've killed poor Casas, who immediately rolls out the ring because sometimes you need to know your limitations. When Hechicero gets annoyed enough to go out after him, you, if you've seen enough Negro Casas and are familiar enough with the man himself, soon realise this was the plan all along, because he scoots back in the ring and thumps Hechicero in the chest with a kick as he tries to follow. Even in his physical prime Casas was never a bruiser - he was a technician then and he had to be even more of one against Hechicero, who could be bruiser and technician in equal measure, all while being in HIS physical prime. Even in 2016 Casas could still boot you in the face though, and if he squinted hard enough he could convince himself Hechiero's mask was Santo silver, so it gave him a little extra juice behind those kicks. He uses them to pretty good effect, first with a high boot in the corner, then a double boot, then a missile dropkick, and they ultimately set him up to even the falls.
The tercera caida is Casas at his very best. It starts with Hechicero seeing red, leaning into his primal side and opening the floor for a strike battle. You maybe question the wisdom of Casas obliging, but he has his pride like any of us and throws caution to the wind. Casas sells his age and weary bones during a strike exchange better than anyone, pausing for a beat to gather himself when the damage registers, falling into the ropes nearly horizontally and using them to propel himself into a big shot, knocking Hechicero down and pumping his fist at the victory of it before stopping to grimace, bent over and grabbing his neck where Hechicero had just clubbed him full force. Casas would always use those kicks when things got sticky and he caught Hechicero with one in the corner, facing away like he had eyes in the back of his head, that was an honest to god 10/10.
There was one amazing sequence that pretty much encapsulated the story of the match. Casas whips Hechicero into the corner and the latter flips up and out onto the apron, arms aloft like it's to be celebrated, a man high on confidence. Casas fakes a big overhand chop and Hechicero reaches up to catch it, exposing the midsection for Casas to spin kick him in the lungs. Casas then reels off another six vicious kicks as Hechicero is buckled over on the apron, but when Casas follows him out he finds himself trading chops with someone we know he'll never out-chop. Casas obviously knows it too so he grabs Hechicero's leg, spins him around and runs him into the ring post, rallies the crowd, feeds off the energy, and crushes Hechicero with a senton off the apron.
The rest of the match is about Casas trying to capitalise on any openings against a guy who's built like a house and can rip off a spinning muscle buster on a 56-year-old man like it's nothing. Casas sells Hechicero's blows like a sledgehammer, and for every one chop Hechicero lands Casas needs to land four kicks in return. Casas continually finds glimmers of hope by using Hechicero's momentum against him, that matador working the bull again, and then sometimes he'll just follow up by hitting a running dropkick to the face like he's channelling Murakami. There was one point where Hechicero flung him off the ropes with so much force it looked like Casas had zero choice in the matter, then hit a powerslam and pinned him with his hands clasped so tight he could literally roll around the mat in circles like Casas was a life-sized dummy. By the end Casas' only openings come from him literally moving out the way, then if he's lucky he can try and dropkick Hechicero's knees to pieces. The finish is sensational as he almost manages to do both of those things and it sets up La Casita, but Hechicero braces and refuses to budge, Casas hyperextends his knee, and Hechicero jumps him with a ridiculous rolling kneebar/ankle lock monstrosity.
This was a spectacular Casas performance, a man fighting uphill against a stud, using every one of his smarts but none of the tricks he might've in his saltier days, a masterpiece of little touches and body language and general selling. A tremendous match to boot and another to file in the case of Negro Casas: Greatest to Ever do It.
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