CMLL
Arena Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico)
Leyenda de Plata Tournament Final; Best 2 out of 3 falls
Pro Wrestling’s age curve is already quite different from other athletic fields, in that it is far kinder to “older” performers. You are hitting your stride closer to your mid to late 30’s as a wrestler, while most athletes in team sports are wrapping up their careers at that age. Even those wrestlers who aren’t in their prime in their late 30’s – they either peaked earlier or never really peaked – still have a decent shot of continuing their careers into their 40’s if the opportunity is there. You don’t find that in any (almost any?) sport.
Still, even in an athletic pursuit that historically is kinder to its aging competitors than its non-worked peers, not often does pro wrestling produce a wrestler as good into his 50’s as Negro Casas currently is. In some ways, I hesitate to even use his age as a discussion point because it implies that Casas is a good wrestler for an old man. The honest truth is he is a very good wrestler currently, period. It is impossible to escape his age though because it is right there and if nothing else makes his already noteworthy performances that much better. He might be one of the best 50 or older wrestlers in history.
After a 2013 calendar year that had him amongst the top ten wrestlers in the world, Casas kicks off 2014 with another very good performance. The age thing is inescapable again. His opponent his 23 year old Titan who is one of CMLL’s better young high flyers. One might expect this match to be worked in a way that highlights the age difference and makes it part of the build. At the very least, you might expect it to be worked as young high flyer vs. cagey veteran from a structural standpoint. Instead, the match is worked like two evenly matched contemporaries going at it, with few (if any) discernible differences in ability.
You wouldn’t be able to tell who the 23 year old and who the 53 year old is by the bumps they take – Casas bumps hard on everything and takes a particularly good-looking fall over the top rope on a Titan drop kick. You couldn’t tell who is younger by who works stiffer, moves quicker, or is smoother in the ring. This is – in a sort of counterintuitive way – as much of a compliment to Titan in this match as it is to Casas. Casas is so good right now that the fact that both put in relatively equally strong performances is as much of a credit to Titan’s ability to hang as it is to Casas for being so good at his age.
Diagnostics
Lucha Title Match | Watch It | Quality
