Black Terry & Solar vs. Negro Casas & Blue Panther
February 28, 2016
ELITE
Arena Mexico
**
While not a bad match, this was certainly a disappointing one. Things peaked with the first pairing (Solar and Blue Panther). Although not anywhere near the level of the first fall in their hyped 1994 AAA singles match, they worked a really fun and rather lengthy quick paced opening that felt a lot fresher and smoother than current Solar/Navarro sequences. Terry and Casas matched up which the fans were hyped for – really big reaction when they both entered the match – but their actual interaction was probably the most disappointing part of the match. Casas held onto a long sleeper hold not too long after they first locked up. The move felt out of place, did not lead anywhere interesting, and went onto long. In a vacuum Terry’s traditional back breaker escape was neat but fell flat in this setting. Those two eventually slugged it out but even that was rather mundane (perhaps a closer view of the ring would have helped with that).
The Solar/Casas exchanges were better than the Solar/Terry ones but both have done better recently. We only briefly saw Terry and Panther hook up, after their recently scheduled Toryumon Mexico match was canceled due to Panther no-showing (Solar subbed for Panther and had a decent match with Terry). In a rarity for him, Solar had a full on slip up when he stumbled while coming off the top turnbuckle and awkwardly tumbled to the mat. Of course if you are going to misstep like that it helps to have a ring of full of professionals all around you. Panther covered nicely with a quick inside cradle. My favorite move of the match was a flashy hair biel from Solar to Casas. I am not sure if that was their intent but the move looked good nonetheless.
When old guys have a subpar match it is tempting to blame the quality on their ages and talk about how they are getting old. Besides for Solar’s rope slip, there weren’t any notable senior moments from the four. They just didn’t click and have the kind of match they could have. They mainly stayed off of the mat which may have been a mistake but only because what they did standing was relatively lackluster. The match did not miss because Casas was slow or Panther couldn’t bump; it missed because the lay out and execution just were just on that level they are usually are with these four.
