I've been watching the Arena Mexico Friday night shows almost every week for about 6 months now and Negro Casas despite being super over never seems to have a great match or performance. He had an incredibly long of being a good wrestler, but is it finally over? Is Negro Casas finally no longer good? 

lol i don't think so. i saw his coacalco match with aramis and i really liked that, and he's had cool performances in a couple trios (the okada one, his anniversary show) off the top of my head.

CMLL goes through long stretches of putting Negro in random nothing-doing mid card matches to try to make them seem like like they matter, so he's not given much to work with most of the time. There's certainly times where he's not going all out, but he can still bring it when the moment calls for it.

I don't think Casas is where he was 6 years ago. When I think of washed up I think of Solar, Fuerza Guerrera, and Octagon. Negro Casas isn't anywhere near there yet, but I do think he's in the sunset of his career. He doesn't move the way he used to, and he certainly seems to be on cruise control a lot these days. 

Hell I thought the Toxin match from yesterday (it's on youtube) was a lot of fun, including some moments of real deftness (on top of the character bits and smart, focused storytelling).

Unless you’re really big into the formula, CMLL weeklies are generally a black hole for great matches so I wouldn’t count that against him. Casa’s rep has always been built more on injecting little moments of fun into forgettable matches rather than putting on singularly great matches every week.

I'll add that's the Aramis match was good too and the Ricky Marvin match was good but not great. I personally think age is finally catching up with him. The last great match he had IMO was the Volador Jr Hair match from 2016 where he took that's nutty sunset flip bump to the outside. Then he took time off to get surgery for his hemorrhoids. I just chalk it up as age. 

I shouldn't comment on this thread since the most recent Casas I've watched has been his 2000 work but a few things to consider:

* It's not unusual for a CMLL worker to be involved in meaningless matches for a lengthy period of time. The same thing happened to Casas in his prime.
* Much of Casas' genius was that he could produce vintage moments even in the most meaningless of matches. If he's not doing that then he must be struggling at some level. 
* If he's not working the indies, it's difficult to see what he's capable of in a maestro setting.
* There's not much point in CMLL using him in a program unless they want to give a specific rub to a worker or Casas decides to cash in on a retirement tour.
+ His 2010s work has always been overrated. 

As someone who hasn't seen too much of Negro Casas (but has liked what he has seen) what are a few of his essential matches?

vs. Santo (07/18/87 - LA)

vs. Santo (1/12/92 - UWA)

vs. Dandy (7/5/92 - CMLL)

vs. Santo vs. Dandy (12/6/96 - CMLL)

vs. Santo (9/19/97 - CMLL)

The fact of the matter is that he's the only guy in wrestling who is going to do stuff like this week in and week out. Maybe he can't hit as many spots as quickly as before, but you can go back or forward ten years and you'll probably have nothing like this on a regular basis:

He pretends to steal the guy's phone. How great is that?

I haven't seen too much of him this year, but I really liked the Aramis match and he still looked as quick as ever. And the aspuestas match with Adonis was not only easily the best singles match of Adonis' career, but was borderline great. 

I'm pretty sure we've written up more Negro Casas matches this year than any other wrestler. I know all time we've had more Negro Casas posts than any other wrestler. Here's a bunch of the best Casas stuff of 2018 (and other years, but all the 2018 recommended Casas is here):

Modern Casas Worth Watching

Can't believe some people think he's washed. He's had a great year and most nights is in there with people half his age, and easily keeps up.