MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 11: Terrible, Texano Jr., Vangelis vs Héctor Garza, Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara

Taped 2010-04-09 @ Arena México
Terrible, Texano Jr., Vangelis vs Héctor Garza, Hijo del Fantasma, La Máscara

7:40 in

http://youtu.be/SlvT5hAc9ig

http://youtu.be/XYFtQYP2aqI?t=00h02m13s

http://youtu.be/aXSN10i79Fk

Alright, now we're in business. The Garza/Porky interaction from before was actually broader foreshadowing. Our friend Hector is in the midst of his rudo turn. You wouldn't have known it from what I've seen so far in 2010 but Garza, Fantasma, and Mascara were trios champions and had been off and on for a couple of years. There is dissension in the ranks here though and it's a lovely thing.

I hadn't seen a lot of Vangelis either. He's got a nazi gimmick which is always charming in this day and age. Apparently he won the Busca de un Idolo last year, which is on the one hand baffling and on the other pure CMLL. That said, he did fit in pretty well with Texano and Terrible who were great foils for bickering tecnicos since they had the ability to get straight to the point with an opportunistic and immediate beatdown when necessary. I've liked what I've seen out of them a lot so far and if we weren't right on the verge of the Garza turn I might veer off to see more.

The primera was made up of a few solid exchanges with the dissention storyline leading into the start of the beatdown. Fantasma was good at what he did; here it was some nice, physical matwork with Texano. Vangelis and Mascara held up their own too, though parts of it seemed a little too collaborative and rushed (to get to the next spot) which was definitely a problem of Mascara's from this period. Garza came in and immediately looked like a star. He was shoved out by Terrible, hugged a granny in the front row before coming back in and took right over. Then he did the handstop/strip to Texano and Vangelis before ultimately being pushed into Commandate on the apron who he kissed. It was Garza vs the World and he was doing fine. Fantasma didn't think so, however, and he rushed in to even odds with a superkick. This pissed Garza off and he shoved his partner which let the rudos take over. They hit a big flipping facebuster and then a nasty dropkick out of a wheelbarrow position to crush the tecnicos, finally finishing off Mascara with an assisted inverted surfboard. All good stuff.

This ended up only going two caidas, since the period where the tecnicos would have taken a fall was used up by infighting to get the story across. The beatdown was quite short but it involved a lot of biting and swarming that had enough intensity behind it to get across the idea well enough. Texano and Terrible could make a decent amount out of a little. Finally, though Garza backflipped off the ropes and the tecnicos started to fight back. This was punctuated by Fantasma using the ramp to leap into the ring with a shoulder block. After that came the complaining with Mascara as peace maker. Trios matches are pretty predictable in that when a fall doesn't come at a certain point, the opportunity is missed. It's not hard to tell when something's going to go only two falls because of the timing. This was not ending well for the tecnicos.

And, of course, it didn't. They veered into a reset with broader exchanges. Most of them were pretty good but Mascara's quebadora sure needed work. Again, I thought Fantasma looked good. I'm not sure how he is in 2014 but unless he's deteriorated considerably then CMLL would have been better off to find a way to keep both him and Texano. Ah well. They go through the pairings until Garza accidentally kicked Mascara (from what I can tell this was a callback to a trios match we don't have where he thought he was attacked by one of his partners). Fantasma helped Mascara recover and they hit double dropkicks and then topes leaving Garza with Vangelis. Garza got the better of it, hit his moonsault press for two, and then locked in a grab but Fantasma and Mascara came in to complain and duly got rolled up from behind as Garza shrugged and did his pray taunt in the corner. Post match, they argued, Garza left, and then remaining tecnicos got ambushed by the rudos. More of an angle than a complete match but it was enough of a match to make for an enjoyable angle, if that makes sense. I am ready for this turn.