MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 5: Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza, Toscano vs Naito, Ray Mendoza Jr., Taichi

Taped 2010-03-02 @ Arena México
Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza, Toscano vs Naito, Ray Mendoza Jr., Taichi

6:49 in

http://youtu.be/kpXDyYGwkUs

http://youtu.be/fAbVrAYoxi0

http://youtu.be/NhojlPV6NYg

We're back to the land of Garza. I'm probably a terrible wrestling fan in 2014 for having never seen Naito before, but New Japan just isn't my thing. I can probably be forgiven for never seeing Taichi. Mendoza is the unmasked Villano V. I got confused for a minute because I saw a Rey Mendoza, Jr. in WCW but that was IV unmasked. He's probably my biggest draw into this match. Toscano is Tarzan Boy just as a tecnico. He'd peaked and was on the downslope (and I think he's still there). I swear that Porky looked better in 2013 than he did here.

This was a comedy match, no ifs ands or buts. Mendoza directed traffic well for his side and showed a certain glee when paired off against Porky. Garza fit in nicely as he does in most matches. Naito stood out due to the character work, including interacting with the ring girls which is pretty rare in these things. I wouldn't say he was good based just on this but he had been around CMLL for a year or so at that point and he certainly knew what he was doing. Taichi didn't show me much but I think he was fairly new to all of this. Toscano had one fun bit where he clowned Naito with fake handshakes but didn't stand out much past that. Ultimately, this was on the low end of Porky comedy matches.

There were some novel bits. I thought Naito and Toscano did well enough in their early matwork (prior to that Garza led Taichi around but it was not memorable in the least). The rudos took over with a triple kick on Porky and won the primera by making him run the ropes over and over again, which was amusing. The Japanese wrestlers had a thing where they'd send diving awkward kicks from weird angles.

I wouldn't necessarily call the comeback well executed but it was elaborate enough, in a trudging through molasses sort of way. It ended with a double drop toe-hold by Toscano and Garza sending a head into a groin and all three rudos into the corner for a Porky charge followed by a couple of roll ups and a Porky second rope splash on Taichi who certainly had dues to pay apparently.

I wish we had more Mendoza here. He was fun in stooging against Garza, messing around with the latter's taken off shirt like the world's greatest Felino, but he had been paired up with Porky to begin so there wasn't much chance. That probably says all you need to know about me though: I'd rather see old man Villano V than Naito if given the chance. Anyway, the slow trickle of comedy slowly slowly drained to its end and Porky hit a dive onto poor Mendoza on the outside and Toscano and Garza (who made for pretty good partners, really) locked in a fun double submission for the tecnico win. I swear that Porky seems bigger now, but he seemed way more likely to have a heart attack when I see him in matches from a few years ago. Ah well, they can't all be winners. I'd be open to see some more Naito now, I suppose, but I assume his NJPW work is more "main event style" and less dickish. Instead, let's just move on to a few more GdI matches, which is what's next.