MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 6: Atlantis, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero vs Blue Panther, Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza

Taped 2010-03-12 @ Arena México
Atlantis, Mr. Niebla, Último Guerrero vs Blue Panther, Brazo de Plata, Héctor Garza

1:27 in

http://youtu.be/DRuxn0MpxBg?t=00h02m58s

http://youtu.be/xVVNR2lUz3g

The Porky matches keep on coming. I had thought this was a full unit GdI match coming in but now I see it's Niebla as well. He looks heavier than I'm used to. The idea that he's done something to get into better shape now sort of boggles my mind considering how much he phones things in these days. This was a pretty tecnico leaning crowd with Porky and Panther both getting chants and Garza getting shouts from the women. Atlantis and UG came out in pretty cool matching green gear. I'm going to say it's for St. Patrick's Day even though that probably isn't true at all. Atlantis was definitely slapping hands on his way in. He'd been a rudo forever at this point.

Let's go over what worked first. The rudos here played into Porky's act much better than in the previous match with Taichi and Naito. The flip side is that it felt about as worn over as possible. UG works well with Porky. He always has, from what I've seen, but if you've seen it once, you've seen it a hundred times. It was better when all three were in there against him, feeding his flip over on the ropes and the headscissors/headlock takeover combo and someone hitting him and UG and Atlantis both pointing to Niebla so that Porky can crush him, which was followed up by both of them dropping down so that he can crush them. It's all fun stuff, executed as well as could be expected but there's only so much you can watch it.

What else? Garza looked great. He had one segment in the tercera where he was up against the world. He hit his stuff very well and worked in the character bits perfectly. He'd take off a piece of clothing and then get nailed, come back with a nice piece of offense, take off another, get nailed again, come back, etc. Panther was fine for what we had of him too. Niebla was generally unoffensive even if he was sluggish given his size and I wouldn't say that he worked together with his partners perfectly.

I liked the finish too. The tecnicos had taken over. Porky hit all of his comedy spots. Garza hit a giant dropkick and set Panther up for a dive. Then Garza went for a dive of his own but Porky stopped him and hit a running plancha off the apron onto everyone. That left UG and Garza, but more importantly left the refs distracted (and why wouldn't it?). UG dropped down faking being fouled and Garza was DQed. It was strangely believable even if complete and utter bullshit.

All of those things were the sort of elements that could have led to this match standing out. They were all good. Unfortunately, they were also all that was good. They were pretty much all there was to the match. It was missing the bridging substance that makes a match like this emotionally resonate and gives it meaning. Everything was so slight. The primera had that little UG/Porky exchange, and then a nice little Atlantis/Panther one. I had been hoping they'd get some time together because that's a match-up that interests me, even in 2010, but it was nice and it was little and it was over. Garza and Niebla didn't even really get to start before the rudos swarmed. They had a nice little spot of clubbering Porky but again, nice and little. Over quickly.

The segunda was just as slight. I liked the comeback well enough with the rudos hitting corner moves on Panther, finished by the senton de la muerte and then trying it again to Garza who stepped up the ropes and flipped backwards but the beatdown leading up to it had been absolutely non-existent. It didn't seem cut to me either, just short and slight and unfortunate because there was good stuff here but none of the meat to support it. I don't think a match, even a trios match, needs to be twenty-five minutes to be good, but this is a very good example of the mindset that it really does need at least some time to develop.