MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 15: Héctor Garza & Pólvora vs Delta & Volador Jr. [Gran Alternativa, final]

2010-04-30 Arena México 5 of 6:

Héctor Garza & Pólvora vs Delta & Volador Jr. [Gran Alternativa, final]

http://youtu.be/YekpkZa-kbs?t=00h00m30s

http://youtu.be/zgNc0ag-eLQ

Have you ever watched a lot of lucha over a ten month period and decided that you were pretty much done with Volador, Jr? Yes? No? Somehow I imagine I'm not the only one. Don't get me wrong: there are things he's good at, that he was good at in 2010 and that he's still good at now. He hits stuff pretty well most of the time; he can take a beating well enough; he's got good timing on comebacks; really, a lot of the fundamentals work out pretty well with him. He just lacks that certain something. I'm going to call it charm, because I think that applies more than charisma. He hits his stuff but rarely inspires any emotion. Even when he's taking a beating my general feeling wavers from "oh that poor bastard," to "come on, punch him again!" which is about as far from effectively sympathetic babyface as you can get. I realized I probably have a lot of him in my future still since I plan on hanging around this time period, give or take a couple of years, but I rarely come into a match with him where I wouldn't rather have someone else, be it Sombra or Bucanero or what.

Anyway, this was the final of the tournament. Polvora is about to be featured on Fantasticmania so it doesn't hurt to look at him a little more. What surprised me the most about the match was how much they let Delta (who I generally find fun at the very least) pair up with Garza. Watching this match, you'd have less of a sense on who was the veteran and who the rookie than in a lot of the other matches, at least on the tecnico side. I'll be honest that the mostly matching gear didn't help in that regard.

Garza was full on rudo, embracing it and embellishing it, outright listed as it in the image, even if he came out with Hectorcito. Shocker (and Kemonito) were guest announcing, so that was fun, too. This match did feel like a big deal with all of that. They played to their strengths in the primera, with lots of back and forth and rope running and quick counters and interference to break up moves (including a top rope sunset flip to break up an inverted surfboard). Ultimately, Garza caught Delta off of a springboard with a powerbomb and Polvora dodged a similar attack by Volador to hit a sitdown chokeslam for the caida.

The rudos pressed the advantage in the segunda, with Garza heeling it up well. He hit the lift up kick on Delta (and it was so well timed and aimed that it looked like a foul) and then showed his back to draw in his opponent for Polvora to get him. After a few minutes of beatdown they ran a comeback, ending with tandem diving ranas. Unfortunately Delta missed his and if Garza wasn't so good at catching, it would have been a complete disaster of a spot. As it was, he sort of caught him midway down and did a half bodyscissors rana bump instead. Weirdly enough they gave it all another dip before the pin with Delta setting Polvora on the ropes for Volador to legdrop. It was well timed. I usually that sit up in the ropes spot but with someone else to set up it worked well. Good recovery after the mess of a dive.

The tercera was more of the same. The only really egregious spot was a sunset flip powerbomb from the top which took forever to set up and didn't even get paid off as they showed a bunch of bored fans instead of the bump. Garza continued the stooging, with some grade A shadowboxing after he took a shot and Delta got to hit a massive moonsault to clear things for the finish, which was a ref distraction to stop a pin, a ref bump to set up a foul, and that super facebuster by Polvora with Garza setting it up. Wholly rudo-ish and all well executed. Like I said, this felt like an important match and they could have moved both Delta and Polvora up the cards a bit after it if they had wanted to (I'm not sure if they did or not, though Polvora won the Welterweight title in 2012 and Delta was, at least, rookie of the year in 2010).

This was fun though hardly perfect. Most importantly though, that Garza turn was percolating and really about to come to fruition.