MLJ: 2010: A Garza Odyssey 20: Strong Man & Volador Jr. vs Héctor Garza & Místico [Super Libre]

Taped 2010-05-31 @ Arena Puebla
Héctor Garza & Místico vs. Strong Man & Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles, super libre]

6:55 in

http://youtu.be/CgGTLhdxU8A

http://youtu.be/92nL14u0Zc8

http://youtu.be/J0cXrCYT0kg

I continue to feel the need to defend watching these matches. I've got no love for Andersen or Volador certainly, but I enjoyed this a lot. I'm not sure I'd call it good, particularly, but I'd call Garza's performance amazing and while Mistico loses a lot of what makes him stand out as a generic rudo, he was still fun. Garza has just been so much fun in 2010. I realize he's past his prime on some level here (though you'd hardly know it) and he's much better known for his matches earlier in his career, but his charisma has been off the charts all year. I'm a less is more sort of guy for the most part, and I'll take character work over great dives and athleticism. That Garza was still able to bring both to the table has made this enjoyable. What he could do in the ring against a crowbar like Andersen is up there with the best I've ever seen. Yes, the ceiling is relatively low and no, I wouldn't want to see it every night, but dipping in and out and seeing it a couple of times? Hugely enjoyable.

How can you not want to beat the crap out of this guy?

There sure wasn't much "supre libre" about this match but it was spirited and they did go at it. It started with them attacking Volador before Strongman made it to the ring. The crowd was behind him but despite the whole supre libre thing, the ref kept things mostly under control (under control being stifling the other, larger tecnico on the outside, slowing him down: which looked like this, shadowboxing included).

It was a good heated beatdown. I'm not a huge fan of using the ref for heat, especially in what's supposed to be a super libre match but it makes some sense when a guy so big is on the outside. It gives the illusion of some southern tag build without actually having it. Whatever works. They kept the beatdown interesting at least:

Finally, they took Volador out to the extent that they could double team Andersen, and made quick work of him, finishing him off with a 619 and a double pin. Then, Mistico got to show off his strength (which, I really think, despite his size was something that helped get him over. It was the sort of showmanship he learned from working so much with Wagner and Ultimo Guerrero years before) setting up the tandem Garza-2-Sleep kick and the end of the fall:

From there, things started to slide right into the comeback and dissention. Garza's a great villain in that he's a complete coward and willing to throw his partners under the bus and that was certainly true here, helped along by the fact that Mistico was on his way to turning back (he was in all white again for what it was worth). What followed was a litany of chickenshit antics as he tried to avoid a pissed off Strongman. It started with Mistico shoving him into the ring, and then him hiding in the corner praying:

Then, when Mistico came in to get beaten on, he casually nailed Volador instead of helping his partner and followed that up with some very helpful cheerleading before retreating out of the ring:

This led to more of Mistico being angry with Garza, especially because he kept coming to Garza's rescue against Strongman and even continues to do so, despite his anger. Garza returns the favor by doing nothing but

begging off

watching with a groan as Mistico bounced off of Strongman

and cheering some more. 

Unsurprisingly, the tecnicos took the caida.

The tercera was a lot of what you'd expect. More bouncing off of Strongman, who really was a great prop for guys as skilled as Garza and Mistico. Volador and Mistico got to do their usual exchange, down to the tandem handsprings off the rope, and I'll take clowning over that any day. Things end with Strongman having his way with Garza in the corner, chopping away and hamming it up in between. Garza finally has enough and fouls big to take the win. The pose after the foul is the most beautiful thing:

  Actually this, in the post match challenges, was pretty beautiful too:

Look, I knew what I was going to be watching coming in, but I've bought into it completely. 18 minutes, or whatever, of Garza being a stooge against an immovable object with Mistico and Volador doing their thing in the background, is as good a use of my time as anything right now. I had fun and it was pretty obvious that Hector did as well. I know I've been posting lots of gifs here, but it gets the point across: Hector was awesome.