Why This Hidden Gem Is The REAL Best Storyline In Wrestling
The sense of struggle and parity in that match was unreal. Near the finish, their hands clasped, they smeared their foreheads together, each too fatigued to land a killer blow. Garcia was agonisingly close to toppling his mentor. He didn't - Danielson used his unparalleled cardio and strategy to manoeuvre himself into the match-winning crossface - and Garcia failed to learn the lesson. He didn't train harder. As a man in his early twenties, he indulged his immature side and, after almost aligning with Danielson in the autumn, rejected his mentor once more.
And then it clicked.
AEW fans across the US had taken to chanting "You’re a wrestler" at Garcia, whose body language in response was tremendous. He'd learned how to express the inner conflict. Wearing a facial expression of denial and guilt, he refused to accept his fate. These were the two key qualities of the pro wrestling medium working in perfect harmony. A sublime blend of episodic drama and live, interactive performance art, AEW and Garcia trust the audience to get it. One element of the medium informs the other; as Garcia sports entertains, and the crowd laps it up, their live response drives his storyline arc forward.
He continued down the path of the "sports entertainer", but, by 2023, it felt less and less like he was cosplaying, doing something easy, like wearing a silly outfit, that the anti-WWE crowds were always going to eat up with a cheap pop. Garcia evolved into an actual, fantastic sports entertainer character. This is the magic of the Daniel Garcia Dance, which seems just as hollow a gag as an outfit, but isn't. It's a fundamentally important aspect of his character and his act. It's what connects him with the crowd where sticking his tongue out did not. It's everything that is profound and silly about wrestling, all at once.
Garcia has finally worked out how to adapt his online trolling hater persona to the televised stage.
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