I've often thought the greatest barometer for how good or bad a wrestler is isn't necessarily how good a match they can have when they go all out, but rather how good a match they can have on auto-pilot. Watching Misawa/Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue/Omori (January '94) last night - a 25/+ six-man that's available on Ditch's site, it's really staggering how strong a match it was considering how much stuff they left in the bag and how casual they seemed to work. This is about as far removed from a Budokan epic as an All Japan main event could be in 1994 - ie, no big moves - but the roles everyone had, the story, how well everything was laid out is/was astounding. It's actually the babyfaces who have the main controlling segment of the match, and Omori only gets out of that when Taue interferes and basically "hot tags" himself. They've set up the babyfaces as favourites, and then the heels start turning on the tricks, interfering constantly as soon as any of the faces show any sign of momentum. Omori does just about the only thing he could do (hold Akiyama at ringside), whilst Kawada (again with some help from Taue) keep Misawa out of the way long enough for Taue to nodowa Kobashi into oblivion. Aside from one really great near fall when Taue powerbombs Kobashi in stereo with Kawada hitting one on Misawa, this is closer to Jumbo-era for "work". They keep the action coming, of course, but there's no big key spots, no bumps a guy'd really feel the morning after; a match they could've worked the entire tour. I'm not one for star ratings but I figure this is up around that 4-mark, and basically a house show match.

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In lieu of Bryan Danielson's debut in the WWE I watched a match of his against KENTA from ROH "Driven" in 2007. I wasn't the biggest fan of their first ROH match - I think both are action guys as opposed to story guys, generally speaking, albeit in different moulds - but I got what they were going for. This one, I can;t say I really understood all that well. It was essentially back-and-forth (you kind of know ahead of time there won't be any controlling segments of significant length) but I guess Bryan was getting the better of it. They do a big apron spot where KENTA eats a belly-to-belly to the floor but it doesn't really seem to make a great deal of difference to what they were doing (unlike, say, Misawa/Kobashi in '98 and '03 where the matches are built around them). The finish is hot; I guess no-selling each other's finishers until KENTA lands the GTS might irk some but in an ROH indy setting I get that. I don't know I mean I'm fans of both guys, the execution was strong throughout as you would expect, and the crowd loved it; but whereas KENTA vs. Nakajima were matches I think really only those two guys could've worked in the world, and whereas Marufuji/Devitt worked the matches I wanted to see from them, Bryan/KENTA as a pairing I feel had a better match in them, a more cohesive match, than what they did. I actually dug Bryan against Nakajima from ROH because, to as much of an extent as I could expect, they actually did a veteran/rookie dynamic. Bryan controlled early, Nakajima found an opening working Bryan's knee (he was wearing a support) a through a combination of that and 'Jima's kicks was able to push Bryan pretty far, but not to his limit and Bryan won pretty decisively. It gets a bit too back-and-forth, I thought, around the third quarter or so but all things considered I liked it. I actually recall Chris Hero against KENTA a few months back fonder than Bryan/KENTA, but I guess that's expectations and what they do to your perceptions of a match.

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Modern CMLL has its detractors amongst a lot of hardened lucha fans. I'm kind of, well whereas I would certainly consider myself a Lucha fan, I'm not the ardent follower that Ohtani's Jacket is, say. So when someone started capping the CMLL show that's started airing on The Fight Network in Canada I thought I'd give it a shot. Now, first of all, the English (and they're English, well, lead is English and #2 is Irish) commentators they've dubbed in are awful. I'd call them Eurosport commentators but people outside of the UK wouldn't get the reference whereas those who are would know right away. Anyway, show #1 had a main event where Mistico, Volador Jr and Sombra took on Averno, Mephisto and Ephesto. The technicos were spectacular and it made me want to see the tag titles match from the second show, Volador Jr and Sombra challenging Averno and Mephisto. I thought it was a great set-up match with such casual grace and athleticism few people in the world could match.

Now as I read about the second match before watching it I found it it was a fairly contentious one amongst fans. Some likened it to TNA's X-Division (which I understand insomuch as a fair portion is worked at a fast pace with lots of athletic spots) but, personally, I enjoyed it. It was overlong, perhaps, though not greatly, and the finish was obvious as soon as Sombra went down, really, we've seen the story told a million times; but not so unlike the HIAC match DX had with Legacy a few months back (which I enjoyed too) it's something that always works. Couple that with a foundation of strong action and I'm perfectly contented with what they did.

I understand (and in a lot of cases agree with) the complaints people might have about CMLL in relation to Lucha of, say, twenty years ago; and it's the same deal with the US right now and WWE's "hyper-controlled, corporate wrestling". But good talent can work within that effectively (obvious or otherwise I'll defend WWE as putting on good matches fairly regularly and having some of the best wrestlers in the world on their roster). Wrestling isn't as saturated with all-time talent right now as it was fifteen or twenty years ago, it's just something we have to accept as fans. Sometimes a lot of current wrestlers confuse me, especially outside the WWE (whose simple-only approach at least means it's easy to digest as a story). These four guys didn't at all, and the work was graceful, well-executed, and at times spectacular. Sombra spent 10/15-minutes literally lying motionless clutching his arm on the ramp and did nothing until the finish after his missed dive/"injury". I'm not going to proclaim this, or the set up tag as MOTYC-level stuff (even now) but if the CMLL main event regularly delivers to the level of the first two shows (as aired on TFN anyway) then I'm happy to follow the product (albeit on the year-long delay).