ROH Unified: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness
The wrestling is competitive & amazing throughout - both guys, especially Bryan, really brought it on the offense (as always). Loved how good his STOMPS looked. They bring some very neat callbacks to their previous meetings & play up the Pure rules brilliantly. Then of course during the last 6-7 minutes of the match, the drama kicks off into legendary atmosphere with the infamous ring post spot, and Nigel then delivers some of the most magical babyface work I've ever seen in a pro wrestling ring. It's the perfect match. The ring post spot & the headbutts afterwards always make me cringe, but oh man, these two sure were willing to do some brutal stuff for the sake of the art, and I would be straight up lying if I said it didn't add a ton to the already-classic match. *****
ROH Driven: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness
This is an all-timer. The early mat work is tremendous - loved Danielson just grinding Nigel's ear with his fist while Nigel had him in guard. So simple, yet so amazing. He also busts out some brutal strikes to Nigel's nose later on in the match, and it's just so good. It's a clinic of Bryan on the offense - he also works over Nigel's back quite a bit, and while Nigel's selling is fine, I do think that it could've been better, and it's something that ultimately makes this a 4.75* match instead of the full fiver. ****3/4
ROH 6th Anniversary Show: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness
I could just say that this is the greatest match of all-time and leave it at that. It's to me what Austin vs. Bret is to many people - the absolute apex of American professional wrestling. They go into it w/ a special agreement that Danielson won't target Nigel's head, because of the concussion Nigel suffered a few months earlier vs. Austin Aries. The fans had been slowly turning on Nigel in his time as the champ, and here the crowd was at least 95% on Danielson's side, with a few chants of "NIGEL!" here & there. The whole atmosphere is something special; the random yells of "you fucking PUSSY!" & "BITCH!" to Nigel throughout are amazing, and add to the whole package of the match. The match starts w/ your usual competitive wrestling between the two; Bryan does a great job doing his usual offense, but instead of targeting the head, he goes for the body instead. The turning point comes when Bryan hits a belly-to-back suplex & Nigel complains to the ref that he wants Bryan to be DQ'd, because he hit the back of his head there. The ref doesn't do that, so Nigel hits him to get the DQ he wanted. He leaves, but is greeted by Aries & other ROH wrestlers who are not letting Nigel disrespect the championship like that. I thought that added fantastically to the whole Anniversary Show atmosphere, and it was perfectly executed. The match gets restarted, and Nigel is angry & intense as hell, even more so than before; he does quite the number on Bryan's arm, which is vintage Nigel, but this truly was some of the best arm work he did during this run. Bryan's comebacks are absolutely terrific w/ him going after Nigel's mid-section, and the big one where he puts him down w/ punches to the body, teasing the 10-count KO finish was amazing. Nigel is starting to get desperate - he has done everything in his power to try & defeat the challenger, so what does he do next? He fucking HEADBUTTS Bryan! Maybe my favorite single match moment of all-time. Bryan's reaction to it is superb; not over the top in the slightest, he just sells the shock perfectly. Nigel keeps on headbutting Bryan - it's essentially the biggest dick move of all-time because of the "Bryan will not target Nigel's head because of the concussions he has suffered" clause, but also because of Bryan's bad eye, which Prazak & Lenny brought up brilliantly. The finish is simply perfect too w/ Nigel first killing Bryan with a brutal lariat & then busting out Danielson's own signature elbows against him - at that point Bryan is out of it, but Nigel in a true egomaniac moment still has to put him in the London Dungeon to get his first non-count out 1-on-1 victory over his greatest rival. It's perfection from start to finish; like I said, the greatest match of all-time in my eyes. *****
ROH Rising Above 2008: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness
Bryan is coming into this match w/ a bum knee, and while it's not the target of Nigel's initial attack, it sure becomes it very quickly. They start the match off w/ their usual competitive, technical wrestling, and as Bryan wins those exchanges, Nigel gets frustrated & starts going after the knee. I thought that was some great, subtle character work by Nigel; it's like he doesn't want to go after the easy target in the knee, but he has no other choice since Danielson keeps on beating him in the non-knee related, competitive, technical exchanges. He does great work over the knee throughout, Danielson's selling is great too & the interference deals by Claudio & Sugarfoot are done very well. Bryan's last comeback w/ those fiery slaps & the elbow is one of my all-time favorites; he showed such perfect amount of fire & soul in that one. It's a yet another classic between my favorite pairing in wrestling history. ****1/2
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