I haven’t been particularly shy about the fact that I enjoy watching professional wrestling on this website. I don’t post about it much, but there’s a reference or two that drops in here and there. So, much like when Sandy Cohen and Dawson Garcia joined Marquette Golden Eagles men’s basketball, the addition of Nigel James in the 2025 recruiting class tripped a wire in my brain. “Hey, Nigel! Just like former Ring Of Honor champion Nigel McGuinness!”
I had a very good idea for a silly summer series:
Check out Nigel’s page on Cage Match, find the top rated ROH matches on ROH Honor Club, subscribe to Honor Club, watch them, write about them.
And then I found THIS:
Shouts to All Elite Wrestling, ROH’s current parent company, for posting a NEARLY TWELVE HOUR LONG compilation of what they’re calling The Best Of Nigel McGuinness. 25 Nigel matches, just sitting there for free on YouTube.
Yeah, I’m doing that.
We’ll go a match at a time, and they’re all in chronological order in the video, which is neat.
A CELEBRATION OF GUYS NAMED NIGEL: PART 19
Nigel McGuinness vs Kevin Steen
ROH World Championship
April 19, 2008
ROH Return Engagement
Frontier Fieldhouse
Chicago Ridge, Illinois
After defeating Tyler Black to retain the Ring of Honor World title in our previous entry in the series, Nigel McGuinness moved on to the co-main event of Supercard of Honor III — ROH’s now yearly show on WrestleMania weekend — to defend the title against former champ Austin Aries. He was successful there, and then retained again the night before this match we’re talking about today, defeating Erick Stevens in 15 minutes.
Kevin Steen — the man that would eventually be known as Kevin Owens in WWE — first debuted in Ring of Honor in early 2005, but it took him until mid-2007 to earn his first title match. That was a tag team match with partner El Generico against The Briscoes, and Steen’s team came up short there. That was part of an ongoing feud between the two teams, and while Steen would get singles wins over either Jay or Mark Briscoe, the Steen/Generico team couldn’t find a way to succeed. In October 2007, Steen earned his first ever ROH World Title match, losing to Takeshi Morishima in 19 minutes. Coming out of that, Steen & Generico found themselves embroiled in a feud with The Hangmen Three for a while, but Steen broke free on the singles side with three wins in one night in February 2008, defeating Delirious, Bryan Danielson, and Go Shiozaki to win a #1 Contendership Tournament. He received that shot at ROH Injustice on April 12, 2008, but Nigel may have only won that match because he used the ropes to cheat and pin Steen.
Today’s match comes one week later, as well as one night after a tag match between Steen/Generico and the team of Nigel McGuinness and Claudio Castaganoli. That stemmed from the post-match events one week earlier, as Claudio challenged Nigel to a match as Steen & Generico were being escorted out after Generico pointed out that Steen was cheated. Safe to say that Claudio was trying to curry favor with the champ to get that title shot, and the big man from Switzerland got the win for their team with a Ricola Bomb on Generico.
The video here starts with Steen hopping up on the turnbuckles with the ROH World Title belt as the crowd in Chicago throws streamers. Not sure what’s up with that. The belt part, not the streamers part. The announcers say “we’re underway” as Bobby Cruise makes ring introductions as Steen assaults Nigel outside the ring before he even gets his shirt off. What happened here?
Steen punts Nigel right in the nutsack during his normal ring entrance, living up to his promise earlier to do whatever it takes to win the belt tonight, much as Nigel did whatever it took in Edison last week.
Well, okay then.
Things head back inside for a moment which gives Nigel an opportunity to get the Jawbreaker lariat, but Steen — going by the Mr. Wrestling nickname these days — dropkicks him in the butt to the outside, and then hits a flying splash off the ring apron to the floor. We are two minutes in.
Nigel gets whipped into the ringside barricades, and as Steen goes back inside, he stops to engage with the ROH faithful in attendance in Chicago, and that lets Nigel boot the middle rope to crotch Steen as he’s coming in. Time for — you guessed it — Nigel to start attacking Steen’s arm. McGuinness spent time last night attacking that shoulder to help soften up his challenger for this match, not to mention help set up the London Dungeon submission hold.
McGuinness eventually slows things down with a Cobra Clutch submission on the ground, and starts rising and falling to repeatedly bang Steen into the mat as well. That motion actually allows Steen to slip out eventually, and in an exchange, Steen gets both of Nigel’s legs to try for a Sharpshooter, as any proud Canadian man would try to do. McGuinness gets to the ropes before Steen gets him turned over, but the challenger still has the advantage for the time being.
Some unique offense from Steen, as he spends some time just straight up biting McGuinness’ chest in the corner until referee Paul Turner forces a break with a five count. Steen misses a cannonball charge into the corner, and Nigel tries to pin him off of that..... blatantly throwing his feet on the ropes for leverage and Turner catches him easily. McGuinness tries for the Tower of London, but Steen counters into that Sharpshooter he tried for earlier, and this time he gets it. Nigel gets the ropes fairly quickly as Steen didn’t quite get away from the corner after the Tower attempt.
Nigel reverses a whip attempt, scores with a Divorce Court, and pounces straight into the London Dungeon, but Steen quickly gets the ropes to avoid further damage to his arm and shoulder. The headstand in the corner gets countered by Steen into a powerslam. Standing senton drop! Cannonball in the corner! Steen can’t capitalize with a pin attempt. He charges McGuinness in the corner, and that goes around to that crotched top rope lariat for the champ, and he gets a two count from it.
The Englishman moves for the London Dungeon, but Steen fends it off and gets the Sharpshooter again, and once again McGuinness gets the ropes. Steen keeps up the offense with a package neckbreaker, and then high risk: Senton bomb from one corner, and a frogsplash from the opposite corner..... and all of that gets a two count in a pin attempt. The announcers note that Nigel might be a dirty wrestler that takes every shortcut he can possibly see, but you can’t dismiss his toughness.
A strike exchange turns into a chinbreaker drop for Steen, but that sends McGuinness into the Jawbreaker, but Steen superkicks him on the way in. The challenger calls for the Package Piledriver, but Nigel bulls him into the corner to counter it, and an elbow smash by Steen allows him to try a pin.... and he gets his feet on the ropes. McGuinness kicks out at two, Paul Turner did not see Steen’s attempt at turnabout. He gets the Package Piledriver!
ONE!
TWO!
Nigel gets his foot on the ropes. Nigel and those ropes, whether it’s offense or defense, huh?
Steen is frustrated now, and he sets up for the Package Piledriver on the apron, right above the timekeeper’s table. Nigel counters, gets a kick to the back, and then hits the falling lariat, driving Steen off the apron and through the table. Seems academic now, but McGuinness isn’t really in a hurry. Steen’s crawling around as McGuinness gets things back inside, so maybe he missed his moment. Big lariat gets two. Nigel tries the Package Piledriver, but Steen counters, and then counters a sunset flip for a pin attempt before the champ kicks out. Steen goes for the Sharpshooter, much more in the middle of the ring, McGuinness rakes his eyes to escape, and one Jawbreaker lariat — and one handful of tights for good measure — Nigel McGuinness retains the ROH title in 18:09.
Maybe it’s just my personal preferences, but I liked this match more than the contest against Tyler Black in our last entry in the series. Felt more emotional for both men, although that was the buildup as opposed to Black just winning a tournament to get the shot at McGuinness. It also felt like Steen was much closer to beating McGuinness than Black ever was, for whatever reason. Cage Match users give this match a rating of 7.64 out of 10.
NEXT TIME: Three weeks later, Claudio Castagnoli gets that title match that he was demanding.
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