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 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: The Finale
Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson
September 26, 2009
ROH Glory By Honor VIII: The Final Countdown
Manhattan Center
New York, New York
Last time out, we saw Nigel McGuinness lose the Ring of Honor World Championship to Jerry Lynn in a match where Nigel very clearly was less than 100% thanks to an ongoing injury in one arm and a recent muscle tear in the other arm. The defeat left McGuinness as the second longest reigning ROH champion of all time at the time at 545 days. That’s a mark he still holds — including holding the title longer than Bryan Danielson did by nearly 80 days — and no one has even broken 500 days since Nigel lost to Jerry Lynn. Rush’s run from February 2020 til July 2021 is the only other reign since longer than Danielson’s 462 days, and Jay Lethal’s 427 day reign that started in 2015 is the only other title run that lasted past 400 days in the entire history of Ring of Honor.
That match was back in early April, and believe it or not, Nigel McGuinness was back in in the ring in mid-June, first appearing on ROH on HDNet and losing to Tyler Black in the main event of the show. In late June and late July, McGuinness would receive title shots in back-to-back matches in ROH, facing Austin Aries — who had defeated Jerry Lynn in June at Manhattan Mayhem III — in a singles match and then in a Four Corner Survival match along with Lynn and Black. Those two matches would be McGuinness’ final shots at the ROH World Championship. Not during his time with the company back then, I mean at all. You see, at this point, Nigel McGuinness was in negotiations with WWE, and in fact, in September, ROH had announced that he had a contract with them in principle…. but that all fell through because apparently he failed a physical because he never actually got those biceps injuries surgically repaired. He ended up signing with TNA instead, making his debut in October 2009. That means this match that we’re talking about is his final contest in Ring Of Honor.
And it’s also Bryan Danielson’s final contest with the company. Danielson was also signing with WWE, where he would go on to be known as Daniel Bryan, and chronologically, Danielson was the first to announce that he was signing with WWE. That’s why this show is called The Final Countdown, as Danielson favored using the Europe classic as his entrance music. Originally, this show was supposed to feature Danielson facing Austin Aries for the ROH title, but when it became public, the match was changed to Danielson/McGuinness, because OF COURSE you make that match when both men are ending their time in the company. Was that a bit of pro wrestling chicanery where the guys in charge backstage knew about all of it ahead of time and made a little storyline out of it? Who can say? By the way: This is Danielson’s fourth and final farewell match as part of a series of Final Countdown shows leading into Glory By Honor, and he has suffered losses to Chris Hero, who is on commentary here, as well as Austin Aries in a title match and Davey Richards one night earlier. In fact, Danielson hasn’t won an ROH match of any kind since standing on the winning side in a trios match on HDNet back on August 14th, and he hasn’t won an ROH singles match since beating Kenny King on June 12th.
Anyway. McGuinness/Danielson, for the 10th and final time. Nothing on the line but bragging rights, and yes, of course they’re going on as the main event, ahead of The American Wolves facing El Generico & Kevin Steen in a Ladder War for the Tag Team titles and Austin Aries defending the World title against Petey Williams. We start the video after referee Todd Sinclair has already called for the bell, and it’s worth noting that Nigel has shaved off his trademark spikey blonde hair, going for a close shave all over. Danielson, on the other hand, is looking a bit on the shaggy side even though he’s favored the tight shave himself in the past. If he put a tiny bit of effort into styling his hair, he’d almost look like a lost Von Erich brother here. The crowd starts a competing LET’S GO NIGEL/LET’S GO DRAGON as the two men start with, of course, a grappling battle. It works around to Danielson with the advantage, and he knows that McGuinness is clearly not 100% in terms of his arms, and he’s going straight after taking some of the strength out of both his lariat attempts and the London Dungeon submission hold.
After a rope break, the match tilts towards McGuinness, and he returns the favor with some work on Danielson’s arms. After a counter, Danielson makes a big show out of asking the crowd if he should punch Nigel in the ear while holding him down to the mat, and shortly there after, as Nigel takes control, he just pops Danielson in the side of the head to return the favor without making the showy ask of the audience. Even when they’re just wrestling, the two have to find a way to make it clear about how they’re different than each other while they both want to be called the best technical wrestler on the planet. Kicks and knees start turning this match towards Danielson, and he keeps coming back to working on McGuinness’ arms in between the strikes.
I gotta say, I’m skipping over talking about big chunks of this match because 1) neither guy really has a long term advantage, so it’s back and forth and I can just say that’s what’s happening, 2) these guys work a technical style so it’s a lot of grappling and super simple pro wrestling stuff without being fancy or spectacular, and 3) I know how long this is going because I can read Cage Match, and well, y’all should have gotten a beverage before sitting down to watch. I did, as I’m watching this first thing in the morning with my coffee.
Danielson’s taking a few more risks than McGuinness, including a top rope diving headbutt and a backdrop suplex off the top turnbuckle. That suplex led Danielson to try for Cattle Mutilation, his signature submission hold, but McGuinness counters out of it quickly and scores with the Tower of London, and then tries for a second off the apron to the floor. Danielson counters that and sends McGuinness over the barricade and into the crowd. That’s an obvious setup for a springboard dive as we’ve seen from Bryan again and again, but Nigel knows that and he grabs one of the security guys that came over to defend/protect himself. Honestly, that didn’t even stop Danielson, it was Todd Sinclair telling Danielson that he can’t risk the injury to the security guy that stopped him. So Nigel celebrates how smart he is as he comes back over the barricade, and he loses track of Danielson along the way. As such, he eats a flying knee strike off the apron, and now he’s back into the crowd. Danielson goes for springboard this time, and he’s quick enough this time — and Nigel’s stunned enough from the knee this time, too — that he connects with the crossbody. By the way: The chairs at ringside at the Manhattan Center appear to be the metal/padded ballroom/wedding reception dinner type of chairs. I suspect landing on those things was zero fun for Danielson. Folding chairs probably aren’t much better, but at least they would bend a little bit, right?
Danielson’s advantage on the dive doesn’t last all that long, as Nigel shoves him off the barricade as he goes back across, and Bryan goes hurtling straight into the ringpost and comes up bleeding from the head. He barely makes it back in before the 20 count, and then McGuinness goes right back outside with a Tower of London off the apron to the floor. Sinclair starts counting as both guys take a moment to recover, Nigel rolls back in to break the count, and then goes back outside to yank Danielson into the post by grabbing both hands from the other side and pulling him in head first.
Sinclair counts. Danielson is standing at 15, but collapses. 19, and Danielson quickly dives back in. Chris Hero on commentary: “He’s looking a bit more pale than usual,” which is a tremendous cheap shot at Bryan’s usual lack of a tan combined with how bloody his face is. Nigel’s in no hurry to inflict pain on Bryan at this point, and methodically gets a Tower of London off the post to the apron, and then quickly yanks Danielson off the floor to throw him back in for the London Dungeon submission attempt.
American Dragon gets the ropes.
Nigel reacts by giving Danielson even more ropes, setting him up for the crotched lariat, but Danielson ducks it, and then gets a big dropkick off the top rope himself. A series of counters and reversals leads to McGuinness going into the ropes and turning it into the Jawbreaker lariat, but he only gets a two count. London Dungon attempt, but he’s giving Danielson an awful lot of space to shift and move. Just as Danielson is about to reach forward to the ropes, McGuinness pulls him back to a bow-and-arrow variant on the Dungeon, bending his opponent backwards while cranking on the arm.
Bryan counters out into the hammer & anvil elbows, and then McGuinness counters out into his own version. It’s at least worth wondering if Nigel’s not quite having the impact that he would like because of his biceps injuries, as the strikes to just seem to fire up Danielson. All of this ultimately leads to A HEADSTRIKE BATTLE in the middle of the ring, and Nigel tries to slip out of that by going for the Jawbreaker, and Danielson counters with THE SMALL PACKAGE, but Nigel kicks out at two. Rolling Thunder elbow from Bryan, Jawbreaker from Nigel, neither guy can do anything for a moment, so Danielson kicks out at two when McGuinness gets around to it, and uses the physical momentum to roll straight into Cattle Mutilation, and he rolls through Nigel’s attempt to roll out straight into more hammer & anvil elbows. So many of them that the crowd counts along. Alllllll of this gets a two count and the LET’S GO NIGEL/LET’S GO DRAGON chant returns.
Danielson’s eyes are full of fury, and he grabs McGuinness’ wrists, because it’s time to Stomp His F****** Head In. So many stomps, and then a triangle choke. Nigel flips over into a pinfall attempt, but Danielson rolls through back into the choke and adds some elbows to it as well. Sinclair checks on McGuinness, and he is out, or at the very least can not defend himself, and Sinclair calls for the bell at 28:25.
I don’t know if that was the best McGuinness/Danielson match, but it was definitely a great one. First half was a little bit on the slow side as I mentioned, but I think we all knew it was going to be. Spectacular action once business picked up, and as you’d expect, Cage Match users give this one a rating of 8.73 out of 10.
As you would expect, the locker room empties after the match, and the other wrestlers pound the mat along with the THANK YOU BOTH chant from the crowd. Then a WE WILL MISS YOU chant, then a R-O-H chant. Danielson eventually gets up first and goes over to help McGuinness to his feet. Bryan raises Nigel’s arm in tribute. Nigel gets a microphone. “I had a bunch of things I wanted to say, but because of this man (pointing at Bryan), I don’t remember any of them now.” He’s always going to be proud to have been a part of Ring of Honor, he thanks Cary Silkin for keeping the company running, and he thanks everyone standing at ringside for making him look like a professional wrestler, and no one has done that more or better than Bryan Danielson. He says thank you, hands the mic to Bryan, kisses the mat, and retreats to the corner.
Bryan says that if you look up and down the cards for the last year, he hasn’t been in the best match on the show. The crowd lightly chants BULLSHIT at this. “See, you guys aren’t looking at this objectively,” as he laughs. He praises The American Wolves, Roderick Strong, and Austin Aries. He thanks Cary Silkin for keeping ROH running and calls for a round of applause. He thanks Nigel, “probably the best opponent I’ve ever had,” he thanks Todd Sinclair for being the best referee he’s been in the ring with, which prompts a TODD SINCLAIR chant. The camera shows Todd: “Really?” Bryan: “Enjoy that, it’s probably the last one you’ll ever get.” He thanks everyone in the crowd tonight because the Manhattan Center is his favorite place to wrestle. He makes a request of the crowd: No matter what he does and where he goes, always support ROH. He’s just a boring wrestler who knows a bunch of boring wrestling holds, and what’s made him The American Dragon is the guys standing at ringside and the fans in the seats. The video cuts out riiiiiight as it seems like Danielson’s about to ask the guy playing the music to start up Final Countdown one last time.
NEXT TIME: Yes, it says finale at the top. BUT I MADE A PROMISE to come back for an encore edition if Nigel McGuinness won the AEW Technical Spectacle to face Zach Sabre, Jr. for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Forbidden Door on August 24th, and well, he did, so I will.
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