We’ve got a guy named Nigel joining Marquette men’s basketball this fall, so let’s celebrate with a tour through the best Nigel McGuinness matches from Ring of Honor.
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: PART 11
Nigel McGuinness & KENTA vs Bryan Danielson & Takeshi Morishima
May 12, 2007
ROH Respect Is Earned
Manhattan Center
New York, New York
We’ve jumped forward about eight months from September 2006 to May 2007. Since then, Nigel McGuinness followed up his loss to Naomichi Marufuji that we talked about in Part 10 with a trip to Japan to spend October working for Pro Wrestling NOAH, doing a lot of tag matches, both standard and trios. Back in the States, he found himself in a stretch of matches against Jimmy Rave, who was getting the better of McGuinness. McGuinness was back in Japan for the month of January in 2007, and ended up losing an I Quit match back in ROH to Rave. This eventually led to a Fight Without Honor in England against Rave, and McGuinness won with a seesaw lariat that broke Rave’s jaw. About a month later, McGuinness got another chance to compete for the ROH World Title, as Homicide had beaten Bryan Danielson in late December, but Nigel was in Japan for the month of January. However, McGuinness came up short against Takeshi Morishima, who had won the belt from Homicide in mid-February.
Bryan Danielson — the future Daniel Bryan for you WWE fans out there — took some time off, partially for shoulder surgery, after losing the ROH title to Homicide, which makes sense since he was champ for over 450 days. He spent April in Japan with Pro Wrestling NOAH, usually finding himself opposite the ring from KENTA — the future Hideo Itami in WWE — in tag matches. He returned to ROH in May, working three times on ROH Reborn Again, one night before this show…. although I don’t know if four minutes against Shane Hagadorn or 73 seconds against Adam Pearce — yes, the WWE Raw management guy now — really counts as difficult matches.
Takeshi Morishima is a NOAH guy, in fact he was at ringside in Marufuji’s corner for the last McGuinness match we watched. Since winning the ROH title from Homicide, he’s defended it against KENTA — you can see why perhaps he ended up opposite him in this tag match — in NOAH, and then came back to the US picking up wins over McGuinness, Austin Aries, Shingo Takagi, and finally, against BJ Whitmer earlier in the night on this show. This happens to be ROH’s first ever Pay Per View event, and after he beats Whitmer in 2:51, that prompts McGuinness to demand another title shot. That gets Danielson to come out to demand a title shot because of his long run as champion now that he’s back, and it leads to fisticuffs with Morishima jumping in to help Danielson beat down McGuinness. Apparently KENTA just happened to be floating around the building, and eventually that sets up this clash of stars in the main event of the PPV.
We join the match right after the opening bell with Bryan Danielson & KENTA circling each other. This is a PPV, so as the match gets started, the announcers tell us that Mark Briscoe has suffered a major concussion and has been taken to a hospital after he and his brother Jay had a conflict with Kevin Steen and El Generico earlier in the evening. Man, kinda want to see that. Anyway, KENTA fends off some grappling from Danielson, boots him with a dropkick, and that sends the American Dragon off to a tag to Takeshi Morishima. The ROH champ demands that McGuinness tag in to face him, as Nigel’s been rumbling about demanding another title match. Morishima shows that he might be able to get the better of McGuinness when it comes to power, and that leads to a tag to Danielson and that means grappling between him and Nigel.
McGuinness holds his own as you might expect and has the power advantage here, and as he moves to something to show that off, Morishima steps into the ring and distracts McGuinness. That ultimately leads to things breaking down into all four men throwing down in the ring until it dissolves into a standoff. Referee Todd Sinclair regains control of the match, and Morishima takes over on McGuinness, and then he and Danielson partner up to choke McGuinness in the corner with Danielson just throwing his weight on top of Morishima and laughing about it the whole way.
Danielson grabs ahold of a modified headlock, perhaps reminding everyone of the hour long draw with McGuinness, and only Nigel rolling through to get Bryan’s back on the mat got him out of it. That leads to Morishima coming in, and he’s a big bear of a man and is more than happy to use his size. A rolling leg lariat that’s really more of a flying hip attack, and then he uses the ropes to balance himself on Nigel’s chest. Sinclair counts while he has the ropes, but once Morishima lets go, Sinclair has no choice but to consider this a pinfall attempt. There’s nothing illegal that he’s doing and McGuinness absolutely has both shoulders on the mat. Easy enough to kick out of, as Morishima’s balancing on his chest, but still no fun whatsoever for the former Pure champion.
The punishment continues as Danielson tags back in, and sets up the bow and arrow, but doesn’t even pretend to try to get it, and just hops to smash McGuinness’ knees into the mat. Danielson gets a little careless, which allows McGuinness to dodge the charge into the corner, score with a lariat, and then catch Morishima with one as well when he tries to charge into the ring to sneak attack Nigel. Tell you what, Morishima certainly thinks that the tag team rules are more of a suggestion than anything else.
Anyway, that lariat give Nigel space to tag in KENTA who is a Tazmanian Devil of offense. Everything so quick and hard and constant motion, and a springboard missile dropkick gets a two count. Dragon gets his run up the turnbuckles backflip to dodge his attacker, and counters with a big backbreaker. He tags out, and that leads to Morishima getting a cartwheel elbow smash on KENTA in the corner. He’s a big strong hoss looking guy, but man, Morishima can move when the circumstances call for him to make an impact that way. As if to accentuate the point, Morishima scores with a missile dropkick off the top rope, and KENTA finds his way out of trouble by countering a charge with a powerslam, using Morishima’s own momentum against him.
McGuinness tags in, and his strikes keep the advantage for a moment. Morishima gains an advantage for a second and tries for another missile dropkick, but Nigel just absorbs the impact, rolls backwards, and catches Morishima with a lariat. Morishima tries that cartwheel elbow again, but Nigel times a lariat perfectly to counter it when Morishima can’t see him coming…. but that only gets two.
Danielson gets himself involved first to stop Nigel from getting some offense in off the top turnbuckle, then escapes from KENTA countering him to stop a McGuinness counter and that lets Morishima score with what current day WWE star Nia Jax calls the A-Nia-lator. That gets two, and Morishima goes right to the backdrop driver that beat BJ Whitmer earlier in the night. That also gets two, but only because KENTA makes the save and breaks up the pin.
Now it’s KENTA grabbing onto his opponent in the corner, and that lets Nigel score with the Tower of London. Both men are down, and Sinclair starts his count. Both fresh men get the tag, and it’s time for a striking battle! KENTA gets Danielson tangled up the ropes, and hits him with a flying kneedrop to the back of the head….. for two. Danielson counters with a rolling elbow and drills KENTA with a dragon suplex with a bridge my god almighty, right on KENTA’s head. But just a two count, as Dragon’s balance is slightly compromised, and Danielson works the crossface chickenwing for a moment until KENTA reverses into a pinfall attempt. Danielson goes to the corner, but McGuinness shoots in without a tag to cause some dysfunction, and this match is breaking down into GUYS DOING STUFF. Just moves all over the place as whoever’s just standing around gets grabbed by a guy on the other team for a move.
Nigel hits a variation of the seesaw lariat — which is now the Jawbreaker Lariat — on Morishima on the outside meaning he went into the ring and back out again to connect. Then he throws Morishima over the barricade and hits with a dive to the outside off the post. My goodness.
Danielson and KENTA resume fighting in the ring, Nigel wanders back in to get involved, and Danielson gets the better of a strike battle and kicks at McGuinness’ arm to send him scurrying away to the outside. KENTA’s down in the ring, and a Danielson diving headbutt attempt is countered with double boots. A flurry of kicks is closed with a running flying knee strike from KENTA, a move that is very much part of Danielson’s repertoire here in the 2020s, and that gets two. KENTA scores with his finisher, the Go To Sleep, which CM Punk completely stole from him, catching Danielson in the chest, not the head, and we’ll never know if that matters because Morishima breaks it up. Nigel is getting tended to by the medical crew outside, as it seems that kick to the arm messed him up.
Danielson gets the diving headbutt as Morishima keeps an eye on McGuinness, but KENTA kicks out. Rolling elbow as Morishima just holds KENTA upright, and then a lariat from Morishima as Danielson holds KENTA up. Two count! Danielson calls for Morishima to pick KENTA up and go to the corner, and yep, Nigel’s elbow is killing him right now. He breaks up the corner attempt, waylays Morishima with the Jawbreaker, and that gives KENTA a chance for a TOP ROPE FALCON ARROW. MY GOD.
TWO.
All four men are down, somewhere, and I see that ROH has put down pretty black mats outside over the pretty blue carpeting in the Manhattan Center. A crossface chickenwing from Danielson ends up setting up a top rope backdrop suplex FOR TWO, and that means it’s time for Cattle Mutilation, at least until KENTA escapes, then the hammer & anvil elbows, which is really just a perfect setup for a counter into the Go To Sleep BUT NO, Danielson counters that into another dragon suplex FOR TWO, and straight into Cattle Mutilation. Morishima cuts off McGuinness and hammers some elbows into Nigel’s bad arm, and KENTA is forced to tap out. Danielson & Morishima win in 24:44.
That was quite the encounter, a little bit of everything, which makes sense given the talents of the four men involved. Definitely one of the better matches that we’ve seen here in this series, again, no surprise given the four men. Cage Match users give that one a rating of 8.78 out of 10, and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave it four stars.
NEXT TIME: It seems that the issue of “Who is going to challenge Takeshi Morishima?” that set this match up is not answered here or over the next month. Our next installment is a #1 Contender’s match about four weeks later as Nigel McGuinness clashes with — you guessed it — Bryan Danielson.
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