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 McGuiness 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 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 McGuiness!”
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 2
Nigel McGuiness vs Samoa Joe
Ring Of Honor Pure Championship
June 12, 2005
ROH The Future Is Now
The Supper Club
New York, New York
Last time out, we saw Nigel McGuinness use a couple of forward rolling kicks coming out of the corner to end up with a victory roll pinfall over Colt Cabana. That victory led to McGuinness getting a ROH Pure Championship title match against Samoa Joe, who had won the Pure Championship from Jay Lethal on that same show where McGuinness beat Cabana. Joe had been ROH World Champion from March 22, 2003, through December 26, 2004, making him the longest reigning of the three ROH champs at the time, and still today, he is still the longest reigning champion in promotion history.
However, there’s a slight difference in being World Champ and being Pure Champ. The Pure title was created in 2004, and is contested under slightly different rules than a traditional professional wrestling contest. The short version is that you’re only allowed to use the ring ropes to save yourself from a submission a limited number of times and closed fist strikes to the head are prohibited. There’s more, and the ref explains them to the crowd and both men in the video, but that’s the important part for what we’re paying attention to here.
After referee Todd Sinclair explains the rules, both Joe and Nigel peaceably shake hands for the Code of Honor, as is tradition. The Supper Club is a fun venue, because there’s a stage with a curtain in the background of the primary camera angle, and then there’s visible balcony cutouts that probably used to have tables there on the other camera angles. I say used to, because you can see people just standing up against the railings there.
Anyway, as far as the action goes, very mat based, as Joe takes the advantage with first a rear guillotine hold, which Nigel rolls backwards to break, and then an armbar that drives McGuinness to the ground. Dave Prazak and Jimmy Bower on the call make the point that because of the limited rope break rules, Nigel has to focus on finding counters to get out of these holds, especially when he’s a bit of a distance away out in the center of the ring. Countering out of that armbar leads to an armbar of Nigel’s own, and the two keep countering and switching and mat wrestling.
Joe fights his way out of a leg cross and an attempt at a half-nelson from McGuinness, and then dumps Nigel out to the floor. Nigel is in no hurry to get back into the ring with a 20 count on the outside, but that does reset the entire match as the two men are back on their feet and competing. A forearm smash from Nigel is answered with a step up enzigiri by Joe, and while punches are out, nothing wrong with kicking a guy. That eventually leads to Nigel getting the boot off the apron and he goes flying and crossbodies a security guy over the ringside railing as there’s not much space between the ring and the fans.
Nigel crawls back under the ropes at 14, and Joe is firmly in control of the match now. Or, at least he was, until a whip into the corner allows Nigel to headstand there, kick Joe in the face, and then get a Divorce Court to take over. McGuinness stays on top of that left arm of Joe, all the way to the point of forcing Joe to burn one of his rope breaks to get out/avoid further damage. Nigel gets right back on the arm with a whacky combination of pressure, and Joe sticks a boot out to the rope to break it up, and that’s two of his three.
Joe manages to take over as Nigel makes what we here in 2025 know as a massive tactical error against Samoa Joe: He charges Joe in the corner, and quite obviously turns into Joe’s famous corner uranage variant. You Can’t Charge Samoa Joe In The Corner! We all know this today, but perhaps it wasn’t quite that known in 2005. That’s when Joe makes a critical mistake, as he snaps and connects with a jab as he goes into a jab/chop combo, but: That’s a closed fist to the head. He gets a warning for that, and he’ll be penalized if he does it again, either his final rope break or, if that’s used up, he will be disqualified, and the title would go to Nigel.
Samoa Joe keeps after him with headbutts and elbow/forearm shots, but one of the latter sends Nigel tumbling backwards into the ropes, and he scores with his see-saw lariat coming off the second rope. Nigel goes back to the arm submissions, and there goes Joe’s third and final rope break.
McGuinness gets a little too showy, and while going for that corner headstand again, Joe follows in quickly to boot Nigel in the face and take over. A powerbomb gets two, and Joe transitions quickly into an STF submission attempt. With Joe’s weight on his back and blood pouring from his nose after the kick in the corner, Nigel elects to burn the first of his three rope breaks. He’s still got two, but he’s fighting from behind as Joe stays on the attack.
Nigel turns the tide with a variant of Joe’s corner uranage, but it wasn’t that strong, however, the superkick follow up sends both men to the mat. As they both regain their feet, Nigel goes for the headstand again, Joe charges, Nigel dodges to the outside, boots Joe in the head, and then wraps Joe up in a submission attempt using the ropes for leverage. Since Joe’s out of rope breaks, it’s completely legal, but Nigel’s standing outside. Todd Sinclair alternates between counting to 20 and asking Joe if he quits. Joe never does, so Nigel is forced to let go and slide back in.
Joe dodges a kick attempt from Nigel, gets McGuinness to use his second rope break to get out of a pin, and stays on the attack. Nigel uses that step up corner reversal to start to create space from Joe, ends up perched on the other corner, Joe dodges some kick attempts, and blasts Nigel in the face with a palm strike. Completely legal because it’s not a closed fist, and that gives Joe the opening to curl Nigel off the top rope for his trademark finisher, the Muscle Buster, right in the middle of the ring, 1, 2, 3, Joe retains in 19:39.
Easily the best of the two matches that we’ve watched so far, as this was a bit more serious than the battle with Colt Cabana last time. I liked the drama of it with Nigel putting Joe into a precarious position with the rope breaks and then taking full advantage of what the rules then allowed him to do. Cage Match users give this match an average rating of 6.95 out of 10.
NEXT TIME: We jump one month forward into the future as Nigel McGuinness tangles with Claudio Castagnoli.