Last year, we spawned a ton of MVP arguement around this time debating the merits of Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, Takeshi Morishima and the Briscoe Brothers. This year the choice is far clearer. Join us in ROH Weekly as Big Andy Mac explains to all who the MVP of ROH is and why!
So, what’s going on this week? With the Florida shows cancelled, there goes that idea and I already addressed the underlying problems with that. Wiswell covered the Big Return of LAX, while DVD reviews have been done, notably with Big Andy Mac’s Supercard of Honor 3 Review. The indies are hit by both Wells and Kirschner. Oh well, looks like I’ll just let Andy Mac handle the heavy lifting this week. If you miss me check out The Wrestling Analyst and a special Glazer vs. ECW.
The ROH MVP 2008 by Big Andy Mac
by Big Andy Mac
The Ring of Honor Most Valuable Player is perhaps more clear this year than any other. Not since perhaps Low Ki on the first five shows or Samoa Joe in 2004 has the company centered around one man. That man is Nigel McGuinness. He is now just over one year into a heavyweight title reign that defied plans and expectations. Nigel has raised the prestige of the title even higher than the epic reigns of Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson in his lengthy reign as champion. But, what makes him more valuable this year than the aforementioned “American Dragon†or Austin Aries or Roderick Strong or the upstart Tyler Black or the team of Kevin Steen and El Generico? It is simply the focus and attention that has been paid McGuinness and the amazing way that he has responded to this focus.
The end of Dragon’s reign was telegraphed by the one year mark. Nigel, like Samoa Joe before him shows no signs of slowing down. His reign has been so amazing that not a single person looks weak in losing to him. 90% of his wins have been squeaky clean, yet he has not received the backlash of being over pushed. He is even wildly successful in his non-title matches, and no one complains. He may take short cuts in the course of his match, but ultimately it is the power of his lariats and the strength of his submissions that wins his matches rather than his willingness to bend and break the rules. If you look at every almost wrestler he has faced this year, it is pretty much their best straight up singles match. Tyler Black may have had a slightly better match with Danielson, but really that is splitting hairs. With the tag team titles spending most of the year looking for a solid foothold, and the major feuds happening either outside the ring in the case of Jacobs vs. Aries or split between two feds like Strong vs. Stevens, Nigel has been the linchpin of Ring of Honor’s success.
If one wants to look simply at match quality, then one needs to look no further than the fact that Nigel has been in the top two best matches on almost every card he has competed on. Almost every single title defense he has had has been a four star match or more. The only exceptions to that were early in the year before he hit his stride as champion or against Ruckus, and really Nigel cannot be blamed for that. Nigel may be the best booked champion in company history and 2008 will always be defined by Nigel’s performances.
