Two Fridays ago Big Andy Mac made the very sensible recommendation of Nigel McGuinness as ROH MVP for 2008. The year isn’t over yet, but no one can deny McGuinness’s importance. Much like Danielson in 2006 and Morishima in 2007, this long-reigning champion is a focal point of many shows and turns in enough quality matches that he must at least be a candidate for MVP. Even without a substantive storyline he is a focal point. If his name doesn’t come up for awards like this then something went very wrong.
Like 2007, though, I’m backing another candidate than the champion. In 2007 the Briscoes were my boys. In 2008, it’s Austin Aries.
First and foremost, my vote is swayed because Aries has been in more singles matches I’ve looked forward to (and am still looking forward to), and because he’s seriously impressed me on the most nights of anyone in ROH. In a year where Bryan Danielson has been away so much, he has stepped up to be worthy of ROH Godfather status.
If ROH had a calendar, Aries would be Mr. January. With McGuinness out due to concussions, Aries turned in the best pure match of Erick Stevens’s ROH career, the entire feud with Strong included. It put McGuinness’s defense against Stevens to shame, and earned the conceit of the match restart better than Danielson’s the next night. It set up opportunities for Stevens to sell sympathetically, come off like a house of fire, and show the tenacity that really could make him as a star. That he was less impressive in later matches and ROH booked him as a choke artist were problems with the company, not Aries.
Aries lost that match. He lost his next against Claudio Castagnoli, lost in the finals of a title scramble at Without Remorse, and came up short against in a triple threat for the FIP title against Stevens and Davey Richards. Throughout January as throughout the year, he lost big matches and put on big performances against many people who needed them, helping raise them up. This was something that a strong champion like Nigel McGuinness couldn’t do, but that Aries, being so good that multiple losses didn’t hurt him, could. It was one of his values as a player. This trait was best displayed against McGuinness at Rising Above and Supercard of Honor 3, where Aries choked in his two title challenges, and quite likely the two best the champ has had.
Big Andy Mac made a point that McGuinness gave many opponents their best matches this year. It’s also important to note that Aries probably McGuinness’s two best title matches. The Rising Above defense remains my favorite match of the year (and I am counting it for this year’s Riren 100, as it was taped less than a week before the new year and didn’t air until March). I bought the PPV and the DVD. No one bumps and sells for McGuinness like Aries – not Danielson, not Stevens whose greatest strength is taking a beating. No one takes his Lariats like Aries, and not just the sick one to the outside, but the match-ender. Never has the Lariat so valid as a finisher.
Between Rising Above and Supercard of Honor 3, Aries went in striking, made his high-flying less effective than usual, and got into some of the best chain wrestling McGuinness has had in the company. Those two matches highlighted more of McGuinness’s strengths than any of his other defenses this year. It wasn’t all Aries – in fact, it makes sense that the best singles title matches might be between the two leading candidates for MVP.
Most important out of those two matches, though, is that every time I hear McGuinness disparaged or have to summon his better work to mind, I think of these. Aries validated the champion in a way no one else did, and he did it right when McGuinness was testing and beginning that turn.
Aries has been pretty important to ROH PPV this year, too. I’ve expressed my love of the Rising Above main event, but he also had perhaps the only worthwhile match on January’s Undeniable show, that time against Roderick Strong. On Respect is Earned 2 he had a great main event tag that compensated for a weak world title match (where he once again lost to champions, though that time it was Danielson who was pinned giving Black his biggest victory to date). He contributed to my personal double main event ROH has broadcast so far at Take No Prisoners against Bryan Danielson. That one outclasses all their Best of Three Series matches from last year one-to-one for pure technical wrestling and even the aggression put into execution, using very smart selling to compensate for the three-match story the series was able to rely upon. It is a stronger match beginning-to-end than McGuinness Vs. Black, though the latter match had higher emotional peaks and helped elevate Black to a degree that surpasses the importance of a purely great match.
That confession is a political no-no, but I’m going to do what political candidates this season won’t and admit the strengths of my opposition. McGuinness did excellently by Black, and in one match got him about as much internet buzz as Danielson gave Black in three. This is normally political suicide as campaign managers consider their audience too stupid to understand complex messages like, “He’s good but I’m better,†and the sadly oft-verified belief that negative approaches to those who disagree with you work better at persuading people. I trust in your intelligence, constant reader. You know McGuinness’s importance to ROH this year, and if you’ve been following it as closely as I have, you know Aries has had a heck of a year.
Despite his work with Tyler Black, one of McGuinness’s great weaknesses this year has been to elevate opponents. The Erick Stevens defense was pathetic, and his PPV match with Go Shiozaki was sorely disappointing. Much of the blame for their Hammerstein bout has gone to Castagnoli, but as the reigning champion, where that match fell flat also lies with McGuinness. The Steen matches did not give him what he needed from a singles performance level to qualify as a legitimate singles contender. Instead of his stock rising, as Roderick Strong’s once did in three straight losses to Bryan Danielson, no one believed in Steen by his third challenge.
When I look at that same list of shortcomings, I can see Aries coming up. I’ve already testified that Aries had an excellent showing with Stevens, where McGuinness did not. Aries had quite possibly the best singles match of Go Shiozaki’s career at the Sixth Anniversary Show, and certainly his best singles match since Go fought Kenta Kobashi back in NOAH. I actually much-preferred it to the Danielson/McGuinness match later in that show largely because their execution was so much better. Oh, the World Title match had a great story, but they were noticeably holding back and they did not gel the way they had at Driven in 2007. It’s for a very similar reason that I also prefer the Aries/Danielson match from Take No Prisoners, which again did not have as overt a story or as many shenanigans, but particularly given their reliance on scientific wrestling, their ability to tell their own story of arm-work, competition and self-doubt so well blew me away.
This all speaks to Aries as a utility player. Not only did he have great matches against champions that raised their stock, but he came in and had great matches where the big champion was absent or hadn’t succeeded. That’s not action of a competition; that’s compensation. Aries came in to have great matches on many shows where McGuinness either underwhelmed (Respect is Earned 2, Without Remorse) or wasn’t as highlighted (Vendetta 2, Glory By Honor 7). As a non-champion and a man with far more losses than McGuinness his performances and connections with the crowd have made him a consistent selling-point, displayed in the recent announcement that he’ll be in three more matches with Jimmy Jacobs to settle their score.
Then there is the Age of the Fall feud. Aside from pure wrestling where Aries has been in the top of the class, he has been integral to their top storyline. Weeks of the ROH year were defined by him being courted, his relationship with Lacey, and later the exact definition of revenge between he and Jacobs. Nothing has been so easy to milk for more matches, even with Steen and Generico constantly paging McGuinness. Being a match-guy, I was also interested in the matches it spawned. Aries was crucial to the Respect is Earned 2 tag main event, a series of technical tests against Black, and his Vendetta 2 match against Jacobs is heralded by some as the best singles match of Jacobs’s career. Outside of the ring he stole Lacey from Jacobs, drove Jacobs insane, and tempted Necro Butcher into breaking away from factions altogether. He has been a focal point of plot and character development in ROH’s world. It’s a storyline that has run from his losing streak at the beginning of the year into the November shows for his grudge match series with Jacobs.
Like any good year in ROH, a lot of guys have stepped up. Jacobs & Black and Steen & Generico have had some phenomenal tags despite the division being too chaotic for one team to be as vital as the Briscoes were in 2007. A case could still be made for Jimmy Jacobs (and I’d love to read it). Some people will always vote Danielson, and since he’s one of my dearest favorites, I can understand the appeal despite his absences. Danielson is more important to some ROH fans than anyone else even if he’s only on half the shows.
But from January to now Aries has been the most valuable to me for turning in the most matches that made me feel like I’d spent my money wisely. He is still remarkably consistent with high-quality performances in even midcard matches; does anyone doubt that this weekend’s FIP title match against Go Shiozaki won’t be worth their time? The combination of his importance to stories as well as his match quality are what define him as someone who can rival the champion in terms of importance. And that’s why, while I acknowledge McGuinness’s importance, my vote is heading towards Aries right now.
That’s it for me this week. But around the internet we have:
-Mark Allen looks at ROH’s Greatest Rivalries.
-Big Andy Mac reviews Bedlam in Beantown.
-Pulse Glazer shows why lists are fun.
-And my 500th Bathroom Monologue just went up on www.johnwiswell.blogspot.com
