[2008-11-22-ROH-Rising Above] Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Nigel defending his ROH World Championship here. It is a great match. I do not love it as much as I used to, but I do still think it's great. Nigel's legwork is a good twist to his usual arsenal - he isn't as naturally vicious with it as he is with his signature armwork, but he still brings it in terms of nice focus & moments of nastiness. Bryan's selling for the most part is pretty great, as he spends most of the match fighting from underneath after Nigel starts targeting that knee, but I do think that he could've sold that said knee a bit more in a couple of key moments. His comebacks are great, especially the one towards the end where he delivers those fiery slaps to Nigel. The blood added quite a bit to that & the entire finishing stretch. ****

[cactus]

 I found the first five minutes to lacking in direction and the finishing stretch did go on for a touch too long for my liking. McGuinness is a heel here, and he feels much more at home at portraying a heel than trying to be a babyface. I like how he rushed out of the ring as soon as the action picked up the pace, as this really got under the fan's skin. The interference by Claudio and Sugarfoot added a lot to the match. I have no idea who Sugarfoot is, but him helping Danielson back into the ring made him a big babyface with these fans.  I adored that sequence that ended with McGuinness landing a Tower Of London on the ropes. It looked so fluid and it didn't require the usual long set-up that Nigel would usually need to hit that move. Danielson gets a good amount of near-falls that felt like they could have ended the match before he's sent packing by McGuinness. This was a great match that wasn't quite on the level of their more famous matches together. ★★★★