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


Loss

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  • GSR changed the title to [2008-11-22-ROH-Rising Above] Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness
  • 5 months later...

Bryan is coming into this match w/ a bum knee, and while it's not the target of Nigel's initial attack, it sure becomes it very quickly. They start the match off w/ their usual competitive, technical wrestling, and as Bryan wins those exchanges, Nigel gets frustrated & starts going after the knee. I thought that was some great, subtle character work by Nigel; it's like he doesn't want to go after the easy target in the knee, but he has no other choice since Danielson keeps on beating him in the non-knee related, competitive, technical exchanges. He does great work over the knee throughout, Danielson's selling is great too & the interference deals by Claudio & Sugarfoot are done very well. Bryan's last comeback w/ those fiery slaps & the elbow is one of my all-time favorites; he showed such perfect amount of fire & soul in that one. It's a yet another classic between my favorite pairing in wrestling history. ****1/2

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  • 2 years later...

 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. ★★★★

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