Nigel McGuinness

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Dylan Waco]

I find it fascinating that no one nominated him. Nigel was a guy who at one point was regarded as an excellent worker by many, and very good at minimum by nearly everyone. There were lots of people who thought he was the successor to Danielson, with many viewing him as better than Danielson as early as 07. His peak may have been short, but he was regarded as a tremendous talent in his prime. I wonder why he's never discussed anymore

[GOTNW]

I wanted to nominate him but couldn't find any reviews for that sake. I'd be shocked to find 100 guys I like better. His run may have not lasted long put he had a lot of high end matches during it and even managed to produce quality work in TNA.

[Timbo Slice]

I think a lot of it is how he sputtered out with WWE not taking him due to medical issues and then the TNA Hep B diagnosis. I still have vivid memories of the Driven match in my head. Watched it twice and thought it was an incredible match just due to how hard he and Bryan worked and the lengths they went to in order to play off their previous matches. When he decided to just start ripping off peoples heads with the lariat, he had found his niche, but he DID have the tendency to go overboard at times. I'd say he was a top worker for at least three years, maybe four depending on how people liked his Euro-heavy stuff before he became The Man in ROH.

[InYourCase]

My main issue with Nigel is that for most of his matches, especially during his World Title run, I often felt like he was the second best guy in the match. Danielson, Aries, Generico, KENTA, etc. are all a level above Nigel. Of course, those are guys that are elite workers, but rarely did I find a sole Nigel performance great. He has a lot of matches that I really, really like, but rarely is that because of him more than his opponent.

[JRGoldman]

I'm a big fan of that period of Indy wrestling and he might make my list, but I think he is hurt by never being the best guy in ROH. Danielson was great and you wanted Nigel to sort of transition from being the second best guy to the best guy, but he always seemed to end up getting leap frogged by people. I think he was clearly worse than Danielson and Joe during his Pure Title stuff, and then I think he was clearly worse than Morishima during his big chase for the title. That's a large part of why there was such backlash against him when he finally won the belt. Any reign from Joe on seemed like a coronation of sorts that this person was the best ROH had to offer from an in ring perspective, and Nigel seemed to fall short. I think when he won the belt, Morishima, Hero, Aries and Danielson were all putting on more interesting matches, and during his reign he was passed by Tyler Black. Even his stuff post pure title and pre world title, I thought Jimmy Rave was actually the driving force of their matches and really worked to get Nigel over (aside from leaning in and getting his jaw broken). Certainly if his peak had been longer and luck had been on his side, he would probably have a higher showing. I think he sort of got over in TNA, but I don't remember any stand out matches. If he had been able to go to WWE I think he would have some interesting mid card stuff for us to look over.

[Guest si oem]

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[Parties]

Really liked him as the Pure champion, and he was actually pretty adept at working face/heel turns. Last match of his that I saw live was Nigel vs. KENTA in March '09, which may be the most tedious main event I've ever attended. It left an impression - likely unfair - in my head that once put in the company's ace role he became too injury-laden to work at the level that he once had, and that when putting a match together he was using long rest holds at the wrong times. But he'd suffered such a bad arm injury the night before that he really shouldn't have even been out there.

 

Not a top 100 guy for me - don't like the character or matches enough - but he had great stuff with Danielson, Joe, Hero, Morishima.

[InYourCase]

Went back and watched some Nigel this weekend and he was more interesting than I remember. You could really make an argument that he deserves to be on everyone's ballot because of his peak. The Danielson series, the KENTA match in New York, and the Aries match in New York. Next level stuff, really. More than that, he has a few things working for him.

 

1) His character work comes across great in both his Pure Title and World Title runs. Stuff that Black/Davey/Roddy/Lynn didn't do well. I'm a little biased because Danielson's 2006 heel work is probably my favorite character work ever, but Nigel's is almost as good as that. He's really, really good from that aspect. It's little things like giving Aries the finger after blocking his dropkick, but it comes across really well in the context of the match.

 

2) I respect his ability to change styles. A 2004 Nigel match was totally different than a 2009 Nigel match. That faux-World of Sport style was really good for awhile, then he transitioned into the Pure Champion and his matches relied a lot on basic heel work, and then he became the world champion, lariat-throwing machine.

 

3) He has a few really solid gimmick matches. The Liverpool Fight Without Honor against Jimmy Rave, the 1/25/08 cage match with Hero, and then that weird gimmick match with Angle in TNA. Three Degrees of Hell, or something. Underrated brawler.

 

4) I don't think I've ever seen a wrestler as entertaining on his back as Nigel is. This comes across really well in the 12/27/07 Aries match and the 2/23/08 Danielson match. It's very "MMA-ish" and I think we would've seen a lot more of it had he not been injured so often, which caused him to change his style. There was excitement when he was on the mat, especially in the Aries match, because he made worked punches seem really exciting. It was something small that I noticed, but I felt like pointing it out.

 

In conclusion, I think I just talked myself into voting for Nigel.

[Ma Stump Puller]

I would say it took a WHILE for the guy to get properly good. There's a lot of middling work in his early years and he plays up a bit too much to the goofy old-school WoS stuff in his matches, which for me took me away from actually enjoying them. I guess it's a different style but even then, I can't really grapple with it very well.

I also found that he was much better at playing a prick heel than Danielson was, whom I never really brought as a actual legit heel in his early days: it always felt like he was just acting as a heel for the sake of being a heel rather than making you believe he was a heel, if you catch my drift. Nigel felt much different, especially during his World Champion days where he was just endlessly bitter with that chip on his shoulder: the whole thing with playing up his injuries and getting the crowd to BOO when he talked about how much he gave up to be a wrestler is pure genius, plain and simple. Of course we can say "what if" and if he had a few more years of being in a good physical state, maybe in TNA with a sustained push, but his peak lasted a good while despite said injuries because he was a fantastic innovator who worked well with a massive assortment of talent.

You could find a spot on the top 100. Not anywhere close to top 40 or whatever, but a pretty respectable spot all things considered.

 

[strobogo]

He should be disqualified for the rebound lariat and its legacy of usage through today