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Quarterfinals
Takeshi Morishima vs Bryan Danielson: Comparing their title reigns is like comparing apples and oranges. When Danielson was champion, he was a born and bred ROH guy who had fought like hell to get the title, then held onto it for over a year (in fact, almost a year more than Morishima had it) and took on all comers, many from outside ROH. He was the catalyst by whom Nigel McGuinness, Roderick Strong, and even arguably Chris Hero and Delirious became guys the fans saw as legitimate title contenders, and he headlined some of ROH's biggest shows, including their debut in the United Kingdom, their debut in the Manhattan Center, and the highly anticipated match where Homicide finally won the ROH World Title. Morishima was a monster and was very entertaining during his eight month reign, but he was never as central to ROH overall as Danielson was and he wasn't really in a position to elevate anyone given that his character was a guy who came in and flattened people. ROH often ran shows without Morishima when he was champion just because of the travel schedule flying back and forth from Japan, so he was really more of an attraction champion than anything. Danielson moves on.
Nigel McGuinness vs CM Punk: Here's the first really hard one, because they both contributed a lot as champion, but in totally different ways. I already touched on what Punk brought to the table earlier, but I have to give the nod to Nigel because, as I said, he was the guy carrying the title when nobody else really was in a position to and, in the year and a half he was champion, he helped elevate a lot of guys. Kevin Steen, El Generico, Claudio Castagnoli, and especially Tyler Black all became guys fans bought as possible future champions because of the kinds of matches they had with Nigel. Plus, he fought through numerous injuries because of what he expected from himself as champion, and even though the fans turned on him because he had to miss some action here and there, the fact is that he suffered a concussion at the beginning of what turned out to be a 40 minute match as well as numerous torn biceps. I'm not saying that Punk wouldn't have done all that himself if he needed to, but we're never going to know because his reign was so short. Also, while he did have very competitive title defenses against Jay Lethal and Roderick Strong, I'd call what he did "making them look good" rather than "elevating them" because neither really got a big bump after working with Punk. Nigel moves on.
Davey Richards vs Austin Aries (first reign): This pairing is a lot like the first round with Davey and Roderick, because Aries had a strong reign and beat some big names, but you never felt like he was the guy ROH was going to build around, and he was just there to transition the title from Joe to Punk. Aries also didn't connect with the fans anywhere near as well as Davey has as champion, and in fact he didn't really start hitting his peak of popularity until well after he lost the title. Aries had two shots in this tournament, but they're both gone now and Davey advances.
Xavier vs Samoa Joe: I think it's interesting that it took until the last match of the second round before we had a pairing that was involved in an actual title change, as Joe beat Xavier to start his legendary 21 month reign. He's going to beat him again here, I gave Xavier credit for being a better champion than he's recognized for earlier on, but he's still well behind Joe, who carried the company on his back for nearly two years. Xavier can kiss his X goodbye because he's out and Joe moves on.
Getting down to the nitty gritty now, so let's not waste any time as I try to figure out how the hell I'm going to eliminate anyone else in the...
Semifinals
Bryan Danielson vs Davey Richards: Very, very tough choice between these two. Both are great wrestlers, very versatile and able to adapt to pretty much any opponent, both are guys the fans have a deep (and rare) affinity for, both carry themselves as respectable champions and represent the company well, both have headlined major milestone shows for ROH, and both embody what it means to be an ROH World Champion. The one thing that sets them apart is that, as strange as it sounds, being the current champion is going to work against Davey here. Even though he's been champion for nine months now, he's had a fairly limited body of work in that he's only defended the title six times, and the entire story of his reign so far has revolved around his rivalry with Eddie Edwards. By the time Danielson was nine months into his title reign, he had defended the title 23 times and had exorcised two previous losses by beating AJ Styles, had a very competitive series with Roderick Strong, defeated Lance Storm when he came out of retirement specifically to challenge Danielson, defeated Naomichi Marufuji at Final Battle, and was well into rivalries with Nigel McGuinness and KENTA. That disparity could change depending on what happens with Davey's reign from here on out, but as it stands right now, it's advantage Danielson and he goes to the finals.
Samoa Joe vs Nigel McGuinness: Not only are these two the longest reigning ROH World Champions ever (Joe at 21 months and Nigel at 18), they had very similar title reigns in that they were both dominant, but made many of the people they defended against look like real title contenders. I talked earlier about how Nigel made guys like Steen, Generico and Claudio look like serious title contenders, and Joe did the same with guys like BJ Whitmer, the Briscoes, and especially CM Punk. Both were champions during periods of growth for the company, as Joe held the title when ROH first began expanding their touring schedule into the Midwest, while Nigel got to be the flagbearer when ROH began experimenting with running shows in Canada, Japan, and the South. The thing that gives Joe the edge is that his reign did two very important things: it established the ROH World Title as a credible wrestling championship that wasn't going to hot potato from champion to champion, and Joe also carried the title through the tumultuous period in 2004 when the company transitioned from being a subsidiary of RF Video to a separate entity owned by Cary Silkin. That was a very touch and go period for ROH, and Joe's reign (and specifically the feud with Punk) was one of the things that helped keep them going. Both guys were great champions, and it really was just the circumstances of when Joe was champion that's giving him the edge in this case and sending him to the finals.
All right, only two men are left standing, so click on over to Page 3 to see who my scientific analysis says is (possibly) the Greatest ROH World Champion Of All Time (on paper)!
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