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ROH DANIELSON VS MCGUINNESS DVD REVIEW: EVERY SINGLES MATCH BETWEEN TWO OF THE GREATEST ROH WORLD CHAMPIONS, AS WELL AS SEVERAL TAG MATCHES AND THEIR EMOTIONAL FAREWELL AT GLORY BY HONOR VIII

A year after their initial series, Danielson had lost the World Title and would again have to go through McGuinness to get another title shot. However, Nigel also wanted the ROH World Title, and avenging his losses to Danielson would be a very satisfying way for him to get there. Their paths converged once again as both men sought to be the one to try and unseat new ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima, though rivalries like this sometimes created some strange bedfellows.

Chapter 2: Race To The ROH World Title

Bryan Danielson & Takeshi Morishima vs Nigel McGuinness & KENTA: Respect Is Earned (5/12/2007 in New York City, New York)

This match main evented ROH's very first PPV taping, and wrapped a lot of interesting storylines together. Danielson had managed to successfully defend the ROH World Title against both Nigel and KENTA when he was champion, but took five months off to recover from a shoulder injury after losing the title to Homicide. Morishima took the title from Homicide not two months later, and even though Danielson wanted it back, he still had no love lost for Nigel and KENTA, who also both wanted to try and beat Morishima for the title. Somehow, this "every man for himself" mess congealed into this tag match, and though Danielson and Nigel did interact during the match, it seemed like most of the focus was on Nigel and Morishima, even though Danielson tapped KENTA out to Cattle Mutilation to win the match for his team.

Danielson: 3, McGuinness: 1, 1 Draw

Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness: Domination (6/9/2007 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

This was an interesting match because it was taped for Driven, ROH's second PPV, but actually took place in Philadelphia at the Domination event instead of in Chicago Ridge like the rest of the PPV. This match was sprung on the fans in Philadelphia without being advertised, and the way it was handled was that McGuinness was booked as “also appearing” but didn't have an opponent named, while Danielson was booked into another match entirely. They made an announcement at the beginning of the show that Danielson was being pulled from his match due to injury, but they promised to make it up to the fans later in the evening. Nigel came out first to face his unnamed opponent, and then the fans went nuts when Danielson's music hit and they realized what they were getting. This was their first match on the east coast, as all the previous matches had either been in the Midwest or England, and the Philly fans were going nuts over finally getting to see the match live. This was announced as a #1 contender's match, with the winner challenging then-champion Takeshi Morishima on the next PPV.

They started out with a standard wrestling match, but soon spilled out to the floor where it turned into a fight, with Danielson hitting Nigel with tables and chairs and Nigel taking a page out of Danielson's book by hitting a dive from the top rope into the crowd. Danielson responded to that by suplexing Nigel back-first onto the guardrail in a sick visual, and then suplexed Nigel out of the crowd and back onto the floor. They continued destroying each other back in the ring with all their hardest shots until they took turns running off the ropes and headbutting each other, cracking heads so hard that Danielson got busted open hardway and blood began pouring down his face. After another short skirmish, Danielson trapped Nigel with the MMA elbows, then locked in Cattle Mutilation and held Nigel there until the referee stopped the match. This was a lot more intense and violent then their 2006 matches, which were more mat wrestling based, and that was an awesome finishing sequence.

Danielson: 4, McGuinness: 1, 1 Draw

Bryan Danielson & Nigel McGuinness vs Takeshi Morishima & Naomichi Marufuji: United We Stand (6/22/2007 in Dayton, Ohio)

We take a break from Danielson and McGuinness fighting each other for this ROH vs Pro Wrestling NOAH match. Marufuji is an interesting name to throw into the mix, because he has had several singles meetings against both Nigel and Danielson, and I consider him to be far and away the most talented of the regulars to come over from NOAH. He is better in the ring than 95% of wrestlers I've ever seen in my life, always managed to pull out something I've never seen before in nearly every match, and he would have made a great ROH World Champion if they'd ever decided to go that route. So basically, you have four of my favorite wrestlers of all time in one match, so you can't go wrong here as far as I'm concerned. The important part to the Danielson-McGuinness storyline, however, is that Nigel pinned Morishima after hitting the rebound lariat, proving he could beat the seemingly unbeatable champion and earning a future title shot even though he had lost the previous match to Danielson. No change in the tally here.

Danielson: 4, McGuinness: 1, 1 Draw

Bryan Danielson & Nigel McGuinness vs Jay & Mark Briscoe: Race To The Top Tournament Night 1 (7/27/2007 in Deer Park, NY)

Another dream match, as you have the two best singles wrestlers in the company teaming up to challenge the best tag team in the company for the ROH World Tag Team Title. Danielson and Nigel earned this title shot because they won the match against Morishima and Marufuji, and they were actually able to work together pretty well here too, at least until the end. Danielson went for a roaring elbow on Jay Briscoe, but Jay ducked out of the way and Danielson accidentally creamed Nigel instead. Mark rolled Nigel up to get the win, and the team of Danielson and McGuinness had wrestled their last match together. Again, no change to the tally.

Danielson: 4, McGuinness: 1, 1 Draw

ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson: Survival Of The Fittest 2007 (10/19/2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada)

All right, we're back to Danielson and McGuinness on opposite sides of the ring where they belong, in a match that was a unique match for a number of reasons. First, it was a role reversal because now Nigel was the ROH World Champion, having unseated Takeshi Morishima on the previous event (which Danielson couldn't). It was also strategically set up to take place on ROH's first show in the western part of the country with the hopes it would help draw fans to the show (which it didn't). Also, it was a first round match in the Survival Of The Fittest tournament, and was therefore subject to a 20 minute time limit. Given how long these guys had gone long in previous matches, you might wonder how they'd book it so that someone could win within fifteen minutes, and you'd be right because this was basically the first 20 minutes of a 40 minute match. They picked up the pace with about a minute left, but the bell rang to end the match just as Nigel was about to hit the Tower of London. The time limit expired and both men were eliminated from the tournament. Nigel challenged Danielson to go five more minutes, and Danielson rushed Nigel but immediately got caught in the London Dungeon and started tapping, but the bell never rang so this was still officially a time limit draw.

Danielson: 4, McGuinness: 1, 2 Draws

ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson: Sixth Anniversary Show (2/23/2008 in New York City, New York)

Nigel and Danielson squared off again at the Sixth Anniversary Show with the title once again on the line, six years to the day after the first ROH event. They were actually supposed to have met in New York two months earlier at Final Battle 2007 with Nigel defending against Danielson, Chris Hero, and Takeshi Morishima in a four way elimination match, but Nigel had suffered a concussion the night before while wrestling Austin Aries and missed the show. As it happens, Nigel had previously missed several weeks of action with a torn bicep, and had altogether been on the shelf for most of the first four months of his title reign, leading some ROH fans to start turning on him for what they perceived as being a wimp and not toughing it out.

It wasn't fair for the fans to react that way since Nigel was suffering from legitimately serious injuries, but ROH decided to go with it and have him come out early in the show to say that he's still concerned about his head and wouldn't be wrestling tonight since Danielson has a history of being so reckless and dangerous, and was no doubt planning to try and hurt Nigel with headbutts and elbows. Danielson came out and went off on Nigel for disrespecting the title because of all the hard work so many people had put into winning and defending it, making it the most important title in the business. He understood Nigel's concerns about his health, so since everyone in this building paid to see Nigel finally defend that title in New York, he's willing to not do the elbows or anything else that he thinks will give him a concussion. Nigel agreed to wrestle Danielson under those terms, and Danielson said that's great because he's the best wrestler in the world and has a million ways to beat Nigel without needing to knock him out.

None of that promo segment made it onto the DVD set, but Danielson was true to his word, relying on wrestling rather than striking during the match and avoiding many opportunities where he would normally use head strikes. Danielson hit a belly to back suplex a couple of minutes in, and Nigel rolled to the floor holding his head and started yelling at the referee. The referee protested that Danielson hadn't intentionally gone after his head, so Nigel nailed the referee with a forearm to get himself disqualified and tried to escape to the back. Nigel was cut off by Austin Aries, who had several other wrestlers with him, and Aries told Nigel that he could either get back in the ring and defend his title or try and go through all of them. Nigel had a look of desperation, but in the end went back to the ring and ROH President Cary Silkin restarted the match.

Nigel began working over Danielson's arm with questionable tactics like ramming it into the ringpost. He began jawing with the fans, who were getting on his case more and more as the match progressed. Danielson came back but still stuck to his word and refused to use any elbows or other knockout strikes. It came back to haunt him because Nigel caught him completely off guard with a series of headbutts, including one to the eye that had suffered a detached retina months earlier. Nigel flattened Danielson with a rebound lariat and then hit MMA elbows into the injured eye of Danielson before locking him in the London Dungeon. Danielson was unconscious, and the referee had no choice but to stop the match and award McGuinness the win. After months of catching heat from the fans, Nigel had finally gone full on heel and soaked in the significantly negative reaction from the New York fans.

Danielson: 4, McGuinness: 2, 2 Draws

Nigel McGuinness had come full circle: he went into his first match with Danielson two years earlier as a heel who took every shortcut he could to retain his title, and came out of their 2006 series a babyface with a ton of fan support that he rode all the way to the ROH World Title. After the Sixth Anniversary Show, he was once again a heel who took shortcuts, only now he was the ROH World Champion and he had finally defeated Danielson in the main event of a major ROH show. Now the momentum was in Nigel's favor, and Danielson had a long road ahead of him to come back and prove that he was still the Best In The World. We'll move on to the build toward their final championship match on Page 3!

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