The beginning of 2007 was an interesting time for Nigel McGuinness; he once again won over the fans with those bouts against Bryan Danielson despite failing to defeat Danielson for the ROH World Championship, but got to experience a ROH without “The American Dragon” for several months. Danielson, after losing the title to “The Notorious 187” Homicide at FINAL BATTLE 2006, took a sabbatical from wrestling to heal from injuries sustained months earlier at GUT CHECK in a two-out-of-three falls bout with Colt Cabana.
During the four months of Bryan's absence, McGuinness engaged in a tremendous rivalry with the late Jimmy Rave, culminating in a Fight Without Honor at FIFTH YEAR FESTIVAL: FINALE as part of ROH's return to London. That FIFTH YEAR FESTIVAL series of shows also marked the final events for ROH Legend Samoa Joe's original run, and as one of Joe's biggest rivals, McGuinness was actually tapped to be one of Joe's final opponents before he bid farewell to ROH. Joe's departure at the conclusion of FYF coincided with the arrival of another individual to the ROH landscape, Pro Wrestling NOAH's Takeshi Morishima.
A product of the All Japan Pro Wrestling dojo under the tutelage of Mitsuharu Misawa and Akira Taue, two of the legendary Four Pillars of Heaven, Morishima left AJPW alongside Misawa with the formation of NOAH, and at the time of his arrival in ROH, he had already been a 3-Time GHC Tag Champion. Morishima's initial impression on ROH audiences came at September 2006's GLORY BY HONOR V, N2 when he and Samoa Joe nearly came to blows in the aisle following a ceremony to honor the legendary Bruno Sammartino. So by February 2007, when Morishima stepped into a ROH ring for the first time with Joe as his opponent, fans were beyond excited to see what Mori had to offer:
With an agility that belied his size, a willingness to come flying off the top rope with a missile drop kick, and a Backdrop Driver finish that put everyone down, Morishima was an absolute monster in the ring. Though he lost that first match against Joe, he quickly recovered to dethrone Homicide as the ROH World Champion, and thereby tie his future to that of both Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness.
Given their mutual ties to NOAH, Nigel and Morishima started as allies, with McGuinness even speaking on behalf of the champion on several instances, and the two actually teaming up to defeat Samoa Joe and Homicide at FYF: CHICAGO. It was that mutual victory that earned Nigel his first shot at Morishima's World Title during the FIGHTING SPIRT event on 4/14/08, but sadly that was not his night to finally wear the crown. Following that loss Nigel return to England, winning the 2007 King of Europe Cup, and actually defeating PAC along the way, and competed in the prestigious wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament before returning to the States.
Meanwhile, during that same month, Danielson returned to active competition with a lengthy tour of NOAH before coming back to Ring of Honor at REBORN AGAIN on May 11, 2007, and actually competing in three separate matches on that night. Coincidentally Nigel was not there on the night of Bryan's return, flight problems prevented his participation and changed his scheduled match, but he was there the following night for one of ROH's biggest nights to date: RESPECT IS EARNED. That night ROH taped pay-per-view for the very first time, and in the main event of that milestone show it would be ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima and Bryan Danielson facing KENTA and Nigel McGuinness. That night any semblance of a friendship between Nigel and Mori fell by the wayside as Bryan and the World Champion united to assault Nigel earlier in the night, but it didn't represent a bond between Danielson and Morishima either. After he and Bryan won the match, Danielson had the audacity to lay his hands on the World Title, enraging the behemoth enough to dump Bryan on his head with a Backdrop Driver and then when Nigel attempted to show respect to Mori, he too got taken out for his troubles.
Clearly both Nigel and Bryan were on the wrong side of the World Champion, but that did not mean they necessarily partners in their mutual endeavor to dethrone Morishima, though they did combine forces at UNITED WE STAND in June 2006 to defeat Mori and Naomichi Marufuji. In fact that night in Dayton, Nigel became the first man in ROH to pin Morishima and thereby secure himself a future title opportunity. That title opportunity came on July 17, 2007 during ROH's first-ever event in Japan dubbed LIVE IN TOKYO. Coming on the heels of a lengthy NOAH tour that Nigel and Bryan both participated in, and were even made to team up multiple times during its course, McGuinness was again unable to dethrone Morishima, That brought Danielson to the ring to mock Nigel, claim that he should be World Champion, and even slap Morishima in the face only to turn around into a European Uppercut from Nigel. Unlike RESPECT IS EARNED, Morishima actually showed respect and returned Nigel's handshake after that tiff with Danielson.
Despite their rivalry with one another, despite each man's designs on being the next ROH World Champion, they were still thrust together as partners at RACE TO THE TOP TOURNAMENT: NIGHT 1 in a World Tag Team Championship match opposite The Briscoes, then ending up on opposite sides of an eight-man tag the following night. All either man wanted was to dethrone Morishima, but they could not get away from each other no matter how hard they tried, meaning the comparisons between the two among the ROH faithful were perpetual. More often than not the fans sided with Bryan Danielson as the superior wrestler between the two, a fact that no doubt ate at Nigel as their rivalry intensified. Then there are nights like MANHATTAN MAYHEM II where Nigel was engaged in a Trios match far from the World Title while Danielson was getting the championship fight with Morishima; it wasn't that Bryan won the belt that night, in fact he ended up in an emergency room with a detached retina and fractured orbital bone, it was that Bryan and Morishima were being lauded as having the best match in ROH history, that Bryan was again being boosted up over Nigel no matter what McGuinness accomplished, and even in defeat “The American Dragon” was being praised.
To make matters worse, at ROH's DRIVEN PPV event that aired in September 2007, the two faced off in their first ROH singles match since EPIC ENCOUNTER II, only this time rather than a championship, it was a future World Title match on the line. A bloody Bryan Danielson managed to secure Cattle Mutilation to score the victory and the title shot, but come MAN UP when he actually got the opportunity, Bryan lost the match via referee stoppage when Morishima elected to brutalize Danielson's still healing eye. Though there were so many intangible similarities between Nigel and Bryan (their love for wrestling, their commitment to improvement, their never-give-up attitudes), it looked more and more likely that they'd also share the inability to defeat Takeshi Morishima. Then UNDENIABLE happened, and Nigel McGuinness, with his barrage of brutal lariats, found a way to put Mori's shoulders done long enough for a three count, and he was declared the new ROH World Champion. It didn't take long for Danielson to try and spoil the jubilation, but the whole of the ROH locker room stopped that tantrum as Morishima himself handed the belt over to McGuinness in an ultimate sign of respect.
Nigel McGuinness finally accomplished something Bryan Danielson had not when he defeated Takeshi Morishima, and now their 2006 roles were reversed with Danielson as challenger to Nigel's crown. Their first meeting after Nigel's title victory took place during the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 2007 tournament rather than as a championship bout, and ended in a 20 minute draw where neither advanced to the Elimination Finals. Their clash seemed an inevitability though, but then something happened, Nigel suffered a torn tricep muscle during a tour of England, and with the options either being to take a few shows off to let it heal on its own, or get surgery and risk a whole lot more time than that, Nigel chose the former. Though unscheduled, he fought Chris Hero at GLORY BY HONOR VI, N1 in Philadelphia in his street clothes, but the following night in New York City, when he informed the fans he would not able to compete, a small portion of the crowd vociferously booed him.
Unfortunately the same song would play just a month later at FINAL BATTLE 2007 when, after being concussed while defending his ROH World Title the night prior, Nigel was forced to sit on the sidelines for ROH's year-end event. The boos from the New York crowd were even stronger this time around, particularly when Nigel told them all he would not vacate the title due to this injury, and though in front of the fans he wore a face of defiance in response to their jeers, internally he was torn up about the fans who'd so rabidly cheered ahis scent now calling for his head because he was hurt doing what they supposedly loved to see him do. He knew Samoa Joe didn't receive that response when he was hurt in 2006 and was unable to compete on several shows, including FINAL BATTLE 2006, or when Bryan Danielson was hurt and left the company for four months to heal up. Nigel missed three nights of fights in one month's time as a result of two completely different situations, but the fans turned on him like he was the worst of humanity for showing some sense of self-preservation.
It slowly unraveled Nigel's psyche, and by his 6th ANNIVERSARY SHOW defense against Danielson, there was nothing but blatant hostility between Nigel, the ROH fans, and the ROH locker room. Earlier in the night, he goaded Danielson into agreeing to a “no head shots” rule for the bout, and when Bryan hit a back suplex, McGuinness accused him of targeting the head, and tried to walk out of the match. Showing solidarity, members of the locker room blocked Nigel's path of escape up the ramp and ROH's then-owner Cary Silken called for the match to be restarted immediately. The defending champion went on the offensive, but no matter what Nigel did, Bryan refused to go for his head even when the opportunity presented itself. McGuinness, on the other hand, drilled Bryan with an unexpected headbutt, rained down Bryan's own signature elbows into his challenger's skull, then slapped on his London Dungeon arm submission on the already unconscious Danielson. Just as happened at UNIFIED, the referee had no choice but to stop the match, but this time in favor of Nigel McGuinness.
As heated as their rivalry got in 2006, this subterfuge on Nigel's part signaled a new aspect to their issues, and showed the world a darker side of McGuinness. In his days as Pure Champion, Nigel was capable of stretching the rules in order to maintain his championship status, but he still played within its unique set of restrictions. This was outright deceit on Nigel's part, abusing the willingness of Danielson to “play fair” in this fight and not take advantage of the champion's clearly exaggerated weakness in order to garner an advantage. He played off the sympathy of a fellow wrestler, someone who knows the kind of effect head trauma can have on a person, even in 2008 when our understanding of the situation was nowhere near as developed as it is today. Nigel broke that gentleman's agreement with Bryan, and in turn demonstrated how little he thought of the ROH faithful and any concern they had for his well-being. From that point forward, Nigel had an enemy in Bryan Danielson, rather than a rival, and had made himself unquestionably a villain in the eyes of the Ring of Honor fans.
A few weeks after the two would end up on opposite sides of a tag team match at DOUBLE FEATURE, an event that played host to scenes filmed for Darren Aronofsky's movie The Wrestler, and a contest where Danielson and Austin Aries defeated McGuinness and Go Shiozaki. They remained reluctant partners in tours of Pro Wrestling NOAH, put together due to their status as the gaijin talent on the tour, but the reality at that point was nothing but bad blood. It would be four months before Bryan and Nigel met in the ring again one-on-one, though that was during a sojourn to Germany's wXw, with their next ROH bout occurring at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR VI inside the historic Hammerstein Ballroom. That night Nigel McGuinness successfully retained his title over Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, and Tyler Black, with Bryan's elimination coming at Nigel's hand but only due to the vicious assaulted perpetrated on him by Claudio after his elimination at Bryan's hands.
Another tag match at NIGHT OF THE BUTCHER II gave Bryan a victory over Nigel, this time with Claudio as his partner, and they'd meet once more in singles competition, albeit without Nigel's ROH World Title on the line, during Ring of Honor's Battle of the Best event in Tokyo. Bryan scored another victory over Nigel that evening, earning himself one more title shot, a bout at the RISING ABOVE 2008 pay-per-view event where Nigel retained, and whose outcome was heavily influenced by the involvement of Castagnoli.
The two men would have one more tag bout at the WRESTLING AT THE GATEWAY event, but the hostilities between Jerry Lynn/Nigel and Bryan/Claudio were more the driving force of that match than the Nigel/Bryan issues. However that match is notable because the two men would not face each other in the ring again until GLORY BY HONOR VIII: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN on September 26, 2009, the final Ring of Honor match for both men.
In the nine months between that tag bout and their mutual farewell to the house that built them, Nigel lost the ROH World Championship to Jerry Lynn at SUPERCARD OF HONOR IV in April 2009, and frankly struggled with injuries incurred during his reign for the remaining five months of his ROH tenure. Wrestling just nine matches after losing his title, Nigel did have a pair of opportunities to regain the World Title during that time frame, but failed on both occasions. Danielson, following that RISING ABOVE loss to Nigel, was not only part of Lynn's first World Title defense, he would get three other World Championship opportunities before his exit, as well as three World Tag Title matches. And put in 26 matches in that same time frame.
Then when the news broke on 8/24/09 that Danielson had signed a deal with the largest wrestling company in the world, a dream that Nigel had held dear to his heart since leaving Wembley Stadium 17 years prior, ROH announced an entire FINAL COUNTDOWN TOUR devoted to recognizing Bryan's contributions to the company, and where they allowed him to handpick his final six matches. On September 4th, just six days before the FINAL COUNTDOWN TOUR was set to commence, ROH also announced that Nigel McGuinness had come to an agreement with that company “in principal”, meaning the basic details were discussed rather than specifics, and nothing had been set in stone. Despite the same day being both men's departure, the tour name did not change from one synonymous with “The American Dragon”, after all the commemorative t-shirts had already been printed, and the nature of Nigel's nagging injuries meant he was only available for three matches rather than the six Bryan would take on.
Fans certainly questioned why it was still dubbed FINAL COUNTDOWN despite both men leaving ROH, Nigel himself did as well, and it no doubt took its toll on his already nagging sense of insecurity where Danielson was concerned, but the reality was that the wheels were already in motion, and the process of merchandise and advertising was already too far along to change. It was never meant as disrespectful to McGuinness, not after all he contributed to Ring of Honor, but sadly that reality wasn't necessarily seen by Nigel. Two years later, when he returned to ROH in 2011 to work initially as a color commentator but eventually as an authority figure over the company, Nigel could be heard making comments about that 2009 series of events. Suffice to say even as they bid farewell to ROH, with the belief they were going to take on the world together, there were high levels of jealousy and insecurity but they only traveled Nigel to Bryan not the other way around. The statistical reality of their time spent in ROH is this:
Nigel:
ROH World Champion: 545 Days, 38 Defense
ROH Pure Champion: 350 Days, 17 Defenses
Bryan
ROH World Champion: 462 Days, 38 Defenses
ROH Pure Champion: <1 Day, 0 Defenses
One-On-One ROH Record
5-3-2 (Bryan)
Multi-Man ROH Record (Trios/Four Corner Survival)
1-1 (Nigel)
Other ROH Records (Tag/Trios/Multi-Man)
6-2 (Bryan)
Non-ROH One-On-One Records
3-0 (Bryan)
Non-ROH Multi-Man Record (Trios/Four Corner Survival)
1-0 (Nigel)
Interestingly enough, in the eleven matches they worked together as a team for NOAH, they went 6-5, and split their two attempts at working together in ROH. Imagine the force they could've been as a tag team if the two men were able to work together, instead they gave Ring of Honor one of the greatest rivalries of its 22 year existence, produced genuinely epic matches that were widely influential on the generation of professional wrestlers that followed them, and yet so few got to see what Nigel McGuinness brought to the table as an in-ring combatant while the eyes of the world were on Bryan Danielson for the better part of the last fifteen years. See while Danielson would go on to compete for the aforementioned wrestling company for the next seven years, engaging in memorable moments and matches, as fans rallied behind him with one simple three letter affirmation. Even when he had to retire from the sport in 2016, fans continued to support him no matter what, be it serving as an authority figure on that television program, or as a host for various shows, his fans were there with him every step of the way, so calling it a joyous moment in 2018 when Danielson returned to the ring would be quite an understatement.
After two years of fighting for his career, of his family supporting him as he did everything he possibly could to get back to doing the only thing he loved besides them, Bryan was finally cleared to step between the ropes again, and for three years he competed in a collection of amazing bouts that only further cemented his status as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all-time, and that was before he came to All Elite Wrestling at ALL OUT 2021.
As for Nigel, he didn't make it onto that stage, at least not as a professional wrestler, and not for several years after Danielson arrived on that international platform. For Nigel that “in principle” part of his agreement turned out to be crucial as he failed the required physicals largely due to the injuries he sustained in ROH as World Champion, thus his dream of competing on that stage was dashed and he had to travel a different path than his greatest rival. For those who'd watched Nigel throughout his career, there was something noticeably different about him from that point on, as if the spark inside had been dimmed by that perceived failure.
Nigel continued competing for another year until a viral infection shelved him from in-ring competition for fourteen months, the longest he'd gone without competing inside a squared circle since the day he started, but once that was treated, he'd return to fighting in November 2011 with the intent of closing the book on his wrestling career at the end of the year. McGuinness documented this journey in The Last of McGuinness, a crowd-funded documentary that he produced himself, and is one of the most emotional, gut-wrenching looks at the journey of a professional wrestler imaginable.
Over the course of its run time, Nigel lets it all out, every joy and frustration, every bit of pain and any happiness he found. Nigel lets the fans see him, warts and all, and experience the cycle of loss and (partial) acceptance that came with the end of his in-ring career. There's even a touching moment shared between Nigel and Bryan, albeit via text, that tied into Bryan's first World Championship victory for that wrestling promotion. In the context of the film, it felt like a good moment, a moment of recognition and appreciation, but looking at it now, with everything Nigel has said about Danielson since coming to AEW, perhaps it was rather something that settled in Nigel's brain only to continue eating away at those feelings of jealousy.
Nigel eventually came back to Ring of Honor to serve as color commentator and an authority figure, but that ended in 2016 when McGuinness finally got his opportunity to walk onto that big stage, but as a commentator rather than professional wrestler. McGuinness excelled at that job, putting his all into it and learning at the side of some true commentary greats, but it still always felt like his heart was in the ring, and he longed to return to the days of taking people's heads off with his cornucopia of lariats. Though he and Bryan were technically working for the same company at the same time, Nigel never had an opportunity to call any of Danielson's matches, but the two did find common ground in seeing their dreams taken away as their own bodies betrayed them.
But where Bryan found his way back to the inside of the ropes, Nigel did not, instead serving as commentator until October of 2022, where upon he was released from that gig, and sent the wrestling fandom into a tizzy about where he may end up next. As recent history tells us, it was a return home to ROH with SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 and then the transition to COLLISION later that year, but all serving as a commentator though it was quite obvious Nigel himself was in tremendous condition.
The other thing quite obvious with Nigel back in the same sphere as Bryan Danielson, and actively calling matches in which Bryan was involved, was that the animosity and jealousy Nigel carried through their Ring of Honor tenure didn't mellow. In fact it came across like Bryan's successes had only stoked those flames of insecurity, that watching Danielson rise like a phoenix from career-ending injuries only made the disdain more intense, and Nigel let the world hear it every chance he got. Bryan didn't even have to be on-screen for Nigel to find a way to take a dig at “Clamdigger Danielson”, and when Eddie Kingston defeated Bryan at REVOLUTION 2024 in their Continental Crown bout, Nigel jumped out of cheer in the biggest outburst of joy one could imagine, not because of Eddie's success but rather in response to Bryan's failure.
That, more than anything, told the tale of just how Nigel stands in regards to Bryan in 2024, but it didn't seem like it would ever be anything more than just verbal jousting until McGuinness, in the best shape of his life, achieved his life-long dream of fighting at Wembley Stadium when he entered the Casino Gauntlet:
Nigel didn't win the bout, that reward went to Christian Cage, but it showed the world that McGuinness was once again in it to win it, and the reception he got from the fans in Wembley was deafening to be sure. Fans had clamored for this moment for a dozen years, and they finally got it on the biggest event of AEW's year. Just being involved may have been enough for Nigel, the ability to say he got to wrestle in Wembley if only Bryan Danielson hadn't won the World Title from Swerve Strickland later in the night. In that moment Nigel's failure to win the Casino Gauntlet meant he may never get an opportunity to fight Bryan again, but more than that, it's possible that in Nigel's eyes, Danielson found a way to upstage him once again. Instead of talking about Nigel's return, it became all about “Brittle Bryan”, and McGuinness became an afterthought.
Then, just over the course of the last week, with the combination of Jon Moxley's assault on Bryan and his challenge to Darby Allin for GRAND SLAM 2024 opportunity presented itself to Nigel. He went to AEW President Tony Khan about it, he went in front of the world to and made a challenge for the match, and if Danielson is cleared to compete by AEW Medical, it will be “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson versus Nigel McGuinness one-on-one at Arthur Ashe, one day shy of the 15th anniversary of their last match together!
We don't yet know if Bryan will be there on September 25th in any condition to fight, hopefully we learn more about that this week with AEW in Wilkes-Barre, PA and Springfield, MA. However this goes down at GRAND SLAM 2024, Nigel McGuinness has gotten some small victory over the last month. Between getting back in the ring at Wembley, watching Danielson suffer at the hands of men he thought were his brothers, and getting the chance to make this grandstand challenge, he has found little successes. If Bryan gets in the ring, Nigel has the chance to decimate him on international television, and show the world why he was such an influential figure on the wrestling landscape. If Bryan doesn't fight, then Nigel gets the bragging rights of being the man Danielson was too scared to face; either way, Nigel is in it to win it...
ATTN: HONOR CLUB SUBSCRIBERS
Just added to the BEST OF ROH Section, the “Danielson vs. McGuinness” compilation highlighting their epic rivalry across the landscape of Ring of Honor. This is one of the most definitive collection of history-making matches Ring of Honor ever created, and it is now available here for Honor Club subscribers!