LogFAQs > #949336113

NBIceman posted...

Along with my match here, I want to remind everybody that I'm keeping a running archive of all the matches in this topic in case anyone ever wants to go back to watch missed ones or something.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VXMwXb2uwSjPwWNR0BUhh9xNa68amq8dMeXwS_sY5h4/edit?usp=sharing

And with that...

Iceman's Match of the Week

Nigel McGuinness vs Austin Aries
Ring of Honor
Rising Above - December 29, 2007
Match Link: https://www.bilibili.com/video/av28429779/

Oh, how quickly the tides can turn in pro wrestling. Nigel McGuinness, the conquering hero who got an absolutely huge pop and a big-time celebration when he finally put Takeshi Morishima down to win the World Title, was already beginning to fall out of favor with some ROH fans just a couple months into his reign, which in this match sets up what is very often a huge strength of old-school Ring of Honor matches: atmosphere. The crowd is split and hot from the very beginning, and it gives this title challenge that oft-touted big fight feel right off the bat.

But the really cool part is that its also the impetus for the spot that makes this match pretty singularly infamous. Nigel almost immediately gets into a recurring shouting battle with some front-row fans, which Aries takes offense to first in the form of a bitch slap and then, shortly thereafter, a high-speed dive that sends his unfocused opponents forehead straight into the barricade. Its ugly; the champion is legitimately knocked loopy here, and he very clearly has no idea where he is for a decent part of this match.

Youd think thatd be a recipe for disaster but, at least match-quality-wise, thats not the case. This is the best defense of one of my all-time favorite title reigns. Ariess predilection for focusing on the heads of his opponents jives pretty well as a story component with the shoot injury (especially since hes actually pretty careful with his head shots for most of the match when you look close). Its very much a car-crash-you-cant-look-away-from kind of thing thats just the right amount of uncomfortable and unpredictable.

Look, I know we all hate Aries, and he comes by that honestly, but there werent many years in the 2000s where you couldnt make a compelling argument that he was a strong contender for the title of best wrestler in the world. And his performance is awesome here. He takes two absolutely wicked bumps to the outside floor, not to mention the one on Nigels last lariat that all but decapitates him.

Nigels performance is obviously the impressive one, though. Its gutsy and stupid in equal measure, and really, is there a better combination of words to define pro wrestling?

Took longer than expected to recover from the holidays and my job so my apologies.

2007 is generally not one of my favorite years for ROH. I kind of consider it the point where Gabe has gotten bored/ran out of ideas with the promotion and so you get this odd period where he tries making it proto-DGUSA with factions like the No Remorse Corps, Vulture Squad (ugh), Age of the Fall (UGH), The Resilience (I can't believe I even remember this one), and so on. While you do still get the indie gem here and there this year, it feels like there's less of them than previous years and, even then, the build to the matches usually isn't very good.

I was struggling to get into this match at the opening. Aries is a fantastic wrestler and, by this time, he had it all figured out. Nigel, on the other hand, I could see why people were turning on him. He's not the Nigel people look back on fondly (in terms of personality) yet, but he's still a fine wrestler. I don't know, but the way they worked those first couple of minutes had me checking the time bar to see if I was going to need to prepare myself for a 45 minute marathon. And then Aries guillotined Nigel on the barricade with that dive. Holy crap. It's weird how one scary spot that actually messed a guy up for a period in the match ended up turning everything around. Aries does a great job keeping the match together while Nigel is getting his bearings and limiting the amount of strikes he does to Nigel's head (just wish ROH cameramen wouldn't zoom in on period where Aries is clearly pulling his shots but everyone's improvising at that point).

There's still some clunkiness throughout the match even after Nigel somewhat gets his senses back. Particularly after that corner dropkick spot where Aries was going to dive but Nigel stayed down longer. It helped with the set-up to that dive counter but, if I were watching back in 2007, I would be worried about allowing Nigel to continue. Aries, however, works his ass off to give Nigel the great showing he needed at this point. It's unfortunate that Nigel got messed up so early because a significant portion of the match is a one-man show and that man isn't the one walking away with the belt. Great Austin Aries match and a fine Nigel one for the parts where he was there.