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.
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?
I have to admit it took me a while to get into this one - I've never been a Nigel guy and Austin is Austin. Was really weird seeing aries with long hair again actually.
But there that really vicious looking Tope here that busted open Nigel let me know we weren't dealing with the standard stuff here. Just vicious stuff.
Here McGuiness being knocked legitimately loopy causes him to work selling his head the whole time, which plays into the psychology of Aries moveset.
The ending sequence was very hot and Aries ultimately was a big enough piece of shit here to get the crowd on Nigels side just in time for the crowd to still pop huge for Nigel at the end.
I do have to disagree with you somewhat - the crowd doesn't feel split so much as like - they don't like anyone here and it felt to me a bit like they were heckling both guys the entire match which is such a weird feel for a big fight.