October 6th was the one year anniversary of the crowd in Edison, NJ exploding after Nigel McGuinness pinned Takeshi Morishima in the main event of the "Undeniable" pay-per-view to become the new ROH World Champion. Now over 365 days later McGuinness keeps growing stronger and gaining momentum as ROH World Champion to become the leading candidate for wrestler of the year.
Nigel's reign started on shaky ground as he battled through injuries including a memorable defense against Chris Hero at "Glory By Honor VI: Night 1" in Philadelphia on 11/2/07. The fans began to grow impatient with McGuinness and his injury problems. This caused Nigel to see the fans in a different light. In fact, you could say that the World Title went to McGuinness' head as his attitude towards the fans and the entire ROH locker room changed. Nigel's string of match of the year candidates began at the "Rising Above" PPV taping when he defeated Austin Aries on 12/26/07.
The World Champion made it past his toughest weekend to date by defeating Hero in a Steel Cage Match at "Breakout" and then Roderick Strong at "Without Remorse" on 1/25 & 26. Then everything changed in February at ROH's 6th Anniversary Show. The divorce between McGuinness and the ROH faithful was completed as ROH celebrated its birthday. Nigel showed exactly what kind of person he is in his bout against Bryan Danielson that night.
One of Nigel's most memorable title defenses came next when he defeated Tyler Black at "Take No Prisoners" in March in another match of the year candidate PPV main event. Nigel added another epic title defense at "Supercard Of Honor III" when he won the rematch against Aries. McGuinness had now hit his stride as World Champion.
McGuinness only picked up steam, but he was incorporating more shady tactics as seen by his title defenses against Kevin Steen at "Injustice" and "Return Engagement" in April. However, Nigel proved to be too much for Steen by cleanly defeating him in an absolute battle at "Northern Navigation" in Toronto in July. Meanwhile, Claudio Castagnoli stepped up as a top challenger.
McGuinness vs. Castagnoli would main event in front of ROH's largest crowd ever at "A New Level" in the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan in May. Although McGuinness won, Claudio came close enough to earn a PPV World Title shot at "New Horizons" in July. The contest earned rave reviews and gave McGuinness another tremendous PPV bout on his resume.
McGuinness had an overabundance of confidence at this point. While most World Champions tend to break down at around the six month mark due to the demanding schedule, Nigel was only tightening his grip on the belt. ROH presented its toughest test to McGuinness at "Death Before Dishonor VI" in early August in Manhattan. The match only gave Nigel more momentum as he outlasted arguably his three toughest challengers, Tyler Black, Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli, in an elimination bout that can be called another match of the year candidate.
Since August, McGuinness has faced tough challenges from El Generico, Roderick Strong and Jimmy Jacobs. Generico brought the fans to their feet with exciting efforts in both Cleveland at "Age Of The Insanity" and Philadelphia at "Glory By Honor VII." As Nigel's title reign continues the fans just want to see him lose more and more. So far, Nigel has done his best to figuratively spit in the faces of the ROH faithful by retaining the title no matter how close the challenger comes to victory.
McGuinness is now only three months away from passing Bryan Danielson as the second longest reigning ROH World Champion behind Samoa Joe. He has defended the belt from Ireland to Japan. He has turned back all the above mentioned challengers and several others including KENTA, Erick Stevens, Ruckus, BJ Whitmer, Jay Briscoe and Go Shiozaki to name a few. Right now Nigel is like a runaway freight train with no signs of the brakes being slammed down.
However, the road of the World Champion keeps getting tougher. There are showdowns on the horizon with Bryan Danielson on PPV and Naomichi Marufuji. There is no telling who else will step up to challenge for the World Title on ROH's rich talent roster. Nigel will need to keep an eye on Brent Albright, Erick Stevens, Jerry Lynn, Davey Richards and even The Necro Butcher. Of course, there is also Tyler Black, who has yet to receive a straight up shot at the championship. The wealth of challengers only intensifies with time.
Nigel has handled the tough schedule and demanding matches so far without signs of breaking down. He has expressed no desire to slow his workload up. Now several questions remain. Will he make it through the entire calendar year of 2008 as World Champion? Who, if anyone, will rise up to end the reign? Can he pass Bryan Danielson's 15-month mark and challenge Samoa Joe's 21-month run? No matter what the answers are to these questions or if you love or hate Nigel, you have to give him respect. He has now accomplished what only three other men could and has kept a grip on the World Title through a year of tough, memorable and exciting title defenses. Congratulations go out to the World Champ on his milestone.
