1, 2, 3, 4, Who's Punk? What's The Score?

Nigel McGuinness VS Kotaro Suzuki - NOAH 7/1/2007

CJD: I've brought up my binder full of matches before, and this is one of those matches that once upon a time I had written down to share with you in person. It's on page 12 out of the 32 pages that are in there currently, and I'd honestly crossed it off a while back just because there's so much else I need to get to. We watched so much NOAH and ROH around this time period, and plenty of both Nigel and Suzuki, that it didn't seem essential after a while. Well I'm happy to have had a reason to revisit it because this match played much better than I remembered. Especially the first half. Nigel works so big, Suzuki builds some nice comebacks, and more than anything this is one of those gems that you never knew you needed to see but damn are you glad it exists.

JJZ: Goddammit! You're so far up my alley I'm about to charge you rent! Nigel was so great, it's a crime that his career ended so early. He was the final chapter in the golden era of ROH. His title run was maybe top ten all-time but that's another conversation for another day. Suzuki plays a fantastic babyface to Nigel's subtle heel. For a foreigner he's getting a really good reaction from the Japanese crowd. I've seen plenty of NOAH matches where the work is excellent but the crowd are mostly silent for the gaijin talent that aren't regulars. Suzuki has a great moveset that pops the crowd for his hopespots. His strength was a nice surprise also. It seems like he had no problem getting the much bigger Nigel up. Good shit CD.

Good Times, Great Memories

Colt Cabana VS Nigel McGuinness - ROH Soccer Riot Match 8/20/2005

JJZ: I know you were live for this match but I'm not sure if you've seen it since. This was all new to me and I loved all this legal action. I remember loving this feud back in the day but  never saw the blow off, so when this popped up I was stoked to watch it. I remember you telling me about the match and I always assumed it was kinda a comedy match. Well it does have some funny spots but damn these two are laying it in. Nigel had such a grittiness to him in ROH. I wish he eased up a little bit in his style to extend his career but you can tell he was always trying to give the fans his all in every match. In a time when everything ROH was doing was gold I can see this match getting overlooked. But it tells a great story with awesome false finishes and a great ending. Hope you don't remember too much from it.

CJD: This match was a shining star on one of the more lackluster ROH shows I went to in this era. Part of the problem was this NJ crowd was god awful. The fact they hook them as much as they do here is an accomplishment by itself. I haven't seen this one since being there live and "got jokes" Prazak & Leonard actually made me laugh once or twice and do a nice job on commentary. I didn't remember a lot of of the particulars and it didn't disappoint revisiting it nearly 15 years later. Both Cabana and Nigel had some really underrated feuds around this time and this was certainly one of them. You nailed it, this was entertaining as hell but also physical and heated. They strike a great balance and blowoff an undercard feud about as effectively as you can.

I had almost forgotten what a great heel Nigel was in this era. He gives Colt so much in this match but never loses his heat and puts some stink on it the whole way through.

JJZ: Such a good heel. The level of talent on that roster was stupid.