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Thursday night is upon us once again and with that comes the latest edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB featuring a Proving Ground bout between ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Lady Frost, plus Yuka Sakazaki versus Viva Van, Nick Wayne in action, MxM Collection returning to Ring of Honor, and Spanish Announce Project in tag team competition! Plus, after WRESTLEDREAM 2024, it looks like there's a new King of Television in Ring of Honor: ROH ON HONOR CLUB gets underway at 7pm ET/6pm CT exclusively on Honor Club, your home for ROH's weekly offering every Thursday night, as well as the place to experience over 20 years of pro wrestling history, featuring competitors such as The Briscoes, Adam Cole, Jay Lethal, Kyle O'Reilly, The Young Bucks, and more, as well as fresh content dropping weekly in the “ Best of ROH” section! PROVING GROUND... ROH Women's World Champion Athena vs. Lady Frost It has been 539 days since Lady Frost last stepped into the ring with “The Fallen Goddess” Athena, and remarkably that match during HONOR CLUB #9 was also a Proving Ground battle! At that point Athena was just 138 days into her record-shattering championship reign, but even at that point, the second-longest reigning Women's World Champion in ROH history. That night in Pittsburgh, Athena dispatched Frost in a little over five minutes, shattering the woman's hopes of earning a future championship match via 10 minute draw. Since that meeting Athena has gone on to turn away 19 additional Proving Ground challenges, bringing her grand total of Eliminator/Proving Ground victories to 31 matches. Add that to her 22 successful title defenses over the last 677 days, and there is no question that Athena is the backbone of ROH at this moment.  That being said, it seems all that success has gone to her head because since DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 in July the champion has only fought three-matches, with just one of those being a Proving Ground bout, choosing instead to focus on throwing the perfect celebration for her record-setting championship reign when she's not running in terror from Abadon. She's alienated Bille Starkz, overly praised Lexy Nair for even the smallest thing, and seems rather unfocused on the prospect of competition.  Perhaps that makes her easier pickings for a challenger as hungry as Lady Frost, not easy mind you, there is no reality where “The Fallen Goddess” would ever be an easy foe but perhaps an easier fight than it would be if she was 100% zoned in on the fight at hand. Will we see Athena fail on the Proving Ground for the first time in her historic reign, or will Lady Frost come up short tonight as she did back in April 2023? SINGLES MATCH... “The Magical Girl” Yuka Sakazaki vs. Viva Van It's been six months since we last saw Yuka Sakazaki compete in Ring of Honor, a victory over Leila Grey during HONOR CLUB 61, and though it took place prior to the injury suffered in her RAMAPGE bout with Emi Sakura, it actually aired several days after. That victory over Leila was one that “The Magical Girl” hoped was the start of her road back to contention, to earning another shot at Athena and the ROH Women's World Title though ideally with a better outcome than their SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 fight. Unfortunately it was Yuka's last broadcast match before her return on the September 14th COLLISION, but the good news is that she has a second opportunity to build her ROH resume and it starts tonight against Viva Van! It's been about two months since Viva's last ROH fight, a loss to Harley Cameron during HONOR CLUB 77, but she's had several tastes with the top in her handful of ROH bouts, including a Women's World Championship match with Mercedes Martinez and participating in the ROH Women's World TV Title Tournament, not to mention vying for the CMLL World Women's Title the night Willow Nightingale claimed it for herself, but just a taste is not enough! Viva wants a title to call her own, so Yuka is in for a fight tonight during HONOR CLUB! Will “The Magical Girl” have a successful return to ROH competition or can Viva Van score the first victory of her ROH experience? ONE-ON-ONE... AR Fox vs. Jack Cartwheel Ahead of his fight with Ricochet this Saturday night on COLLISION, AR Fox returns to ROH competition against a man he faced in a pair of Four Corner Survival matches earlier this year, but he's never fought one-on-one: Jack Cartwheel! We haven't seen Cartwheel in ROH competition since HONOR CLUB 58, but he's been a busy man competing all across the country, in the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, and of course his All Elite Wrestling bout against Nick Wayne. Now he's bringing all that experience back to Ring of Honor in hopes of squashing any momentum AR Fox hopes to build before his Ricochet bout. It's a big night for both these men; who will rise to the occasion?  SINGLES MATCH... Willie Mack vs. Komander ***WINNER EARNS ROH WORLD TV TITLE MATCH*** It's been a minute since we last saw Willie Mack in ROH competition, a victory over Exodus Prime on HONOR CLUB 81 but he's back in action tonight with a fight against a man he's quite familiar with from AAA combat, as well as their lone ROH meeting in the aforementioned Four Corner Survival with Cartwheel and AR Fox. Komander is coming in on a three match ROH win streak, definitely on a roll as he aims towards the World Television Championship held by “The Machine” Brian Cage. Can the high-flying luchador continue to soar to victory, or will Willie knock him down to the ground tonight on HONOR CLUB? ALSO IN ACTION: -Atlantis Jr. vs. Jon Cruz! -MxM COLLECTION! -The Patriarchy's Nick Wayne!! -Spanish Announce Project of Angelico & Serpentico!!! -And More!!!!

The AEW & Ring of Honor Family, along with the wrestling world, mourn the passing of Joe Koff. Our thoughts are with his family and his friends.

ROH World TV Championship Match! Atlantis Jr. (c.) vs. “The Machine” Brian Cage! Cage spiked Atlantis with a spinebuster in the center of the ring. Cage rattled Atlantis with a jumping knee strike. Atlantis connected with a diving cross body press. Atlantis followed up with a tope suicida. Atlantis cracked Cage with a thrust kick, followed by a frog splash for a near fall! Cage countered a hurracanrana from the top rope with an avalanche power bomb. Cage clobbered Atlantis with a discus lariat and then a Drill Claw, pinning Atlantis Jr. and becoming the new ROH World TV champion!

Ring of Honor Wrestling is ready to bring the action tonight during HONOR CLUB where ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe will be in Proving Ground action against former ROH Pure Champion Josh Woods, The Infantry will take on Shane Taylor Promotions in tag team competition, and ROH Women's World TV Champion Red Velvet will put her title on the line against Diamante! Plus we will see Lance Archer in action on the heels of joining The Don Callis Family, the former Women's World TV Champ Billie Starkz will be in action as well, and we hear NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd is coming to ROH for the first time with an Open Challenge laid out on the table! ROH ON HONOR CLUB begins at 7pm ET/6pm CT exclusively on Honor Club, the destination for ROH's weekly programming as well as the home for more than 20 years of pro wrestling history, featuring men like Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, former ROH Pure Champion Josh Woods, and a special surprise dropping today in the “Best of ROH” section that will not put you to sleep! ROH WOMEN'S WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH... Red Velvet(c) vs. Diamante Diamante and the ROH Women's World TV Champion are no strangers to one another, they've been going back-and-forth in All Elite Wrestling since 2021 and the February 9th edition of DARK match won by Red Velvet. Yet in the three-plus years since that encounter, the two women have only clashed one other time in head-to-head competition, and that took place on the 6/1/21 edition of DARK in another bout where Red was victorious. They've had tags and trios since, even a Four Corner Survival during HONOR CLUB #49 earlier this year, but not another one-on-one contest before tonight. Tonight they meet once again, only now the ROH Women's World TV Championship will be on the line in Red Velvet's first defense since defeating Billie Starkz at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024. She's turned away Proving Ground challenges from Allysin Kay and Lady Frost, but now that the title is actually on the line, can the champion have the same success? Diamante is coming into this with a 47 second victory in her last ROH bout just a few weeks ago, not to mention that brutal Lights Out victory over Leyla Hirsch in July and the subsequent Texas Death Match at DBD '24 shortly thereafter, matches that took time off her career, but honed her to a deadly edge. Are those experiences what Diamante needed to finally put a title around her waist in Ring of Honor? We will find out tonight when the ROH Women's World TV Championship is at stake!  PROVING GROUND... ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe vs. Premier Athletes' Josh Woods Though he's got a ROH World Championship match with Chris Jericho set for WRESTLEDREAM 2024 in just two days, Mark Briscoe is stepping onto the Proving Ground with one of the top grapplers in pro wrestling today: “The Technical Beast” Josh Woods! A former ROH Pure Champion, for nearly eight years Josh Woods has demonstrated to the ROH faithful why he's a competitor to be feared, making his initial impact by winning the 2017 Top Prospect Tournament and stepping into the ring during that first year with foes like Jay Briscoe, Shane Taylor, Hangman Page, Jay Lethal, and even challenging then-ROH World TV Champion Kenny King for his title.  With each passing year of ROH competition, Woods grew stronger and more confident in that ring, bringing his impressive technical skills to bear in the 2020 ROH Pure Championship Tournament where he defeated Kenny King and PJ Black before being eliminated in the Semifinals of the tournament. Even though he fell short in the tournament, Woods kept his devotion to the Pure Division strong by competing in Pure Rules contests at every opportunity, leading to him laying claim to the title at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2021! For 201 days Woods reigned as champion, amassing seven defenses in competition both in ROH and around the independent wrestling landscape, before finally being dethroned by Wheeler Yuta at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2022. Since then he's challenged Samoa Joe for the ROH World TV Title, Claudio Castagnoli for the ROH World Title, and Katsuyori Shibata for the ROH Pure Championship. He's won 10 of his last 12 one-on-one contests since that Shibata fight, and now looks to earn himself another shot at the ROH World Championship in this third Proving Ground match of his ROH career. He's 0-2 in the previous Proving Ground outings, one a Four Corner Survival and the other a Six Man Mayhem, and 0-3 in previous head-to-head battles against Mark Briscoe, but all that was before the Premier Athletes were part of his life, before the assistance of “Smart” Mark Sterling, Ariya Daivari, and Tony Nese became a concern for the men Josh Woods fought. Can this be the night Woods breaks his losing streak to Mark Briscoe and earns himself a shot at the winner of this Saturday night's match at WRESTLEDREAM 2024?  TAG TEAM BATTLE... Shane Taylor Promotions (ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty & Shane Taylor) vs. The Infantry (Capt. Shawn Dean & Carlie Bravo) This isn't the first dance between Shane Taylor Promotions and The Infantry; in fact the second match Lee Moriarty fought at Shane Taylor's side took place during HONOR CLUB #33 last year and The Infantry stood as their opponents in battle. The Infantry came back from that with an eight-man tag victory four weeks later at HONOR CLUB #37 which in turn led to a STP victory in Three-Way Tag competition on HONOR CLUB #45, and culminated their tag team rivalry in a 2-of-3 Falls battle won by STP at HONOR CLUB #46.  HONOR CLUB #50 also hosted an eight-man victory for the STP, Cole Karter, Griff Garrison quartet, but since then both teams have gone their separate ways in Ring of Honor. So consider tonight's tag team bout a rivalry renewed as Capt. Shawn Dean and Carlie Bravo once more step onto the battlefield with Shane Taylor and ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty! The Infantry are coming into this after a frustrating loss to The Outrunners last week while Taylor and Moriarty are 5-0 in ROH tag team competition, including those three victories over The Infantry; can Capt. and Carlie finally score a victory over their ROH rivals or will it be another week of disappointment as every team in ROH is jockeying for a shot at ROH World Tag Champions Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara! NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP OPEN CHALLENGE... Gabe Kidd(c) vs. ???? Gabe Kidd has reigned as NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion for 151 days since defeating Eddie Kingston at NJPW STRONG RESURGENCE 2024 in their No Rope Last Man Standing fight. Kingston has been on the shelf since that battle while Kidd has gone on to defend the title against both Ultimo Guerrero and Lio Rush, as well as challenged Kaito Kiyomiya for the GHC Heavyweight Championship in Pro Wrestling NOAH, fought in the 2024 G1 Climax Tournament, battled in RevPro, fought on the UK leg of CMLL's FANTASICA MANIA 2024 tour, and of course thrown down in NJPW with his BULLET CLUB War Dogs. He's been a busy man, fighting everyone he can and instigating everyone else, but tonight it's time for Gabe Kidd to make his ROH-proper debut and what better way to do so than by laying out an Open Challenge for his NJPW STRONG Openweight Title! This isn't Kidd's first dance with ROH; he actually challenged Jay Lethal unsuccessfully for the ROH World Title back in December 2018 on an independent show in London and fought Kingston in a Continental Crown match for NJPW STRONG at BATTLE IN THE VALLEY 2024 where the ROH World, NJPW STRONG, and AEW Continental titles were all at stake, but tonight will mark his first match inside an ROH ring.  Who will answer the call and step up to challenge the most unhinged competitor in New Japan Pro Wrestling? Watch the above embedded video to find out... ALSO IN ACTION: -Former ROH Women's World TV Champion Billie Starkz! -“The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer!

Ring of Honor World Title Mark Briscoe (c) vs. Chris Jericho Mark Briscoe defends the Ring of Honor World Championship against former world champion Chris Jericho at WrestleDream live on Pay Per View, Saturday, October 12 in Tacoma WA!

Atlantis Jr. (c) vs. Brian Cage The last time Atlantis Jr. and Brian Cage battled over the ROH World TV title was in a Survival Of The Fittest match at Death Before Dishonor! Now they clash again at AEW WrestleDream ZERO HOUR Live on Pay Per View, Saturday, October 12 in Tacoma WA!

It is Thursday night and we know what that means: an all-new episode of ROH ON HONOR CLUB for the ROH faithful! This week we've got a ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty puts his title on the line against Preston Vance, former ROH World TV Champion Tony Deppen returns to take on Action Andretti, and ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz step into tag team competition! Plus we shall see Johnny TV go one-on-one with Komander and Dark Order take on Iron Savages, as well as both Brian Cage and Abadon getting into the fights!  The bouts get underway at 7pm ET/6pm CT exclusively on Honor Club, the home for Ring of Honor Wrestling's weekly show as well as the home for its 20+ years of wrestling history, including the historic rivalry between Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness! ROH PURE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH... “#TaigaStyle” Lee Moriarty(c) vs. Preston Vance 6-0 in ROH competition with three of those victories in singles bouts; it looks like Preston Vance is on quite a roll right now, and that record has earned him a shot at Lee Moriarty and the ROH Pure Championship! This bout marks #Taigastyle's second defense of the gold since beating Wheeler Yuta at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024, and he also has a victory on the Proving Ground over Action Andretti under his belt back on HONOR CLUB #77. It's a solid start to Moriarty's goal of becoming the greatest Pure Champion in history, but he's got a long way to go to reach Nigel McGuinness status, and that means facing all competition worthy of the opportunity!  Vance has certainly earned a title fight in ROH with that record, but this will be the first time the powerhouse has ever fought in a Pure Rules bout, and the unique rules are going to prove a test of his abilities. The Pure landscape tends to be as much about psychological warfare as physical, about manipulating an opponent into exhausting rope breaks, or even getting themselves disqualified for violating the rules. It's an aspect of the game that Lee Moriarty has been honing since he started his pro wrestling journey, giving him that advantage on paper, but that being said, if Vance locks on his Full Nelson submission in the center of the ring, all the rope breaks in the world may not be enough to save Moriarty's championship run! ONE-ON-ONE... Action Andretti vs. Tony Deppen Former ROH World TV Champion Tony Deppen for the first time since SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024, and he's aiming to show the world why he once held that prestigious championship! Unfortunately he's got tough competition standing in his way in the form of Action Andretti, a man who's won two of his last three singles matches in ROH and is getting ready for battle against House of Black on tomorrow's RAMPAGE! With that consuming Andretti's attention, can Deppen score the victory or will he be Andretti's warm-up for the fight on the horizon? SINGLES MATCH... Johnny TV vs. Komander It's all about that TV time when it comes to Johnny TV, and making sure the world sees his face as much as possible. The best way to insure you get that face time in pro wrestling is to win, and with victories in three of his last four one-on-one bouts, and five ROH victories on the year thus far, Johnny's been getting his far share.  This week, Johnny has to to deal with the high-flying Komander to keep those TV victories coming, and overcoming what this luchador brings to the table is no small task. They've met once before in a Four Corner Survival vying for a shot at the ROH World Title, a match Komander won by pinning Lince Dorado, but this will be the first one-on-one engagement of their careers and it should be quite the spectacular one given the styles of each competitor! TAG TEAM COMPETITION... Iron Savages (Boulder & Jacked Jameson) vs. Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) Last week during HONOR CLUB, the Dark Order combination of Alex Reynolds and Evil Uno were unsuccessful in earning a ROH World Tag Title shot on the Proving Ground, but that doesn't mean it killed their hunger to rip those title from the waists of Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara. Considering Rhodes and Guevara hold victories over the Reynolds/Uno and John Silver/Reynolds combinations, Dark Order will have to fight for their opportunity in tag team competition, and that continues tonight against the Iron Savages combination of Boulder and Jacked Jameson! Coming into tonight the Savage trio have issues of their own pertaining to The Outrunners and Erica Leigh, but Boulder and Jacked Jameson have to focus on the issue at hand with Dark Order. Though they've had a handful of tag matches together for Coastal Championship Wrestling in Florida, this marks the first time Boulder and Jameson have competed as a tag team in ROH meaning they've got their work cut out for them facing a far more experienced duo in Silver and Reynolds. Who will climb up the tag ranks towards those belts around Sammy and Dustin's waists, and who will end up at the back of the line? ALSO FEATURING: -Abadon in action! -“The Machine” Brian Cage in singles competition! -ROH Women's World Champion Athena & Billie Starkz in tag team action! -And More!

Thursday night is upon us once again, that means it is time for another addition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB! This week we've got a Proving Ground match with a future shot at the ROH World Tag Team Titles at stake, Dark Order's John Silver in singles competition, Preston Vance back in ROH action, and a tag team contest pitting The Infantry against Spanish Announce Project! Plus we will see Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony compete, as well as Racheal Ellering and Shane Taylor Promotions' Anthony Ogogo! It's a loaded up night of action for the ROH faithful, and of course there is the fact that ROH Women's World Champion Athena is now the longest reigning champion in Ring of Honor's 22-year history! The bouts get underway at 7pm ET/6pm CT exclusively on Honor Club , the home for Ring of Honor Wrestling's weekly show as well as the home for its 20+ years of wrestling history, including the historic rivalry between Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness that we may see renewed at DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2024 next Wednesday night! PROVING GROUND... ROH World Tag Team Champions Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara vs. Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & Evil Uno) During HONOR CLUB #76, Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara defeated Dark Order's Alex Reynolds and John Silver in tag team competition. At that point Rhodes had already captured the World Six-Man Titles with The Von Erichs, and just nine days later he and Guevara would best Undisputed Kingdom's Matt Taven and Mike Bennett to claim the ROH World Tag Titles as well. Since then, Dark Order has been thorn in the side of the World Tag Team Champions, from a wild eight-man tag during HONOR CLUB #78, to a trios match on the September 6th RAMPAGE, to this match taking place tonight, it seems Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara cannot get away from Dark Order. However tonight it's a different combination of that trio who will be standing across the ring from the ROH World Tag Champions, rather than the traditional Alex Reynolds and John Silver pairing, it will be Evil Uno stepping up as Reynolds' partner as the two step onto the Proving Ground!  It's rather fascinating that, despite being allied for nearly five years under the Dark Order banner, this marks the first time that Reynolds and Uno have ever had a tag team match. There are plenty of trios matches and a variety of multi-man bouts in their shared history, but prior to tonight they've never fought just as a pair. Can they earn a shot at the World Tag Titles for their unit, or will the World Tag Champions continue to frustrate Dark Order at every turn? TAG TEAM CONTEST... The Infantry (Capt. Shawn Dean & Carlie Bravo) vs. Angelico & Serpentico Here is another surprising statistic given the tenure of both teams; The Infantry and Spanish Announce Project have never competed in a traditional tag team match before tonight! Fans saw Angelico team up with Carlie Bravo and Capt. Shawn Dean back on HONOR CLUB #69, and both teams took part in a Four-Way Tag bout during HONOR CLUB #54 won by The Infantry, but never have they fought in a straight tag team bout before tonight! The Infantry are feeling good after their groundbreaking handshake with The Outrunners last week, as are the SAP after their trios victory, so this should be quite the hot clash of two teams looking to get into the title hunt!  SINGLES MATCH... Dark Order's John Silver vs. KM It's another rare singles match for John Silver this week during HONOR CLUB, but if his last bout was any indication, “The Meat Man” is quite ready to jump into that action! On HONOR CLUB #80 he topped Fuego Del Sol in a tremendous bout, but this week the pendulum swings the other way in terms of opponents when he faces KM one-on-one. Silver is going from the quickness and lucha-influenced styling of Fuego to the size and power of KM, but John is no slouch in any of those departments. Can he put together a second consecutive singles victory tonight during HONOR CLUB? ONE-ON-ONE... Preston Vance vs. Brandon Cutler Last week we witnessed Preston Vance make his return to ROH competition to defeat KM, marking his first match since late November 2023, and his first singles bouts since HONOR CLUB #10 on 5/4/23. It was quite the dominating victory for Vance as he secured victory in just over three minutes, and he's back in action this week looking to repeat (if not better) that win. His opponent this time out is set to be Brandon Cutler, a man often referred to as The Elite's stooge, but as of late doesn't seem quite as ingrained in their activities as he once was. Where ROH competition is concerned, Cutler has also had quite the rough go of it, winning just two of his six matches and 1-2 in 2024. Suffice to say he is in need of finding a victory in Ring of Honor, but can he find it against a mass of muscle like Preston Vance, or will Vance lock that Full Nelson in on the stooge and force him to give up the ghost? ALSO FEATURING:-Brian Cage and Gates of Agony in action! -STP's Anthony Ogogo in action!! -Rachael Ellering in action!!!

Part 1 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!