Best ROH matches of 2008

1. Jimmy Jacobs vs Austin Aries I Quit ROH Rising Above 2008 11/22/08 2. Nigel McGuinness vs Chris Hero Steel Cage Match ROH Breakout 1/25/08 3. Bryan Danielson vs Claudio Castagnoli ROH Northern Navigation 7/25/08 4. Roderick Strong vs Necro Butcher vs Erick Stevens No DQ Match ROH 6th Anniversary Show 2/23/08 5. El Generico vs Claudio Castagnoli ROH Without Remorse 1/26/08 6. Claudio Castagnoli vs Bryan Danielson No DQ ROH Southern Hostility 12/6/08 7. Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson ROH Rising Above 2008 11/22/08 8. Nigel McGuinness vs El Generico ROH Age of Insanity 8/15/08 9. Jimmy Jacobs vs Austin Aries Dog Collar Match ROH Bound by Hate 11/8/08 10. Takeshi Morishima vs Bryan Danielson Fight Without Honor ROH Final Battle 2008 12/27/08 11. Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black vs. Rocky Romero & Davey Richards vs. Austin Aries & Bryan Danielson vs. Brent Albright & BJ Whitmer Ultimate Endurance ROH Without Remorse 1/26/08 12. Davey Richards/Rocky Romero vs Kevin Steen/El Generico ROH A New Level 5/10/08 13. Roderick Strong vs Erick Stevens Fight Without Honor ROH Respect is Earned 2 6/7/08 14. Roderick Strong vs Erick Stevens ROH Supercard of Honor 3 3/29/08 15. Motor City Machine Guns vs Kevin Steen/El Generico ROH Death Before Dishonor 6 8/2/08 16. Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Joey Matthews/Necro Butcher Philadelphia Street Fight ROH Take No Prisoners 3/16/08 17. Bryan Danielson vs Tyler Black ROH New Horizons 7/26/08 18. Tyler Black vs Bryan Danielson ROH Breakout 1/25/08 19. Nigel McGuinness vs Tyler Black ROH Take No Prisoners 3/16/08 20. Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson vs Tyler Black vs Claudio Castagnoli Elimination ROH Death Before Dishonor 6 8/2/08 21. Motor City Machine Guns vs Jimmy Jacobs/Tyler Black ROH Tag Wars 2008 4/18/08 22. Nigel McGuinness/Claudio Castagnoli vs Bryan Danielson/Jerry Lynn ROH Wrestling at the Gateway 12/5/08

Morishima vs Danielson Fight Without Honor Final Battle 2008 rewatch

Comparing it to the last match, I don’t think it was as great, but still very good. Morishima is still awkward at times and will get taken off his feet on stupid shit, but he was really vicious at points. Danielson did his usual awesome selling from underneath, bleeding, and showing fire on the comeback. The ranking is mostly based on Claudio>Morishima. #10. On to rankings.

Castagnoli vs Danielson No DQ Southern Hostility rewatch

Held up big time. The match wasn’t about plunder (although there were some), it was more about building up and paying off spots and moves from there previous matches in the context of a normal match. I’m probably would have still wanted Claudio to bleed because Danielson has beaten Claudio so the logical next step would be to beat him up badly. I guess making him pass out was the happy medium. I say another low end MOTYC in the sense it was a better Bryan performance then the Nigel/Danielson match. #6.

McGuinness/Castagnoli vs Danielson/Lynn rewatch

I don’t even care that this was a house show main event, this is something that deserves to be listed. I’m just pissed we don’t get more Nigel/Claudio tags because them with the amount of heat they got was a really entertaining team. It built up the eventual Claudio/Danielson and Nigel/Lynn matches, went the right amount of time, and convinced people that Lynn had a shot a t winning the title the next show. Again, didn’t like Nigel’s no selling, but this is the match that is the last one in. #20.

Black vs Aries ROH Wrestling at the Gateway rewatch

A perfectly good mechanical match without a moment that makes the match stand out. Good and that’s it. No.

McGuinness vs Danielson Rising Above 2008 rewatch

Barely a MOTYC. Nigel actually kept focus throughout and restrained himself which made the moves more important in the long run. I’m still not crazy about Bryan’s leg selling, but I still loved his performance in the home stretch with the blood loss and trying to knock out Nigel. The only things that this convinced me was that Nigel/McGuinness never had that stone cold GOAT type match and that the Claudio/Generico match from January is a MOTYC. This falls below it. #6.

Jacobs vs Aries I Quit Rising Above 2008 rewatch

Outstanding match. It’s good in the beginning with the Jacobs control, but everything after the Lacey appearance really took it to another level with Aries fiery comeback. It’s pretty much what you want out of a blowoff. I’m going to chicken out and put this at #1 ahead of Hero/McGuinness.

Steen/Generico vs Briscoes rewatch

It’s good, but compared to a similar hate filled main event in MCMG vs AOTF, it doesn’t quite do it for me. It had its moments of hate, but it just didn’t have that crowd heat and brutality to really carry this with there other matches. Slight no.

Black vs Omega vs Danielson rewatch

Good for what it was. Really fun, but nothing deep. No.

Jacobs vs Aries Dog Collar Match Bound by Hate rewatch

Very good despite the crowd and gimmick. Dog collar matches tend to be slow and sloppy and stood out more in the territory days, but the structure of the match, Jacobs going full on chickenshit, and the creative chain spots made this match work. Wouldn’t be top 10 in other years, but this at least has a shot in 08. #7.

Danielson vs Nakajima rewatch

Good on its own merits, but it wasn’t really the best use of the arm vs leg storyline. Daneilson sold well at times, but then didn’t in other times. Nakajima’s performance, again minus his kicks, left a lot to be desired. No.

McGuinness vs Generico rewatch

If you have to watch a heel Nigel match, this is the one to watch and it’s all thanks to Generico. Considering the character Nigel plays is cocky ace, there was nothing he could do to fuck this up. He did well in being dismissive to Generico until the eventual arm attack. Generico sold of course like a champ and made sure Nigel didn’t do any of his no selling down the stretch. They were pretty much the perfect people at the moment. Has a shot at finishing in the top 10. #5.

McGuinness vs Danielson vs Black vs Castagnoli Elimination rewatch

Very good match where some of Nigel’s bad tendencies were held in check. The other three held it together with the all action 4 way, and the angle. Nigel/Black was a fine short match where they at least didn’t try to do a story that would have been forgotten about later. Still you had Nigel’s stupid no selling and embarrassing facial reactions which hurt the final few minutes of the match. I’ll list it, but I’ve seen better four ways. #14.

MCMG vs Steen/Generico rewatch

Okay, forget what I said about the crowd losing interest, this is certainly very good on rewatch. Maybe I thought that because there weren’t enough Steen/Shelley moments. It wasn’t the story of the match, but it was an element to this 20 minute spotfest with two teams who are great at that style. #9.

Danielson vs Black New Horizons rewatch

Very good, but frustrating in the sense that match had two outstanding bookends, but a good middle that didn’t really mean anything in the end. If Danielson sold the neck, it probably would have been #1, but since Danielson didn’t put the initiative to sell, I can’t even see this being a top 10 match at the end of the year. #9.

Danielson vs Castagnoli Northern Navigation rewatch

Now it feels like the MOTYC that I remembered. This was a slow moving technical that made every move applied mean something and the hot crowd really brought this up a couple notches. Still had the arm vs back story but Bryan’s selling looked better here in sold every move that involved him using the back in some way. There also some callbacks spots like the surfboardx and backslide which paid off later in the match. MOTY, I say no because that Hero/Nigel match was so much more fun and had everything. This is still top 10, maybe top 5 match and is #2.

Jacobs vs Aries Vendetta 2 rewatch

This had all the makings of a match that would be on the list, but for some reason I just can’t. The first part with the aggressive mat work that eventually leads to Aries snapping and brawling with Jacobs was good. The next part with Jacobs working on Aries lacerated back seemed like the point where it was getting really good. I think it was the end run that did it for me in that it was to “your turn, my turn” for my liking and that MsChif interference which should have logically ended the match wasn’t and Aries still won in the end. I’m not the biggest Jacobs fan, but that booking decision was terrible. No.