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.