The unlikely history between Triple H and the Hurricane

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the video version here: https://youtu.be/Y8XPkcF7YdM

This video might seem random, but it came about when I was researching something else and fell down a rabbit hole. That's happened a few times on this channel... Sometimes two wrestlers have a history together that you completely forgot ever happened. Many fans who were around for the ruthless aggression era of WWE remember the interactions between the Hurricane and The Rock, then in what people refer to as his 'Hollywood' phase, but I had completely forgotten his sporadic history with Triple H, a man who dominated the World title scene in the early brand split years, which made it even more fascinating to me.

Their first ever interaction would be in the 2002 Royal Rumble match. Hurricane would find himself alone in the ring with Triple H who was returning from his torn quad injury that night, and Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had previously led Hurricane in the Alliance. Believing himself to have super human strength, Hurricane would attempt to choke slam both multi-time world champions, which went about as well as you might expect it did before Hurricane promptly flew over the top rope.

The next time Hurricane and and Triple H would be in the same ring would be six months later on Smackdown, in a 20 man battle royal to determine a challenger to the Undertakers Undisputed championship. I rewatched this match hoping for some kind of callback, but sadly there wasn't one. The two do touch at one point but it only Hurricane Kicking Triple H in the corner. Hurricane would however be eliminated after attempting to choke slam Kurt Angle, so that at least adds another WWE legend to the list of people Hurricane worked with.

One moment a lot of fans do still fondly remember is the time Hurricane actually achieved a pinfall victory over The Rock, which he won on the March 10th 2003 edition of Raw. For weeks Hurricane had been interrupting the Rocks backstage camera time, leading to an eventual match that we all assumed Rock would promptly win. However this wouldn't happen as when the Rock went for the Peoples Elbow Stone Cold's music played, allowing the hero to get a quick roll up three count over the great one. Austin's plan was to mess with the Rock ahead of their match at Wrestlemania nineteen.

One month after this on the April 14th 2003 Raw, Hurricane would actually get a win over Triple H, in a tag match teaming with Booker T against Triple H and Ric Flair to allow Booker a World title match. This match came about as a way to give Booker T a rematch following his poorly received loss at Wrestlemania nineteen. The reason that match was so derided stemmed from some inappropriate comments Triple H made in the story leading to the match, but also a moment at the end of the match where Triple H would hit a Pedigree, and take twenty two seconds to roll over and pin Booker with one hand on his chest to win. The idea they might have been going for was that Triple H took so long because Booker T had exhausted him, sort of how he beat Steve Austin at No Way Out in 2001 by falling in top of Austin fortuitously, but many fans felt strongly that Triple had done it to try and make Booker look bad.

Whether this was the reason or not, General manager Eric Bischoff was considering allowing Booker a rematch, which Triple H and Flair were trying to talk him out of. Standing up for truth and justice, Hurricane sticks his nose in, leading to the tag match main event. It perhaps shouldn't be so surprising to me that Booker and Hurricane got on so well, as less than a year previously Booker had experience with unusual tag team partners. rewatching this match it felt weird to see the Hurricane out wrestling Triple H early on, at one point even doing a head scissors which I never expected to see. Maybe I'd just forgotten how popular the super hero was around this time. Once Triple H takes control this match goes just as you would expect, with Hurricane taking damage for the bulk of the match. In the end though, while Triple H is distracted by his arch nemesis, referee Earl Hebner who takes a chair away from him, in the ring Shawn Michaels runs in and hits Flair with Sweet Chin Music, allowing Hurricane to pin Ric Flair. Theres a sentence I didn't think I'd ever write.

The next time Hurricane would meet Triple H would be on Raw in February 2005. This would occur one week after Batista had left Evolution by turning on Triple H during a ceremony to decide which champion Batista would face at Wrestlemania 21. Triple H had wanted Batista to choose Smackdowns JBL so that he didn't have to face Batista himself, but he failed to convince the 2005 rumble match winner, and eventually lost to Batista at Wrestlemania. Needless to say one week after Batista made his decision, Triple H wasn't in a mood to be messed with, and so his singles match with Hurricane never officially began, as Triple H attacked the super hero before the opening bell, and left him laying on the ramp.

One week later Hurricane's apprentice hero Rosey would attempt to get a measure of revenge for his ally. Rosey, who for a long time was referred to as a 'super hero in training', and if you don't get that jokes I'm not explaining it to you... Rosey would fair a little better than The Hurricane the week prior in that the match actually started, but after almost three minutes Triple H would be victorious with the Pedigree, and after the bell he would introduce Rosey to his trusty sledgehammer.

It's easy to forget that Rosey was a member of the famous Anoai family of wrestlers along side many successful Samoans past and present. He is the son of Sika, who was one of the Wild Samoans, and I never knew this until now, but he is actually the older brother of Roman Reigns. Sadly he passed away in 2017, but did achieve some success in WWE first teaming with his cousin Eddie who would later be known as Umaga, and later with the Hurricane.

It wouldn't be until after Wrestlemania 21 where triple H lost the World title that he would next meet the pair of heroes, as on the April 11th 2005 Raw Hurricane would take the opportunity to interrupt an in ring promo by Triple, and gloat over his recent loss. In an unreal looking moment I wouldn't even expect to see in a WWE video game, Hurricane and Rosey run in and clobber the Game. Triple H would get on the mic and warn that they had picked the wrong night to do this. He then asks for a referee and we appear to have a handicap match.

The match doesn't start well for the Game, as he tries to bring a chair in to equalise things, but is thwarted once again by his nemesis Earl Hebner. When we come back from an ad break Triple H has managed to gain control over Hurricane, though we aren't shown how.  He hits Hurricane with an awesome looking Spinebuster, that looks like he was trying to launch him into space, but as we know that wouldn't be an issue for a super hero. *Shooting Stars clip* Once Hurricane manages to tag in Rosey, the big man actually gets a lot of offence in on Triple H, including a unique looking spinning leg drop. For a minute there it started to look like Triple H might be in serious trouble. Despite the heroes putting in a great effort, Hurricane makes a big mistake by climbing to the top rope, only for Triple H to lean on the rope sending Hurricane back down to earth. Rosey gets knocked off the apron, getting his leg caught between the ropes, effectively taking him out of the match. Triple H takes advantage of this by hitting a Pedigree on Hurricane, and pinning him. After the match Triple H gets back on the microphone, and warns Batista that this is his fate, and then hits another Pedigree on Rosey.

Now we're at the end of the rabbit hole, the thing I can say I have relearned is not just how entertaining the Hurricane was, but also how popular he seemed to be back in the early 2000's. Am I being a little unfair for misremember how fun the character was all those years ago, did I take him for granted at the time? Let me know what you think in the comments. Despite how bad some of the booking was I actually used to enjoy him in WCW as part of Three count, and I remember being a fan of his more serious side as Gregory Helms later in his career. They can stand back though, because a Hurricane is coming through!

The Truth behind the Milan Miracle: Santino Marella

This is a script for my YouTube channel. You can view the video here: https://youtu.be/cCzoN9Dwjek

In the Mid 2000's WWE would occasionally host Raw and Smackdown from countries outside North America. In 2005 they would have episodes in Saitama Japan, twice annually they would have tapings in the UK, and on April 16th 2007, Raw would take place from Milan Italy. Though most of the show came across as a typical episode of Raw, one quite unusual moment happened involving a member of the crowd.

Before I get into what happened a bit of context is needed. In April 2007 we were fresh off Wrestlemania 23, and the Battle of the Billionaires match pitting Donald Trump's representative Bobby Lashley against Vince McMahon's chosen representative, Umaga. At this point you can rest easy in knowing that not all of us Englishmen pronounce it "Youmanga" like William Regal used to. On that night Lashley managed to defeat Youmanga, sorry, I couldn't resist, resulting in Vince having to be shaved bald in the middle of the ring.

Following this public humiliation Vince went on a tear in the following months, as a way of punishing Lashley he would go as far as to defeat him for the ECW championship and attempt to pull this look off, but that comes later. Whats important here is that Vince continued to use Umaga to batter people who weren't on the Chairmans good side. It being Vince McMahon we're talking about, he's not always been known for making the most rational decisions, and he would make a very rash one in Milan.

Vince would walk out still attempting to hide his bald head from the world by wearing a daft looking trilby. All he needs is that moustache he has today and and a tommy gun and he'd look like an extra in the Godfather. In an impressive own goal, Vince reminds us that Milan is supposed to be the fashion capital of the world. The thing is though, while Vince criticises the crowd for not being fashionable, the cameras cut to a sea of fans wearing their apparently unfashionable WWE merchandise. After dissing his own product, Vince gets to the point and brings out his hired gun Umaga, who is also the intercontinental champion.

Vince shows us a recap of last week, where Vince, Shane McMahon and Umaga beat up Lashley with a chair on the way to Backlash where Lashley was set to defend his ECW title against all three in a handicap match. He noted that as a result of the attack Lashley isn't here, so Umaga is looking for someone else to fight. He issues an open challenge to the locker room , he even offers to put Umaga's IC title on the line, but weirdly nobody answers the call. Remember that rash decision I mentioned earlier, well now we're here as Vince offers up the opportunity to anyone in the audience. Despite none of the trained professional wrestlers in the locker room wanting to accept the challenge, one man in the crowd is seen raiding his hand. Vince spots him and allows him into the ring, making me think all the WWE lawyers must be back in America, although Vince makes the man agree that he won't sue after Umaga destroys him. Finally, Vince asks the man for his name, and he replies Santino Marella, and the Italian crowd rally behind him.

With Vince calling for a referee to come into the ring, this becomes an official match, as Santino Marella from the crowd gets to challenge Umaga for the Intercontinental title. From the opening bell Santino goes on the attack, and quickly dodges every attempt Umaga makes to fight back. Not enjoying seeing this, Vince makes perhaps his biggest mistake, by getting back in the ring and making the match no holds barred, so there are now no disqualifications. While Santino is distracted by Armando Estrada, Umaga cheap shots him and goes on the attack, and it's not looking good for the local hero.

After a couple of minutes of Umaga beating up Marella, Vince's mistake becomes clear as Bobby Lashley runs down the ramp to get revenge for last week, and he can since the match now has no DQ's. Lashley throws Umaga off the top rope. He hits Umaga with three chair shots and a Spear, and in a final insult to McMahon, drags the unlikely challenger on top of Umaga, allowing Santino to win the match and the title while the crowd erupts. Watching live at the time this was truly a shocking moment, but we would soon come to learn that the Miracle in Milan wasn't quite as we first thought. Obviously Santino was actually a wrestler they were debuting, that much was clear. But Santino wasn't just not a fan picked out of the crowd, but he wasn't even Italian. To make matters more confusing, in WWE developmental he played a Russian.

Anthony Carelli, age thirty three at the time was actually a Canadian born in Mississagua Ontario. Aside from pro wrestling he also had a background in Judo having started training as a child, with this very much being part of his pre-Santino wrestling character. Even in WWE's developmental territory for the time Ohio Valley Wrestling he would have a Jodoka inspired character, but more on OVW in a bit... Even after the change in gimmick Santino would sometimes incorporate Judo throws into his offence as a nod to his past. Following his WWE career among other things Carelli became a Judo instructor at a school he and two others founded called Battle Arts, named after a promotion he wrestled for in Japan in his early career. In 2017 he won a bronze medal  in Judo and in 2019 was made an ambassador for Judo Canada, and has done interviews on his love for the sport, without his Italian accent by the way...

In a 2006 interview with 411 Mania from around the time he was in OVW, Santino also claimed to have an MMA background with six wins and one loss. Try as we might, I and seemingly nobody else been able to find any evidence for this except for the one loss. That fight happened in Tokyo Japan and lasted 26 seconds, with Carelli losing to what he referred to in the 411 interview as "one lucky punch".

Carelli's time in OVW is only really known for one rather famous moment in 2005, two years before his call up and just one month into his time there. On this particular night Carelli was sat in the crowd watching the show with his young daughter, and his role that night was to act scared when they were approached by another future star, the Boogeyman. Instead of the reaction he was supposed to give to make the Boogeyman appear more menacing, Carelli was smiling watching his Daughters reaction, raising the ire of a member of OVW's management at the time, Jim Cornette. Carelli claims in an interview with RF Video in 2016 that he was called backstage, where Cornette would yell at him, then proceed to slap him across the face. This outburst would be the final straw for WWE, and they would fire Cornette as a result.

This also appeared to be the final straw for Jim Cornette too, as he has gone on record many times as stating that while he was in OVW, WWE would make his life a living hell. Many times Cornette would have pre-booked a big match or storyline only for WWE to call a wrestler he needed up without notice, or they would send him talent he had to then find a use for. On one such occasion Jim had a top feud between two wrestlers, and WWE would not just call them both up to Smackdown, but would team them up as the Basham Brothers, making Cornette have to explain why these two men who were feuding are now working together. All of that is to say, it's easy to see that Cornette was going to explode at some point, and unfortunately Carelli was the one he would explode at. 

In Carelli's own words in the RF interview, he was told by John Laryngitis (as Santino in character might call him,) that this incident would get him no special treatment, and when the time came for him to be evaluated for a potential call up he would be treated fairly. Well, the former Dynamic Dude Johnny Ace sort of lived up to this, as by the time Carelli was called up WWE management had completely forgotten that he was the guy Cornette slapped, so it can't have had any bearing on him being called up.

By the time of his call up after wrestling under a few names by this point Carelli was playing Boris Alexiev, a Russian fighter. According to Carelli the Boris part was given to him by Rip Rogers, a former wrestler and long time trainer who was helping train at OVW at the time. The surname was given to him by Paul Heyman, who for a brief time took replaced Jim Cornette after he left. Heyman based the name 'Alexiev' on a Russian powerlifter named Alekseyev, who Vince McMahon was a fan of. This is why we know him as the wise man. The internet tells me that the name 'Santino' translates in Italian to mean 'little saint', and the 'Marella' surname was given as a tribute to Robert and Joey Marella. Robert is better known as WWE legend Gorilla Monsoon, and Joey is his son, who was a referee for WWE, working for the company for eleven years until his tragic death in 1994, age 31.

Here's where we dive into the Wrestling Observer. Dave Meltzer wrote upon Santino's debut that the original idea was for Carelli to debut in the Russian gimmick on the ECW brand, and he would go on a Taz-esque rampage, choking out heels in only a few minutes. He attributed this idea to Dusty Rhodes, but as Dave writes, on the flight over to Milan, Vince himself came up with the idea for an Italian star, and so Carelli was flown in to make his Raw debut as soon as possible. If the story Dave wrote is true, then it should come as no surprise to you that on Tuesday, the day after the Miracle in Milan, there were said to be no future plans in place for Santino, just the initial debut. Why am I not shocked? Dave did however note that the whole twenty four minutes as a stand alone segment could be considered a big success, and he's right there, as it's still considered a memorable Raw moment.

If you're watching this video and you made it this far I'm sure you're aware of the peaks of Santino's nine year run on WWE's main roster. Of all the new characters WWE introduced in this era Santino would stick around longer than most. He would attempt to beat the Honky Tonk Man's record sixty four weeks as Intercontinental champion with the help of his Honk-a-meter to remind us how much progress he had made. Santino would fail by a long shot, making it just twelve. Then we would enter the era of the Cobra, the highlight of which being a duel with Mick Foley and Mr. Socko during the 2012 Royal Rumble match. Speaking of Royal Rumbles, one of his biggest moments came in the 2011 Rumble match, where he would through sheer luck almost win that match, before being thrown out last by Alberto Del Rio. He also holds a dubious Royal Rumble record, as in 2009 he was eliminated in just one point nine seconds at the hands, or really hand or Kane, which will likely forever be the shortest royal rumble appearance ever.

In a truly bizarre turn of events, Santino recently returned to pro wrestling as the new Director of Authority for Impact Wrestling, a show that often has a mid 2000's WWE vibe, but that might just be for me. He even got to use his WWE name, as the trademark on it held by WWE had been allowed to expire. It's fair to say that Anthony Carelli had a pretty successful run in WWE and continues to be involved in wrestling today, and the massive success of the Miracle in Milan played a big part in launching what might well end up being a Hall of Fame career some day. if you've gotten to the end and noticed I never mentioned Santina Marella, you're welcome...

Kip Sabian finally explained the box thing!

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the video version here: https://youtu.be/2rAcexTbRoY

For almost a year in AEW, there was a noticeable man in the crowd. No, not you green shirt guy. Sorry it's not Vlad either. It was a man barely reacting, wearing a box on his head. It didn't take the internets version of Hercule Poirot to figure out that the man wearing the box was Kip Sabian, the man who won AEW's first ever singles match back on the Double of Nothing 2019 pre-show.

From around September 2021 to the following August Kip developed this not quite an angle from arranging his own meet and greets, to hanging around outside the arena, to eventually being on the front row. By the end he would try to get himself on camera as much as possible. Sometimes he would even be visible during major moments on AEW television, the one that sticks in my head is the first match between CM Punk and MJF.

Kip would return on the other side of the guardrail on the August 22nd 22 episode of Dynamite, when Pac would lock eyes with the man in the box. Taz would even note that Sabian had being doing this for months, so apparently we were supposed to know it was him all along. It had become a weekly occurrence of sorts to spot him in the crowd, but never once had the commentators mentioned him. Kip did note in the podcast that it wasn't exactly an angle or a storyline, so it would have been hard for them to mention him given that it wasn't leading to anything until Kip had healed enough. Weirdly though, Pac would remove the box to find a different man with tape over his mouth, who apparently had been sitting there throughout the show, only for Kip to attack Pac from behind. This would eventually lead to a match on the All Out pre-show where Kip would talk to the box as though he was the new Al Snow. Kip referred to the gimmick as resembling a "campy DC villain" which immediately brought me back to a sequence in Lego Batman showing various bafflingly awful villains such as Calendar man, Kite man and Polka dot man, only for the joke to really be that they all existed in DC comics.

Unless I missed it on AEW's myriad of weekly programming, I don't believe a purpose for this in storyline terms was ever explained. Finally this past week Kip Sabian explained the thought process on AEW's unrestricted podcast. I'm not someone who demands an explanation for everything in wrestling, but this was out there enough that it kind of did need one. I could also do with an explanation of how a random man with tape over his mouth willingly sat there waiting for Pac to unbox him. Granted Kip mentioned the serial killer vibe he was going for, but that part just came across as confusing. Maybe there was a jigsaw style trap in store if he didn't play along? We might never know. He also mentioned Michael Myers in particular as an influence. I'm guessing this is in reference to how Kip would barely react to anything, which is also one of the original inspirations for how Kane in his early days wouldn't sell any pain he might feel.

It turns out that the idea was inspired by Shia LeBeouf, which should be a red flag right there. In February 2014, Shia turned up on a red carpet at the Berlin Film Festival wearing a paper bag on his head with the message written on it "I'm not famous anymore". Kip also noted that he was due to spend around a year unable to wrestle following surgery, and he would rather have spent the time he was injured having something to do than sit at home doing nothing, so fair play to him for that. When Kip showed up in Chicago for All Out 2021 he couldn't find anywhere to buy a brown paper bag, so settled for a cardboard box. Full credit to Kip though, he was self aware enough to know that writing "I'm not over anymore" might not have been received well, so he came up with 'Underrated' which I would say he is, and 'Over it'.

I do like when I'm watching a wrestling show and there is something for me to notice and think about, like Bray Wyatt's puppets hanging out backstage. My own personal theory at the time was linked to the Alice in Chains song Man in the Box, also used by Tommy Dreamer in ECW, which lyrically would very much fit with the depression Kip describes having at the time. I quite liked looking for the man in the box each week. Kip even refers to it as an Easter Egg, which I suppose is what I'm referring to. I loved the Raw debut of Dexter Lumis last year; the Kevin Owens interview where the camera happend to end on a car accident in the background, then the mass of security running past the camera later on, leading to him making it to ringside and getting arrested off camera but visible on social media later on. I suppose the ultimate of that lately was the white rabbit, but that is on a whole other level.

I don't want you to get the impression that I'm dissing Kip, or the idea. I also want to draw attention to the next thing Kip says, that people would get in touch with him saying that some of the lines he was tweeting in this character such as "time doesn't heal, it changes you", seemed to actually help people going though difficult times. Respect Kip, but I still kind of want to know who the kidnapped guy is.

The last stand of Nigel McGuinness

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can view the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHlbGjOWoa8

On March 21st 2009 Ring of Honor presented its Seventh anniversary show. In the main event on that night, the dominant world champion Nigel McGuinness, who had at that point held the championship for five hundred and thirty two days, defended against an international star on the rise known as KENTA.

Nigel first won the Ring of Honor championship on October 6th 2007 at Undeniable. becoming the tenth man to hold the title by besting Takeshi Morishima. Over the next seventeen months he would defend the title thirty eight times, which puts him at tied first for most ROH World title defences ever, the other man to achieve this record being Bryan Danielson.

Nigel would defend against many, many future stars. Future ROH champions like Jay Briscoe and Claudio Castagnoli, future Impact world champions like Austin Aries, and even against future WWE champions such as Bryan Danielson and Seth Rollins amongst many others. Throughout his long reign as champion, the story being told was that Nigel seemed to only get better and stronger in each and every defence, but one day that would have to come to an end.

On March 20th 2009, one day before the defence against KENTA, Nigel would compete in a main event tag team match, in which he would team with Davey Richards who at this point was working his way up the card, to take on KENTA and El Generico. What happened to him exactly I'm not sure, but this wasn't Nigel's night at all, as not only was he pinned by KENTA following a Go To Sleep, but by the end of the match it was clear that he was struggling to get through it. That night the Wrestling Observer would report that Nigel had suffered an injury serious enough to require surgery, with the Figure Four newsletter and other sources claiming that he had torn both of his biceps. Despite these injuries Nigel had two scheduled World title defences booked, the following night against KENTA and another two weeks later against Jerry Lynn, and he was hell bent on making it through both of those defences. This was a very risky decision for Nigel, as not only does a bicep tear cause excruciating pain, but it also reduces your strength by about thirty to forty percent (thanks Dr. Google...) Add to this, that most of Nigel's key offence heavily relied on the use of his arms. Multiple variations of uppercuts and lariats, the Tower of London and his London Dungeon submission. All of these moves would put even more pressure on his already injured arms.

Lets take a look at where KENTA was in his career at the time. Having debuted in 2000 initially for All Japan Pro Wrestling, KENTA would soon switch over to Pro Wrestling NOAH when it was formed one month later. From here Kenta would rise up the ranks and gain international attention. At the time of the match with Nigel he had recently won his third GHC Junior Heavyweight championship, and had already won awards for his team with another future star Naomichi Marafuji, and had twice won the Observers move of the year award for a famous move he invented, the Go To Sleep, which he's not at all bitter about anyone else using, nope, not at all...

In the future KENTA would go on to win the GHC heavyweight title and would hold it for almost a year. To win that title he would also beat Takeshi Morishima, the same man Nigel beat for his World title. He would also win various tournaments in NOAH before signing with WWE in July of 2014. Weirdly, KENTA would sign his contract inside a WWE ring at an event in Osaka Japan, in a segment hosted by of all people Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart. Maybe it's not so strange given that Hogan did had a history of wrestling in Japan and so was known in the country, but the visual is still weird looking. KENTA would debut at NXT in September of 2014, adopting the name Hideo Itami. According to KENTA himself he chose the name and it means 'hero of pain'. After leaving WWE in February 2019, he would describe his WWE tenure as the most 'frustrating days of his life'. In June 2019 he would join New Japan Pro Wrestling where he still wrestles to this day as a member of the Bullet Club, and at the time of me writing this is the current Strong Openweight champion.

On the night of KENTA's challenge for the Ring of Honor World championship, he would be greeted by the Hammerstein Ballroom crowd with respect. As was common in ROH at the time, the fans would throw streamers into the ring to show respect to their favourite wrestlers. The tradition of fans throwing streamers at the wrestlers actually began in Japan, and I went into more detail about this custom in my last video if you're interested. As a direct opposition to this respect, Nigel would enter cocky as ever, wearing the Ring of Honor world title backwards as he often did. Why did Nigel do this? Well in his own words, "so you know who the champion is when you kiss my arse." Nigel also received a few streamers having earned the respect of some of the fans during his reign, but clearly there cracks in his armour to be seen when he took off his ring jacket revealing bandages and tape on both of this arms, and the grimace on his face as he raises his jacket over the top rope. It was clear that this wasn't going to be the same unstoppable McGuinness we had seen for so long. Right after the opening bell the commentators Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard make us aware right away that Nigel is hurt, with Prazak going as far as to call his "a man without arms". They go on to note that he tore his left bicep the previous night but tore the right some time ago, so he had been working though injuries for a while.

When KENTA was in WWE, they would often use the phrase 'his style is kick' to describe his offence, and this meant horrible news for Nigel as minutes into the match Kenta delivers brutal looking kicks right to Nigel's bandaged arm. The arrogant Nigel we were used to seeing had quickly gone away as the injured champion began was showing something he never had in his previous thirty-seven defences, weakness. In fact its rare to ever see a world champion show so much weakness in a title defence, which Nigel audibly whining in pain and even begging 'please no' at some points. KENTA has complete control for the first several minutes until Nigel manages to hit the Tower of London to the floor outside the ring. This gave McGuinness an opening, and the match becomes more back and forth from there, but KENTA continues to focus on Nigel's left arm, with Nigel even hurting himself to do some of his trademark moves, such as his upwards kick into a downward lariat. Notably as the match progresses Nigel goes for many of his signature lariats but misses every time, maybe so the crowd can see them but he doesn't risk further injury. Astonishingly, despite Nigel's injuries this match lasts 25 minutes, and somehow wins with a variation of the London Dungeon with his knees digging into KENTA's back. It would have been easy for KENTA to lose this match to such a prone champion and look weaker by the end of it, but Nigel takes enough from KENTA to make him look good, but also takes enough like multiple Tower of London's that the match is also a struggle for KENTA too. Nigel McGuinness had survived another day as Ring of Honor champion, but what toll did it take?

Thirteen days later at Supercard of Honor 4, Nigel would finally be dethroned by former ECW World champion Jerry Lynn. Nigel had actually beaten Lynn twice in ROH title matches, once in December 2008 and the second being a four way match including Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black, the future Seth Rollins. I'm not saying this was the entire reason Lynn won the ROH title at this time, but many ROH fans that I remember seeing in their message board at the time had begun to link Jerry, who seemed to be at the latter end of his career with Mickey Rourke's character in The Wrestler, which was released in January of 2009 and is a fairly harrowing film by director Darren Aronofsky, about a former star seeking one last shot at glory. Not just from an aesthetic view, but scenes for that film were actually filmed at ROH shows, and Ring of Honor wrestlers were shown in the background of backstage shots. I'd love to go into further detail about that film another time. Whether you believed any of that or not, Nigel simply couldn't go on any further as champion without surgery, and so lost to Lynn that night.

Around this time Ring of Honor had launched its first weekly television show, ROH on HDNet. I might be biased, but back in those days ROH on HDNet was the show I most looked forward to every week. In the very unlikely event that anything I say here makes it's way to anyone at Ring of Honor, please put these shows on Honor Club, they deserve to be rewatched. In the early days of that show, Nigel would appear while recovering from his injuries as an antagonist, and would wrestle a few matches, most notably his where he would lose to Colt Cabana. In his final appearance on the show, he would apparently quit the company in a promo, leaving the ring and literally walking out of the front door and walking off into the night.

Remember how I said earlier that Nigel held the tied record for most world title defences ever, well Nigel's real final Ring of Honor appearance as an active wrestler would be the final match of his biggest rival, as on September 26th 2009 at Glory by Honor eight, Nigel McGuinness and Bryan Danielson would have one final battle. Both were heading off to greater pastures with Bryan heading to WWE, and Nigel, almost making it there. In a documentary that aired on the WWE Network in January 2019, Nigel notes that he failed his medical examination though being honest about his medical history, thus wasn't hired. Bryan Danielson reveals in the same documentary that he lied to the WWE doctors about his history of concussions to get passed by them, which both launched and eventually hurt his career given that for years he was forced to retire due to head injuries.

Nigel as a result went to TNA, and was repackaged under the name Desmond Wolfe, and was popular with the fans for some stellar matches he had with Kurt Angle, but for some reason not with management. Around this time TNA implemented a weekly fan voted poll to see who the number one contender would be, and every week Desmond Wolfe would win, despite whatever TNA booked to sway the fans into voting for anyone else. By the end of 2011, Nigel had retired as an in ring competitor. He spent the next few years of his career as a commentator and authority figure in Ring of Honor, initially met with criticism because of his English accent, but eventually becoming respected in that role. Respected enough that WWE would hire him as a commentator. He would make his debut alongside Michael Cole at the first United Kingdom Championship weekend, and the two had immediate chemistry that was sadly never revisited.

When I started writing this video, Nigel was to my knowlege unemployed, having been released by WWE last October. In the time since he returned to Ring of Honor as a commentator at the recent Supercard of Honor, and a few days later was declared to be All Elite. I understand how some fans will see Nigel as a never man, having not wrestled for WWE, but I hope what you take away from this video is respect for the man who showed his capability to battle through agony, and whose in ring legacy deserves to be remembered.

Why do wrestling fans throw streamers (and other things) at the ring?

This is the script for my Youtube video about this topic. To view the video version click here: https://youtu.be/hBai2Wt1tWI

At WCW's Bash at the Beach in 1996, Hulk Hogan joined the New World Order, along with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. This is undoubtedly one of the most famous turns in wrestling history, partly due to the wrestlers themselves, but also in part because of the crowd throwing rubbish at the ring,  making the visual of Hogan turning to the dark side even more striking. There are other famous moments similar to this, such as Terry Funk asking for a chair to be thrown from the crowd, only to receive what looked like hundreds of chairs hurtling towards the ring. There are times however, where the fans throwing things at the ring can actually be a good thing. In Lucha Libre, it is tradition that if the fans are impressed enough after a match, they will throw money into the ring to be shared between the wrestlers backstage, a custom that can sometimes be seen when Luchadores compete in the US. There is another way that fans show their respect not for a match, but for the wrestlers themselves, and thats by throwing paper streamers into the ring, creating a stunning visual.

The long held tradition of fans throwing streamers at wrestlers during their entrance doesn't seem as common as it used to be these days, but for a long time it was seen as a sign of respect towards the wrestlers. While many fans will remember seeing this in the early years of Ring of Honor, it actually began in Japan. For full disclosure I can't confirm how true this is, but it's the only explanation I was able to find from multiple sources as to how the throwing of streamers began. New Japan and All Japan as we known them today were formed when Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba both left Japan Pro Wrestling Association, also known as JWA, to form their own companies. JWA would last less than a year after this, but it had been a major promotion, even having primetime television, with one of its sponsors being Mitsubishi Electric. Legend has it that the company wanted as part of their sponsorship to prove the power of their vacuum cleaners by encouraging fans to throw streamers at the wrestlers so that they could be vacuumed up, thus advertising the product. Over time this developed into fans to throw the streamers at their favourite wrestlers as a sign of respect. Streamers would be banned in New Japan for many years, but its rival All Japan would continue to welcome the tradition.

The first time I'm aware of US audiences doing this was at ECW's first pay per view event Barely Legal in April 1997. That card included a match featuring six wrestlers from the Michinoku Pro promotion, including future WWF light heavyweight champion Taka Michinoku. Given that Ring of Honor was essentially a spiritual successor to ECW with former ECW employee Gabe Sapolsky being its booker in the early years, it makes sense that this tradition would be adopted by ROH. Paul Heyman has in the past gone on record saying that had ECW lasted longer than it did, seeing the way wrestling was changing his plan was to gradually lessen the focus on Hardcore and emphasise the quality in ring wrestling, which was essentially matches the mission statement of early Ring of Honor. Some of the greatest moments of early ROH would be topped by the fans throwing streamers. When CM Punk left the promotion on August 13th 2005, he stepped into the ring already in tears. He knelt down in the middle of the ring and a mass of streamers soon covered him as the song Night Train be the Bouncing Souls played, a song about leaving your past behind you. It truly made for an emotional moment.

Another similar occasion would occur later that year when Japanese legend Kenta Kobashi would make a special appearance to wrestle Samoa Joe. Kobashi was said to have assumed that most of the New York fans wouldn't who he was, but when he was greeted with a heroes welcome including streamers, he soon realised how beloved he was by fans, many of whom making sure to throws streamers only in purple and black, the colours of Kobasi's ring gear.  ROH would also invert this practice using on of their most hated villains, Jimmy Rave. Instead of throwing streamers at him, the fans would bring toilet paper to show their disrespect. Ever the heel, Rave and his manager Prince Nana would throw the toilet paper back at the fans, leading to several minutes of chaos while the ring crew desperately tried to clear ringside.

I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to tell this story again so I'll do it here. Jimmy Rave once wrestled at a promotion not far from me known as One Pro Wrestling. Their main venue was and still is today the Doncaster Dome leisure centre, and across the road from it was an Asda, which is the exact same thing as as Walmart for my mostly American viewers. Anyway, the story goes that the fine staff at that Asda had no idea why on this particular day they were selling far more toilet paper than they usually would, and the vast majority of it ended up in the 1PW ring, with one fan just lobbing an entire multi pack at him, with Jimmy to his credit catching it and immediately throwing it back at the crowd.