The Fate of Danielson and McGuinness
It was inevitable, so none of us should have too surprised when the WWE talent relations division finally took a peak at the Ring of Honor roster and began to pluck talent over the last couple of weeks.
With the ‘in principal' signings of Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness, the WWE has taken a huge chunk out of the ROH roster with two home grown stars that the promotion has fostered since its inception in 2002.
Do not kid yourselves into believing that John Laurinaitis just happened to pop in a ROH DVD and was impressed with what he saw. Danielson and McGuinness have been on the radars of the promotion for quite some with both men spending time in their developmental systems at one time or another over the past decade. The key point in these signings occurring came with the decision by HD Net to move ROH onto their Monday night schedule and challenge the WWE's dominance on ‘wrestling night'. Is ROH a threat to eat into the ‘Raw' audience? Hardly, however these two signing were a major statement by the WWE that they will pick away at the ROH roster as they see fit and do view the Philadelphia based organization as at least a semblance of competition. It's funny because if you took the ROH product from 2004 with the talent involved at that time and the booking of Gabe Sapolsky, you really would have an intriguing contrast on Monday nights and one that would have likely changed the North American landscape had the WWE picked up talent such as Samoa Joe, Homicide and Bryan Danielson during that time period.
Various fans online have debated how Danielson and McGuinness will acclimate themselves to the WWE shark waters and their ability to sink or swim.
Danielson is an interesting case because he does have a history being trained with Shawn Michaels and holds a healthy respect among the entire locker room when it comes to his work (with the exception of a vocal few, who will undoubtedly cast him with ‘can't work WWE style' label). Danielson has gotten himself over on the independent level by working long, believable matches where he incorporates styles from all over the world and that is a formula that is not going to be allowed in WWE where new talent must learn and follow the WWE formula rather than a melting pot of styles. Danielson is not a strong talker and will likely be given a gimmick that will make the die hard audience cringe. His upside is that he is a very versatile worker and his mechanics are in high demand for a company that is desperate to find the next generation of solid workers, which Florida is not producing.
McGuinness is already 33 years old and that is a negative considering he is going to have the spend the first year of his contract proving that he can get over, before he receives the assistance of creative (read: CM Punk). McGuinness is a much better talker than Danielson and his promo that he cut on the ROH audience in late 2007 after suffering a concussion was one of the best promos of that year. His marketability overseas is a huge positive as he already has a name overseas from working for both Ring of Honor and 1PW and could potentially be paired with Drew McIntyre as a foreign heel unit.
If both of these men begin in Florida Championship Wrestling, it could become the most sought after wrestling show each week for fans to catch with Danielson, McGuinness and Low Ki all featured in the promotion. My assumption right now is that Danielson will be thrown onto ‘Raw' which is a huge test as it is the toughest show to get over on and doesn't cater to his style at all with short TV matches and a heavy entertainment emphasis. McGuinness seems like a natural to pair with Drew McIntyre, who the company is very high on and would benefit greatly by working with McGuinness on a nightly basis. If there is one thing we have learned over the past three years, it's the fact that ECW is the least monitored TV show in the WWE and has produced the most ‘new' stars in that time period (CM Punk, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne) and then promoting them to either ‘Raw' and ‘Smackdown'.
Gabe Sapolsky went out on a huge limb recently on The LAW stating that he expects Danielson to have a rough first year but by 2012 will main event WrestleMania with CM Punk, if that were to happen it would mean a huge shift in philosophy on how the WWE operates and which talent is allowed to get over on the main event level.
The next year is going to be an intriguing one with these two test cases and how they survive the transition to the WWE. An even bigger question remains and that is whether the WWE is done plucking talent from the ROH roster?
