The Fate of Danielson and McGuinness
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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?
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