Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe

[8.0] "I really liked this one. Joe exudes confidence and self assuredness. Both men come across like stars here. This was very physical and competitive. The injury angle was a bit weird and I was going to say it really just caused the pace to grind to a halt, but the crowd were electric afterwards so it may have been a positive addition to the match in the end. With that said, after all that build the finish was very abrupt. This felt like it was leading to a big star making moment that never came. This had the potential to be a ROH classic, but as it stands what we got was closer to 'very good' than it was to meeting that potential. By the time Nigel's ROH title reign finally came about I felt like he seemed very 'second best' and not exactly a credible champion, and I think that matches like this a big part of why. Nevertheless, this is certainly a lot of fun and worth watching for sure."

[9.0] "I love how the match starts with everyone in the crowd cheering for Joe while ignoring Nigel, but the match ends with everyone cheering Nigel over Joe. I admit, I initially thought the angle with the Muscle Buster on the apron was a bit much, but the insane crowd reactions Nigel got after coming back proved how effective the angle really was."

[7.0] "Nigel should have faced Rave on this show, gotten beaten up before winning that and then toughed it out to beat Joe on tomorrow night’s show to really put him over as the next big thing in the company, but instead Joe goes over and reveals the whole tour was just there to make him look good on his way out. There’s really no reason that Joe couldn’t have gotten a win over Homicide on this show only to lose to Nigel the following night. That aside the match was great aside from the ridiculous extra curricular nonsense. Rather than have Nigel kick out of the Muscle Buster on the apron and look tough he looked like a loser for having to take a long break before flailing around and falling to Joe anyway. Nigel got in almost no offense after coming back, making this one of the more frustrating matches I’ve seen in a while. This might have been fun for the live crowd but it looked ridiculous on DVD."