WWE vs. TNA 1.13.07: William Regal vs. Nigel McGuinness

The Pre-Match Warm-up:

Category 1: Strengths

JL: William Regal: Beloved by the IWC, Regal is an old-school technical wrestler. He puts on great matches, and is a good example for the new guys. He started out wrestling in Blackpool, England at the carnivals when he was fifteen. He then went to WCW, and then got called up to WWE. That went flat and he checked himself into rehab. He went back to WWE then after they saw him wrestle Chris Benoit at the Brian Pillman Memorial show. He is a no-nonsense wrestler and has been a key player in King Booker’s Royal Court. He has a vast knowledge of wrestling holds, and has a lot of experience as a tag team wrestler. Let’s look at a few of the things that make William Regal such a fine wrestler. First and foremost is his technical wrestling. He is very scientific, and can use his knowledge to wear his opponents down. He targets an opponents week points and is relentless in breaking then down. He is a stiff competitor and often weakens his opponents with a series of knee strikes and European Uppercuts. He has been known to put a few opponents down for the count with his running knee strike as well. Aside from his technical skills, he is a well accomplished grappler. In his arsenal of moves lie a series of devastating suplexes and brutal neck breakers. He uses such suplexes as the Exploder, Double Underhook Suplex, and Half Nelson Suplex. He executes these moves with a certain precision that puts his opponents in much pain. He also uses the Regal Cutter, which is essentially an arm trap neck breaker. Aside from his true wrestling skills, Regal is also a cunning opponent in the sense that the Southpaw will put you down with a swift punch to the head using the brass knuckles. Nevertheless, William Regal is a keen opponent that is well trained in technical wrestling, brawling, grappling and cheating. If Regal was to meet up with Nigel, I think he should use his slow, methodical technique to wear him down, and then take advantage of them with a submission move.

SB: Nigel McGuinness: Nigel’s biggest strengths are three-fold. First of all, he’s a consummate technical wrestler. Though his offense is focused more in the European-style catch-as-catch-can techniques, McGuinness has mixed it up with some of North America’s top technical wrestlers and held his own using a fusion of his European offense with more traditionally American methods. One need not look further than his series of matches against “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson to see that even against stiff technical competition, Nigel has more than held his own, if not dominated. Speaking of stiff, the second of Nigel’s strengths is the impact with which much of his offense connects. Nigel has a variety of hard strikes that help cause large amounts of damage with an economy of motion. For example, one combination that he often puts to use is placing an opponent in a tree-of-woe position and then hitting a stiff kick to the back and a downwards elbow strike in quick succession. Nigel’s third major strength is his in-ring intelligence. During his nearly year-long stranglehold on the ROH Pure Championship, Nigel repeatedly defeated opponents by disqualification or countout to retain his title. Rather than feeling the need to “prove” anything by pinning his opponent or forcing a submission, Nigel showed that what was important in the long-term was holding onto his belt. During his title vs. title match against Danielson, Nigel even showed a willingness to give up a chance winning the Ring of Honor World Title if it meant retaining the Pure Title, and thus he scored a countout victory in the matchup. McGuinness has also showed an uncanny understanding (honorable or not) of when to utilize an illegal maneuver to his advantage. While a lot of wrestlers cheat openly and hope to not get disqualified, Nigel is a master at causing a distraction and then picking his spot to take advantage of some moments of free reign. For example, rarely did a Pure Title defense go by that Nigel didn’t get in a closed fist to the face, a move specifically prohibited under Pure Wrestling Rules.

Category 2: Fighting Styles

SB: Nigel McGuinness: As stated above, Nigel’s primary offense is a mixture of European and American technical wrestling. Working in a variety of joint locks, Nigel can wear down an opponent by focusing on a single body part, and utilizing both complicated and simple moves. The most impressive part about this style of wrestling is that not only can it lead to a submission victory, but also it often affects his opponent’s ability to cleanly hit their own maneuvers. Most commonly, Nigel works the arm with moves such as a Hammerlock Pedigree or a wristlock takedown. He often follows those up with simple submission holds like a seated armbar or a resting hammerlock to continue to cause damage. Occasionally, when running into an opponent who is similarly technically proficient, Nigel has found more success focusing his offense in hard strikes. Stiff slaps, chops, kicks and elbows have all been major parts of Nigel’s arsenal during his career. European uppercuts and other solid forearms are a staple of McGuinness’ offense, and because of Nigel’s substantial size and toughness, he is able to trade them equally with even the most hardened of competition. Also, Nigel is great at adapting to and reversing an opponent’s attack. A great example of a traditional McGuinness counter is to go to a turnbuckle headstand on a cross-corner whip and then hit a stiff double boot to the face as his opponent runs in on a blind charge. Or, you know, if none of that works, he could just cheat. That’s always worked, too.

JL: William Regal: As I previously stated, William Regal is a brawler and a technical wrestler. His years of experience in WWE and WCW have led him to acquire a vast knowledge of the wrestling world, and his fighting style greatly reflects that. His blunt style of wrestling has earned him much respect, and there is little to argue against it. Each blow he lays on his opponent is an excruciating ordeal, and he severely weakens his opponents with his arsenal of strikes. Along with the strikes, his grappling style shows, as he takes his opponents down with arm drags, headlocks, and as mentioned earlier, his agonizing suplexes. However, his main style is the technical. He is a scientific wrestler, and his experience leads to his wide array of submission moves, each painful to the human body. Whether it is as simple as a headlock of an armbar, or as complex as the Regal Stretch, each move leaves his opponents sore and aching. Apart from that, there always seems to be a method to his madness. Instead of using moves that have no effect together, such as a dropkick followed by a knee breaker, his moves make sense. He targets a body part and works it over. He follows up his moves in a way that makes sense, not just thrown out in a random fashion. Not only that, but he seems to keep his opponents off of their feet and guessing. Again, this is thanks to his fighting styles. He could drop you with a knee to the head then follow up with a dragon sleeper, or hit a clothesline then a butterfly Suplex. Needless to say, William Regal’s fighting techniques lay way to his vast success as his can always keep his opponents guessing which type of predicament they will find themselves in with Sir William Regal.

Category 3: Finishers

JL: William Regal: Throughout William Regal’s career, he has mainly used three different finishing maneuvers. First of is the Regal Stretch. It is an STF which sees Regal trap the opponents arm and lock the leg. Many have fallen prey to this submission hold, but that isn’t the only move he uses. Not technically a finisher, the Power of the Punch has been used on several occasions to win the match. It is a left jab while wearing the brass knuckles. Simple. Painful. Effective. The move he has been using recently is the Running Knee Strike. While his opponent is keeled over in pain, Regal rebounds off the ropes and drives his knee into the head of his opponent. No matter which move Regal hits on Nigel, it will deal a large amount of pain and possible end the match.

SB: Nigel McGuinness: One of Nigel’s best attributes is that he has a variety of ways that he can realistically win a match. Recently, he’s been using the Pendulum Lariat to finish off a number of opponents. When whipped to the ropes, Nigel will lean back with the momentum and then rebound back into the ring before hitting a hard lariat to the head or chest of his opposition. Another major weapon that Nigel has put to use is the Tower of London. With an opponent’s feet draped over the top rope in one of the corners, Nigel hits a falling Ace Crusher, often pushing down on his victim’s head right before impact. The result is a violent and swift collision of the competitor’s head and chest with the ring. When used during Pure Title matches, the fact that an opponent would naturally be close to the ropes posed little problem, as there are a limited number of rope breaks allowed in such a match. However, the Tower of London is obviously somewhat less effective during a more traditional matchup because Nigel has to drag his opponent away from the ropes after hitting the move before an effective cover can be made. If NEITHER of those moves were to work, then Nigel could go to the Thames Barrier, which is a wristlock variation that he has used to gain submission victories over the years. Though not a primary weapon in recent months, it remains a valuable part of Nigel’s battery.

The Final Result:

If I had to pick, I’d say that Regal could probably pull out a win against McGuinness on experience alone. But it’s hard to count out some of Nigel’s intangibles. If nothing else, bear in mind that Nigel is one of only two men to hold multiple singles victories over Samoa Joe in Ring of Honor (Austin Aries is the other). I’m not saying there’s a direct link between beating Joe and beating William Regal, but Nigel has clearly clashed with (and defeated) some of the best in the world. Though it might be considered a minor upset, I wouldn’t be particularly surprised if I saw Nigel get a win over Regal. Hell, he’d probably be satisfied if it was by countout.

FEEDBACK:

I have feedback from my Year End Awards, and also some other stuff mixed in there.

great year end awards, i agreed with almost all of your choices, especially mickie james as women’s wrestler of the year. she’s a great wrestler, she’s hot, and she had a great feud with trish stratus. anyone who can come in as an unknown and in a couple months make the fans cheer her more than the most popular diva in years deserves some recognition.

adam
fall river, ma

Good points Adam. But the promos aren’t making WWE mad so far, so therefore I see no point in them. But for the most part, you’re right. I guess I’m just kind of tired with it. Or maybe I’m not so mad at VKM as i am at Vince Russo. Ehh.

Also, a few people caught my blunder about Finlay last week. I accidentally said Finlay was from Finland, probably because I was tired and FIN-lay sounds like FIN-land. These people were: Bosstone727 and PMA.

STUART CARAPOLA! tries to make things a little simpler in regard to the Punk/Angle matchup:

Hey Jordan,

Stuart

Isn’t Stuart awesome? Here’s one from the vault as John B. (Not John Bryant, I think) talks about the Benoit/Danielson match.

Hey Jordan,

Keep up the good work, mate.
John B.

He makes some good points, but I think Danielson IS a proven top level player, and I DO think he would make it in WWE or TNA.

I think that pretty much wraps up the column this week. Special thanks to Samuel Berman for the help. Don’t forget to check out his column, the Independent Mid-Card. Take a look at Part 1 and Part 2 of Delirious vs. Matt Sydal. Take a look at the other columns, too. I’m out. Peace.