Nigel McGuinness acquired by ECW: are they in it to win it?

Last week, I spoke about the actual possibility of ECW acquiring arguably the "Best Wrestler in the World" in Bryan Danielson. No more than 2 weeks later, it was made official that Nigel McGuinness, Danielson's biggest rival, 2nd-longest reigning ROH world champion, and longest-reigning ROH Pure Champion agreed to a WWE contract, in principle. Just like Danielson, McGuinness was coming to wrestle for the largest wrestling company in the world, in principle. With the credentials of Nigel, it would be a great coup for ECW to pick him up, as both he and Danielson are skipping the training in the WWE farm systems and coming in to the big leagues (probably because they have trained there already). So, will ECW prove to be a great place for Nigel to hang his hat? Let's take a look and see, shall we?

Before looking, let's get through the track record of Nigel McGuinness. He was trained in his native continent of Europe, mostly in England, I presume, gaining a staunch European style of wrestling. As he traveled the world, he gained some elements of Japanese wrestling among other things, before coming to America. It was here that he learned how to wrestle under the tutelage of Les Thatcher as well as Danny Davis in the WWE farm systems. He would go on to win some serious gold in ROH as its longest-reigning Pure Champion and its second longest-reigning ROH champion. His style is an amazing blend of power, technique and charisma, utilizing a very European style of wrestling to secure victory, with some American and Japanese elements to it. Like Danielson, one can say that Nigel is finalizing his career heading to the WWE as he has been just about everywhere else and has done just about everything. Like Danielson, he was released from his developmental contract from the WWE. So, he spent his years fine-tuning his craft in ROH, and is now ready to make the transition to the WWE, as they are ready to pick him up. He could end up on Raw, Smackdown, or ECW, based on what the company wants for him. If ECW is his home, what could the consequences be?

Let's look at some positives. Nigel would be a welcome boost to ECW's talent roster. His style would be welcome to an ECW audience, as it is very diverse. Also, the European contingent of wrestlers on this brand could use another fellow member to jive with. The glaring signs would be that Nigel would join with William Regal and most likely, Paul Burchill. This would be like a mock-up of TNA's British Invasion of Brutus Magnus, Rob Terry, and Doug Williams, but when it comes to experience, face time, charisma and style, McGuinness, Burchill and Regal have the advantage. I wouldn't mind Sheamus joining them along with Kozlov and Jackson, forming a larger United Nations of Pain (refer to my previous analysis on them). However, I think just limiting the group to 3 Englishmen would be much more poignant, leaving the others to fend for themselves or team up themselves. The possibilities are endless. Also, I would love to see him tangle with Christian for the ECW title. Both tend to have a very sarcastic mentality so trading insults would be great. As for wrestling, they could and would put on the best show of the night, if at all possible. I think it would be a great idea. Lastly, while on ECW, he'll have more freedom to do more with his approach without worry about too much criticism since most pundits don't care much about ECW.

Now the negatives. Once again, putting Nigel here would be taking his possible star potential and downsizing it to the lower-ranking brand of that which is ECW. I would think that Nigel would do wonders debuting on Smackdown first as he does come off a lot like Edge at times. To some, he might very well have the skill to be a big name player early, not to say that Danielson doesn't, but I'm thinking like the pundits are. The edge on charisma may belong to Nigel, putting him on a better show than ECW. Another negative is to make him just a lackey of Regal or just part of a group. Remember, the key reason Regal has a faction now is to get himself over while keeping Kozlov and Jackson together to get them over as a team since their attempts to succeed as singles wrestlers have failed. This doesn't have to be Nigel's fate so early since he can be a great singles wrestler.

Once again, I have to mention that the real question has to deal with how the WWE will utilize them. As always, the WWE has a way of taking great wrestlers and destroying them with bad gimmicks, squash matches against established stars they protect, and a general hindrance on their wrestling style. If it's not the creative team that's to blame, it's the higher-up officials that have the final say on everything. It's a dirty practice, but it happens. Wrestling organizations have a tendency of unmaking top stars from other organizations and destroying their cred in their organization because they can and because they competed against them. So, we have to be wary of what happens to Nigel upon arrival.

We can only watch, wait, and hope all goes well with the hiring of Nigel McGuinness. Perhaps ECW is the best place for him and perhaps it's not. Since the future can't truly be told, we have to keep our eyes open for what happens next. However, ECW acquiring a fine talent like Nigel would be great for the show in spades as they will have gotten a top talent worth using one-hundred fold. If they want this to happen, though, ECW has to be raise its stakes in the Nigel lottery. They're going to have to be "in it to win it", as Nigel is in every match he wrestles.