What's your favorite period of your favorite wrestler?

[Kincaid]

I feel like I've made this thread before. Anyway...

Wrestlers change. Often a lot. The Bryan Danielson of 2004 was a very different guy to the Danielson of 2006. The Austin Aries of 05 is drastically different to the Aries of his final run. Some guys get better. Some guys get worse. Homicide today, obviously, isn't the same as the old guy. So: Who's your favorite wrestler here in ROH? What's the best time for them?

Honestly, my all time favorite might be 2008 or so Davey Richards. From 08 to 09 he really found himself as not just a great wrestler, but a guy who ENJOYED being a great wrestler. A guy who really dug being a miserable jerk who knew he could bend your arms in all sorts of awful ways and then kick your chest so hard your nipple nails the dude at the merchandise stand. He was awesome. He was never quite the same once they tried to make him an honest good guy for me.

(Baseless speculation: But that might be because in his real life, you get the vibe he's more on the heel side of things. :-p)

What about you dude's and ladies?

[ROHFan25]

This is actually a really cool topic...something I hadn't really thought of at all.

I think for me, it would have to be Nigel's heel run as Champion. I always loved Bryan more, but man when Nigel had that belt he was just fucking phenomenal. Not only that, he played his heel character so well, had great matches, and made other young talent (Steen in singles IMO, Tyler, etc)

[Wedge]

I have 3.
Bryan Danielson - Early title run when he dominated everybody verbally and physically.
Roderick Strong - 2005 singles matches
Claudio Castagnoli - Kings of Wrestling's 2nd run. (also Chris Hero during the same time to a lesser extent)

[PiledrivingMissDaisy]

I dunno if I'd call Hero my favourite, but there was that 2009 period where he figured out how to be both serious and interesting as That Young Knockout Kid and had great matches with Jerry Lynn, Lance Storm, KENTA (MOTYC, one of the best examples of a perfect nearfall in recent memory too), Tyler Black, Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston.

[ROHdk]

With Danielson, I prefer his matches in ROH. But I like his personality more in WWE. He has showed a completely different side of himself in WWE. I guess that is key to making it there.

[Ladrao12]

I'll go with Roderick Strong. I thought his matches from 2009-2011 (end of his title reign) were fantastic. The tenacious, fast paced matches he had with Tyler Black, Bryan Danielson, Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards were some phenomenal matches.

[The Dragon Saga]

Kevin Steen from when he turned on Generico to when he returned and won the ROH World Championship. Him saying, "FUCK RING OF HONOR" at the time was so cool.

[ROHFanAnthony]

I got into ROH 7 years ago around this time. Before I got into it, I would always read good things about it and rave reviews of matches from Bryan Danielson. I saw what they meant when I started watching and he is my favorite ROH wrestler of all time and currently my favorite overall in wwe. So I will go with Bryan Danielson from mid 2007-Sept 2009. I also liked Nigel's reign as champion. I like Jerry Lynn, but him ending it was questionable.

[supersonic]

McGuinness as Pure Champion

He was great at being a heel, with a tremendous sense of humor and much safer style than once he lost the title to Danielson.

[Northwoods_Nightmare]

Kevin Steen Final Battle 2009-11th Anniversary. Phenomenal.

Danielson and Mcguinness are my other favorites, but I'm not sure what to put for period. Maybe 2005-2007 for Dragon and 2006-2009 for Mcguinness?

[PoyzunTiiiger]

Austin Aries 2005 after beating Samoa Joe (Spoilers) for the World Title
- Just an overall badass character none of that silly heel nonsense he was a tweener and wrestling machine who would compete against anybody. I loved the way that he shook hands with everybody and showed respect but at the same time sent Roderick Strong to break his opponent's backs the night before wrestling them. I miss Aries so much.

I enjoyed Aries' heel character in 2009-2011 but not as much as I did the Wrestling Machine/Personal Jesus Era Aries.

*Pops in Survival of the Fittest 2004*

[TheKillerPoet]

Here's one that I'm positive nobody else will say: Jimmy Jacobs (2006-2008)

Jimmy Jacobs is my favorite ROH wrestler and, in my opinion, no other Ring of Honor wrestler has evolved from a character standpoint as much as Jimmy Jacobs has during his run in the company. That two year span of time specifically, basically from the Ballad of Lacey music video through him kicking Tyler Black out of the Age of the Fall was a really great time from a creative standpoint. Sure, he wasn't putting on 5-star classics every show, but that didn't really matter. People were still waving their cellphones in the air every time his music hit.

The simultaneous feuds he had with BJ Whitmer and Colt Cabana are among my personal favorites not just in ROH, but in wrestling in general. He was a heel, but one that had understandable reasons for the increasingly horrible things he was doing. Jimmy Jacobs added a dynamic to ROH that hadn't really been seen at that point and you don't really see that much on the independent level in general. Age of the Fall started out really strong too but unfortunately, for a number of reasons, petered out pretty weakly.

Those two years though really were cool and I think helped the company in that period of time where they were starting to make stuff for ROHVideos/YouTube.

[supersonic]

Here's one that I'm positive nobody else will say: Jimmy Jacobs (2006-2008)

Jimmy Jacobs is my favorite ROH wrestler and, in my opinion, no other Ring of Honor wrestler has evolved from a character standpoint as much as Jimmy Jacobs has during his run in the company. That two year span of time specifically, basically from the Ballad of Lacey music video through him kicking Tyler Black out of the Age of the Fall was a really great time from a creative standpoint. Sure, he wasn't putting on 5-star classics every show, but that didn't really matter. People were still waving their cellphones in the air every time his music hit.

The simultaneous feuds he had with BJ Whitmer and Colt Cabana are among my personal favorites not just in ROH, but in wrestling in general. He was a heel, but one that had understandable reasons for the increasingly horrible things he was doing. Jimmy Jacobs added a dynamic to ROH that hadn't really been seen at that point and you don't really see that much on the independent level in general. Age of the Fall started out really strong too but unfortunately, for a number of reasons, petered out pretty weakly.

Those two years though really were cool and I think helped the company in that period of time where they were starting to make stuff for ROHVideos/YouTube.

His match quality was outstanding during that time too, with the gimmick match chemistry involving Whitmer spilling over to IWA-MS. The Aries feud was a bit lame but about half of their feud in-ring was just phenomenal stuff.

[Thatwhiteguy1971]

Nigel from the time he won the title to the time he lost it. Every match during his reign was great and different from each other.

[MythRush]

nigel for sure. His championship matches were at another level at that time that no one could match, layed it on the line each and every night. I was at his first ROH Match in Dayton vs Chet the Jet Jablonski and you could tell it was only a matter of time before he was given the ball and a chance to run with it and that he did!

[Thatwhiteguy1971]

He had everything. I really believe that Nigel is one of the best wrestlers to step into a ring. The guy could do it all and he had the one thing that some ( not all) big time wrestlers didn't have: That big match feel. No matter where his match was on the card it felt like the main event. Nigel vs Dragon vs Black vs Claudio in I believe 08 is still one of the greatest matches that I have ever seen live.

[Big Red Machine]

I really can't choose between Danielson from his title win until he went to go get surgery after Final Battle 2006 and Dnaiels after his return in 2007.

[Nigel LikesGuinness]

Nigel - World title run.