I was quite shocked when Nigel went to TNA and even more shocked when I read he failed a pre-screening test from the WWE because I figured of the two of them he'd have a better shot at making it in the WWE.
While Dragon is a better technical wrestler, Nigel is taller, larger in the upper body, better on the mic and has a more WWE-friendly move-set. It makes me wonder whether they'll then take Danielson.
On the one hand he was trained by Shawn Michaels, was a guest at the hall of fame ceremony, is loved by William Regal and Jamie Noble (who is partially in charge of who gets the go-ahead) and had a match with John Cena that they probably remember.
On the other he is reasonably pale, not overwhelmingly muscular, average on the mic and I've never seen him win a match that wasn't by knockout or submission with anything but the small package and they are a PG company who won't approve of multiple elbows. Even they wouldn't want him to win by small package on a regular basis. Not to say he can't adopt a new finishing move, he's proven he's adept with a multitude of styles, but I'm just saying.
Then you've got TNA who seem to be capitalizing on the WWE's withdrawal to the PG market by having a more violent product where the women manage to dress ****tier and still wrestle circles around their WWE counterpart (kudos on that). It's a company where people choke each other out on a regular basis. It's a company that is trying to steal some MMA fans away in a more blatant fashion each week. Bryan is interested in MMA and is a very adept striker.
I could see him using a combination of the elbows and the triangle choke as finishers in TNA. Throw in his wicked kicks and suplexes as regular moves (TNA have shorter matches than ROH so you really have to condense your moveset) and he could fit right in.
From a purely selfish aspect I'd like to see him mixing it up with the TNA guys from the X-Division to the main eventers. Hell, a buddy and I said that if we ever got to see Dragon vs Angle we'd.... I'd rather not say.
But I just have a feeling in my gut that says he'd be better off on the bigger stage that is the WWE. They are THE company and could make him more money with less work. He deserves to be seen by the entire world and he seems to want to challenge himself to trying to make it in the big leagues, so I sort of want him to.
I guess it's win/win though, either we get to see him have great matches against a fresh set of opponents including Kurt Angle, or he gets to try and make his dream come true and if he fails he still goes to TNA.
Imagine if they dared to acknowledge his achievements, kept his name, look and move-set the same and put him straight into the Legends Title contention? Nah that'd never happen, they've stopped acknowledging ROH exists, but still.
