First Round: Lexington - Chris Benoit vs. Desmond Wolfe

[deem]

It's impossible for two technical guys to NOT have a close match, so all that can be looked at is Benoit's record in mat based matches.

I'll list some guys I see having a similar match with Benoit - Angle, Guerrero, Malenko, Jericho, Regal, Storm. Guerrero, Jericho and Storm high fly more, and Angle is a top level guy, so I'll use Malenko and Regal.

From memory, Benoit is 3-0 against Regal. At the Pillman testimonial, Velocity and No Mercy.

He has wins over Malenko at Hog Wild, a draw on Nitro.

Well, I can't profess to know every result between them, but the fact that all the wins on the bigger stages went to Benoit leads me to pick him, if we accept that the WZ tournament is something prestigious that every participant would see as a big stage.

Plus i just prefer Benoit.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

Ignoring whatever Benoit did later in his life, he still accomplished far more than Desmond Wolfe has, in ROH or otherwise, and this quite simply gets the vote. Regardless of how technical or competitive the match may get, Benoit still walks away the victor.

 

[D-Man]

Sorry Desmond, but this is a slaughter.

Benoit is well known as one of the toughest in-ring competitors of all time. The guy's gone toe-to-toe with EVERYONE and either stood his ground or was left standing over his opponents' carcasses (no pun intended). Benoit is clearly going far in this tournament, but needs to easily mow over guys like Wolfe to get himself started.

The wolverine will trample the wolfe.

 

[DirtyJosé]

I tried every way of approaching this that might let me justify voting Wolfe. I even contemplated voting Wolfe because it's become a bit of a landslide at this point. However, it just takes a second to remember how much I enjoyed watching Benoit work. I look forward to seeing young guys like Wolfe go over in their time, but in this case I gotta go with my guy feeling and vote Benoit.

 

[RVDgurl]

I'm voting for McGuinness (you can call him Desmond Wolfe if you want to). It's obvious that he will not be moving onto the next round, so I'm going to lend my support to my boy. I would have loved to see Benoit v. McGuinness. Both are extremely well versed in the ring, specially when it comes to technical wrestling. Both men are strong, quick and intense. Nigel gets the nod in the charisma department, but I sincerely believe they are a fairly even match.

But I get it- Benoit is a wrestling legend. He probably should be the one to move on.

 

[gd]

I actually quite like Desmond. Not his fault he's become a jobber after a superb feud with Angle. He was a freaking monster in ROH and probably should've been billed as Nigel here, but I don't think it would've mattered either way. Benoit was definetly above average in the ring, but also was one of the most boring/disappointing main eventers in recent memory. I'd definetly rather watch some Nigel/Desmond than Benoit, even though both would be quite enjoyable.