Nigel McGuinness isn't ruling anything out.
Former ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness retired from the ring in 2011 and transitioned into non-wrestling roles. He has been working as a commentator in recent years, but he returned to in-ring competition at AEW All In, where he competed in the Casino Gauntlet Match. On the September 11th episode of AEW Dynamite, McGuinness challenged Bryan Danielson to face him at AEW All In.
Speaking with Scott Fishman for TV Insider, McGuinness discussed returning to the ring. He was asked to comment on Tony Khan's response to his interest in competing again and revisiting his story with Bryan Danielson.
"There was excitement. Old Tony is a really big professional wrestling fan and has been for most of his life. And thank God. There is a notion elsewhere that what happens outside there isn’t important. Tony Khan is a wrestling fan who studies everything that happens in the wrestling industry. When I jumped on his flight headed to New York to announce the first Wembley show, he mentioned it. I can’t remember what I said. I think to the effect of if we get a sellout, then maybe I could dust the boots up. He perked up and said, “Would you be interested? Is that a possibility?” We had a brief discussion at that point. I tried to hunt Bryan Danielson down that day to see if it was a possibility. That was a long time ago. Tony was ecstatic at the possibility. It just took a lot longer to come to fruition than either of us thought or planned," McGuinness said.
McGuinness was then asked whether he saw the comeback as a one-off for the match with Danielson or if he was looking at it as a full run. He stated that he was taking a wait-and-see approach, and he was not ruling it out. McGuinness noted that they would see how the match against Danielson went, and he was focused on preparing for it.
"It’s definitely a wait-and-see. I’m not going to rule it out. I think for the longest time there has been the saying of never say never and never really meaning it. I think we’ll see how the match goes. If Bryan is able to compete as he is legitimately pretty banged up. Hopefully, it comes to fruition when he honors the booking. I think we’ll see how things play out after that. People asked me after the match in Wembley how I was feeling. I felt fantastic. It will be different going into a gauntlet match like that versus a one-on-one with expectations. I feel confident about it. I don’t know. I was looking at quotes from Arthur Ashe this morning because we’re doing this at Arthur Ashe Stadium. He said, “One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” I’ve had 18 months to prepare for this both mentally and physically. I just feel I’m ready to go. Once I’m out there, there is a legitimate emotion that comes with standing across the ring with Bryan Danielson, given his level of success and story compared to mine," McGuinness said.
Fightful will provide more information about Nigel McGuinness's return to the ring as it becomes available.
Fightful will have coverage of AEW Dynamite as it airs on September 18th, as well as a post-show podcast on our YouTube channel.
