Nigel McGuinness didn’t envision himself ever competing inside an AEW ring, in Wembley Stadium or anywhere else.
During an episode of Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, the AEW color-commentator spoke about his shocking in-ring return in 2024 after being retired for over 10 years.
“No, not in this life,” McGuinness said when asked if he ever saw himself coming out of retirement for a return to the ring. “I don’t think he [Tony Khan] was either, because as much of a wrestling fan as he is, you have to be an obsessed Nigel McGuinness fan to know my backstory and to understand why I wasn’t wrestling. I think Tony probably believed what a lot of other people believed, that it was perhaps a hepatitis issue or perhaps it was an injury that stopped me.”
McGuinness continued, “The actual truth was that the only thing stopping me wrestling was me. It was only Wembley when that came around, I was on his jet. He said, ‘Keep this to yourself,’ as we were taking off, ‘We’re gonna be running Wembley.’ I sort of said tongue and cheek to him, ‘You know what, maybe if I set out, I could dust off the old boots.’ There was a spark in his eye and he said, ‘Can you wrestle, are you okay to wrestle?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure, absolutely.’ I didn’t really know at that point whether I was mentally and physically [ready], because you take that long off.’”
He went on to talk about being in shape and ready to go at the first AEW show at Wembley Stadium, but plans were halted when Bryan Danielson suffered a broken arm against Kazuchika Okada.
“The first Wembley, I was ready to go,” he said. “I was ready to go and in ring shape for the first Wembley, but Bryan broke his arm in a match with Okada. That didn’t work, there was ideas of maybe I could be in this match or that match, but I didn’t want to be an add-on, I wanted it to really mean something. Then at Wembley this year, obviously my intention was Bryan again, but because they wanted to go in the direction of The Owen, that didn’t make sense, which I’m perfectly okay with, I just feel blessed with being able to step in a ring again. The opportunity came around with the Casino [gauntlet], because it made sense, because if I was gunning for Bryan, I’d have to get a title opportunity against him. It made sense in that regard and there was a nice little tie in with Christian at the end, that might go somewhere, it might not, I don’t know. Either way, what a moment. Just incredible.”
(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)
