McGuinness had his first singles match in 13 years.
The reigning AEW World Champion Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness wrestled one-on-one at Dynamite: Grand Slam. It was their first singles match since September of 2009.
McGuinness revealed on Talk Is Jericho that he had the intention of wrestling Danielson at the first AEW All In. Plans were taken off the table when Danielson suffered a broken arm at Forbidden Door. Nigel added that there were suggestions for him to wrestle at All In 2023 but he did not want to be an add-on.
It wasn’t really me (that decided I’d wrestle for AEW). As everything in AEW, it comes down to Tony (Khan), making that final decision, and the first Wembley, I was ready to go. You know what they say about failing to prepare is preparing to fail, alright? And so I was ready to go, in ring shape for the first Wembley but, Bryan (Danielson) broke his arm in the match with (Kazuchika) Okada… I always joke, there’s 206 bones in the human body and he broke one and had 205 that were perfectly okay and still couldn’t wrestle me at Wembley. So that didn’t work and there was ideas. Maybe I could be in this match or that match but I didn’t wanna be sort of an add-on. I wanted it to really mean something and then Wembley this year, obviously my entire intention was Bryan again but because they wanted to go in the direction of everything else, that didn’t make sense. Which again, I’m perfectly okay with. I just feel blessed to have been able to stand in a ring again and so that 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 so it made sense from that regard and there was a nice little tie-in with Christian (Cage) at the end. So, that might go somewhere or it might not. I don’t know. But either way, what a moment. Just incredible.
He would speak further on the Grand Slam match against Danielson but he briefly touched on it to start. McGuinness went on to tell a story from his days with TNA Wrestling.
He circled back to the match with Bryan and said he did find himself speeding through things, but he’d rather that be the case than going over time and forcing others to have their time cut. There is a chance McGuinness could wrestle again.
McGuinness expressed that he feels blessed to have even returned and enjoys the simple things such as rolling around in the ring before shows with the likes of Lee Moriarty and Bryan Keith. He is okay if he does not wrestle again.
I think that (match against Bryan Danielson at Grand Slam) ended up being about 25 and having said that, obviously I’ve done TV wrestling before in TNA. But it was never a big match. They did this thing. I’m gonna get heat if I say this but I’m gonna say it anyway (he laughed). They did this thing where they did a vote and it was a legitimate vote about who they wanted to see face RVD for the World Title and I think just threw me in as a — we just need numbers here. Sting was in there and this is not in any way, shape or form to say that I’m in any way better than any of those other guys and what it really speaks to is that vociferous pro wrestling fan base that wanna say, no, we’re gonna push it our direction. We know who you want us to vote for so we’re gonna vote for this guy and screw ya. So I understand that, you know what I mean? And still, I won the match and you would think, well maybe we could get behind this guy. There’s a little bit of something here perhaps. But in the end, I think it was about three-and-a-half, four minutes, the title match on TV. I knew where I stood on it but having said that, I had some slightly longer matches in Ring of Honor when we had TV there. But, it wasn’t the level of live TV it is here and so, without sort of pulling the curtain back too far, I certainly felt speeding through things. With a pay-per-view, you got a little bit of leeway, right? But with TV, you’re cognisant, especially starting out. I don’t wanna take time away from other people. I don’t want the main event to go out there and have to cut half their stuff. That’s unprofessional, and as big of a match as it was for me and exciting as it was for me, I would rather do a little bit less and not come off as an egomaniac, and so I was very happy. Yeah. I was very happy that I got the chance to do it, that I got to face him one more time to have that sort of experience and my daughter was in the crowd as well which was the first time she’d ever seen any pro wrestling.
There’s always a chance (I could wrestle again) and certainly now that I’ve realized — I don’t wanna say it’s not as difficult as I thought it was because it is obviously very difficult. But I think I didn’t give myself enough credit for being able to do it and I think I listened to too many people. I said it in a promo relatively recently, ‘You hear that nobody knows you used to be a wrestler enough and you’ll start to believe it, and then one day, the voice telling you is your own, and well then, one day –’ and for me, this took a long time — ‘One day, you’ll realize that it was your voice all along and nobody else gave a sh*t,’ you know what I mean? And so I’m at that stage now where I feel eternally blessed to have been able to get back in the ring and I love it, I enjoy it. But not just the being in the ring. Just today, I was out there in the ring rolling around, you know? And Lee Moriarty and Bryan Keith… We get (in) and we do a little bit, learn a little bit of stuff and I learn as much from them as they do from me as well. So just being physically active and I think it gives you more of a visceral sense when you’re doing commentary. Because otherwise, I would have had to cast my mind back what? 11? 12? 13 years to remember what it felt like to get kicked in the face? Now I know. I only have to cast my mind back two weeks. So it’s there and so, certainly I’m open to the possibility but if I don’t wrestle again, that’s okay as well. As I said, I’ve had closure and we’ll see what happens, right? What dreams may come.
McGuinness is back at the commentary booth for AEW Collision. He filled in for Taz at the Five Year Anniversary of Dynamite due to Taz being ‘attacked’ and needing to undergo total knee replacement surgery.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
