Nigel McGuinness returned to in-ring action in the Casino Gauntlet Match at the AEW All In: London 2024 pay-per-view event from Wembley Stadium. He will wrestle AEW World Heavyweight Champion Bryan Danielson in a non-title bout on Dynamite: Grand Slam next week.
McGuiness had been a top wrestling star for ROH and later had a run in TNA. In September 2006, McGuinness was offered a WWE deal to wrestle, but the deal was pulled after he didn’t disclose a previous biceps injury during a medical pre-screening.
His doctor thought the injury was healed and that he was good enough to wrestle. WWE’s doctors told Nigel to undergo surgery to repair the old injury. However, he couldn’t afford the surgery, and he declined. WWE pulled the offer. After his TNA run, he felt he had few options left and decided to retire instead.
While speaking with TV Insider, McGuinness revealed why he retired from wrestling years ago.
He said, “There is a lot of confusion and misinformation. The truth of the matter is when I stepped away from wrestling, it was purely because I couldn’t make a living as a wrestler anymore. I could have gone back to Ring of Honor and wrestled that style, but I wouldn’t have made enough money to even afford health insurance, let alone save for the rest of my life. That style in Ring of Honor just wasn’t doable. WWE wasn’t interested in me because of an old arm injury, even though it was perfectly healed. I didn’t want to go back to TNA given what happened there. That was it. There was no AEW or anywhere else to make a living wrestling. I had no choice.”
McGuisness noted in this interview that it’s definitely a wait-and-see, and he’s not going to rule out doing another match after Grand Slam.
