In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall interviewed former ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness, who now works on the ROH broadcast team. Scroll down to watch the entire interview for details on his magic show happening tomorrow in London.
McGuinness was asked if he is retired from the ring:
“It’s a big question, isn’t it Steve? I mean, I’d be crazy to turn down that sort of an opportunity. But to be honest with you, I’m far more better used I would say in a commentary role at the moment. I don’t want to injure myself. I don’t want to kill myself. But if there was going to be the possibility of me wrestling again, like you said, you couldn’t possibly write a better ending to my in-ring career.”
Nigel McGuinness on his magic show (Sunday, May 28 in London) and the passing of Jay Briscoe:
“I started originally, I think the story goes, “I started when I was wrestling in Japan. A lot of the sponsors would take you out to eat after the shows and often times you sit there for two or three hours, didn’t speak a lot of the language at the time, and at the same time, I wanted to show a little bit of respect for the people who are good enough to take you out and pay for your food, so I took a pack of cards, learned a couple of basic tricks, and it just sort of went from there. I started doing some in Japan and then a little bit when I came back to the states, in the locker rooms and stuff. Once I started working with WWE, every week I was on the road and I would take a different trick and show it to a few people. Scott Armstrong and a few other people loved to see it. It’s just sort of gone from there to be honest with you. When I was working for WWE, I didn’t really have the time and or the motivation per se to actually put it all together and do his show. Everyone was always saying, ‘You should do his show.’ I didn’t really know how to do it exactly. Unfortunately, it took the passing of Jay Briscoe who’s actually an integral part of the show, not just the inspiration for me to put the show together, but actually the show itself. It begins with a video of me doing a magic trick for Jay way back in 2013 or 2014. That inspiration, his passing kind of made me realize you’re not guaranteed tomorrow. This is something that if you’re going to do, you may as well do it now, so when I was let go from WWE, I had a little bit more free time as you can imagine and put pen to paper. I took out the deck of cards. I took out a lot of the other tricks I’ve been working on, and really went on some deep dives as well watching a lot of the people who inspired me, the Darren Browns of the world, and sort of came up with a 90 minute show, not just a magic show in and of itself, but it it’s an homage to professional wrestling. I said it was inspired by Jay Briscoe, his love of magic, and his love of professional wrestling. It sort of ties it together and connects all of us who have this, what I like to call this proud guilty pleasure that we call professional wrestling.”
On if he’s going to do a magic show in England:
“I actually am already looking for a venue close to Wembley. I’ve got a couple of ideas in mind, I’m working with my agent on getting something booked up so I’m hoping that a couple of days before, I’ll have something ready to go and I’ll be able to announce it on social media sooner rather than later.”
What his show entails:
“I’ll give you the rundown. The first half, it’s a spoken word piece. It runs about half an hour mainly detailing my career. So the first half of the show is a version of that, telling my story in wrestling about when I started out, how I had to try and gain weight when I got hepatitis, all these different things. The matches with Kurt Angle. The second half is more of an interview piece. I have a couple of wrestlers up on stage and interview them about their experiences in wrestling so people get to see a different side of them. This Sunday, I’ve got Big Damo and Man Like Dereiss, two of the guys with different personalities, but I’m sure they’re going to be equally entertaining. When I get them on stage, I’ll do a little bit of magic for both of them as well. It runs about 90 minutes. It’s not just a magic show. I’ve been to see a lot of magic shows recently for inspiration. I think when people go and watch a magic show, they think, ‘Okay, this is a magic show. We go. There’s a guy on stage and he just does these magic tricks, where oh, wow, that’s crazy. Something came out of there that we didn’t expect.’ This is more of a journey that you get taken on. It starts with a video of Jay Briscoe. It ends with a video of Jay Briscoe. This is all about the love of professional wrestling.”
It's coming up – based on the overwhelming positive response and reviews – Celebration – my can't miss magic show is coming to London as part of Progress Wrestling's Super Strong Style weekend Sun May 28th – limited seats available – details below https://t.co/M89xNp6Ej1
— Nigel Mcguinness (@McGuinnessNigel) May 4, 2023
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
