Does Nigel McGuinness plan to wrestle for AEW full time?
To the shock of everyone, Nigel McGuinness made his in-ring return at All In in 2024. The Casino Gauntlet match was the first time he stepped into a ring since 2011. Now Nigel has cleared up any misconceptions about why he retired in the first place.
It had nothing to do with any sort of injury as the former ROH World Champion simply wasn’t making any money sustainable for him to keep competing. The 49-year-old revealed that news in an interview with TV Insider.
“There is a lot of confusion and misinformation,” McGuinness told Scott Fishman of TV Insider. “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.”
Nigel has been able to do commentary in WWE and now AEW, but he didn’t know that being able to wrestle was still a viable option until he was given that opportunity last year. Now that he’s back, it feels that the former ROH World Champion hasn't missed a beat. Even though he’s happy to lace up the boots again, Nigel has no desire to compete full time again.
“No. Good Lord, no,” McGuinness said on The Magic Of Wrestling. “No. My full years of wrestling are long, long gone. Good Lord, you could have asked me probably 10 years ago and I would have said the ship has truly sailed when it comes to me even wrestling again. But, I guess, truthfully, without AEW and specifically Tony Khan, I never would have got this opportunity again so, I don’t think there’s any benefit to me wrestling a full-time schedule.
The sort of part-time schedule that I’m currently on, you know, if an opportunity presents itself and it makes sense from a storyline perspective then I’ll do it, I love doing it. But, yeah, not full-time. There’s too many guys on the roster anyway, younger guys, who deserve more of those spots than me but if I can add a little bit of flavor, a little bit of spice to what else is going on with my experience and the fact that they see me on TV every week as a commentator then I think that’s the best asset, best way they can use me.”
McGuinness’ last match was against Zack Sabre Jr. for the IWGP World Heavyweight title at the AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door.