More than a year before Nigel McGuinness would grace the stage at Wembley Stadium as an active wrestler, the seeds were planted for his eventual return to the ring.
In April 2023, as McGuinness and AEW CEO Tony Khan travelled on his plane to Long Island, New York, the duo prepared to make the pivotal announcement that All In would take place from Wembley Stadium for the first time later in the year. During that flight, McGuinness says “there was a bit of a discussion” that perhaps he could have his final match against Bryan Danielson that August.
“Then, obviously what happened with Bryan breaking his arm (at Forbidden Door) and not being able to wrestle because Lord knows he’s got 205 perfectly good bones in his body and he needs all 206. So, that wasn’t gonna happen last year,” McGuinness tells Uproxx Sports. “Once we realized that Bryan wasn’t an option (this year) because of him in the Owen and challenging for the title. That’s when I think the idea of doing a Casino Gauntlet match was broached. And after a little bit of thought and discussions back and forth, we decided to move forward in that direction. So I’m forever glad that I did.”
For McGuinness, a return to the ring is something he says he’s struggled with over the last 13 years. There have been both difficult moments and times where he’s been at great peace with the direction his life has taken.
“Be that as it may, there’s always that niggling sense of what could have been. It’s a strange realization when you discover that the only thing stopping you from wrestling was you,” McGuinness continues. “I remember thinking if I was going to wrestle again what promo I’d give and how I’d sort of explain it. One of the lines that came to me was ‘You can get told that your career meant nothing, eventually you start to believe it. Before too long, the voice telling you is your own. Then eventually, one day you realize that it was your voice all along. Nobody else gave a shit.’ To come out and have that moment (at All In) that I never could have dreamed about, certainly 18 months ago, it really was incredible.”
McGuinness never seriously entertained lacing his boots again until Khan mentioned Wembley. Conversations with guys like Christian and Adam Copeland helped him believe that a successful return to the ring was a real possibility. When it became clear that there was a genuine opportunity to wrestle, McGuinness says he didn’t feel like he needed to look like a bodybuilder, but maintained “you need to look like an athlete.”
At 48 years old, that wasn’t easy.
“Ever since (Khan) mentioned that was a possibility, I started getting back in the ring and training,” McGuinness says. “I had a few little bumps and bruises and niggling injuries and stuff that comes from being my age and trying to get back into something as physically demanding as professional wrestling.”
McGuinness calls his surprise appearance as part of the Casino Gauntlet at All In an “incredible moment” and it meant the world to him to wrestle at Wembley, where in 1992 he “had that epiphany that I was going to be a professional wrestler.”
“It’s one thing, certainly the year prior, to come back and announce the world record attendance. But to actually be in the ring. It was just a different feeling altogether. And that reaction was just something that I will take with me for the rest of my life,” McGuinness says. “It gave me an incredible sense of, I wouldn’t say closure because that makes it sound like the last thing for me. But it certainly has given me peace and a sense of surreal reality that this was able to happen. I had a lot of blessings in my life and a lot of obstacles as well. And to be as lucky as I was to have that opportunity – thanks to Tony Khan – it meant so much.”
McGuinness gets emotional talking about his journey back to the ring and the warm reception he received from the international audience at Wembley. He says it touched his heart hearing from friends and fans alike, and shared a specific story of someone dealing with a health issue who reached out to say his return gave a nice respite from all the struggles and grief in their life.
“It’s an absolute blessing to be able to have that effect on someone. And arguably that’s a good portion of what I wanted to do in terms of being a wrestler all along, was to prove that if you’ve got a dream and you never give up, that you can make it,” McGuinness continues.
Physically, McGuinness says he feels great. He’s continued training as if he’s wrestling tomorrow. He entered the Casino Gauntlet at All In with aspirations of having at least one more match, and that remains true.
“Bryan’s certainly head of line because of our history, there’s so much emotion tied up in a match with him,” McGuinness says. “Zack Sabre Jr. would be a dream match. Adam Copeland, he’s got another of those ‘broken bones.’ There are so many great talents, Lee Moriarty has been gracious enough to get in the ring with me before the shows at Collision, and that’s helped me a great deal.”
Interested in a select number of matches, McGuinness doesn’t want to get caught up wrestling every week again. He enjoys doing commentary with the option to get in the ring every now and again for a special occasion. If All In was the last time he wrestles, he’s also fully complacent if his final match came in front of 50,000 fans at Wembley Stadium.
Storyline or reality, McGuinness says the thing he really wanted was a final match with Danielson for his return to the ring. He has a good portion of envy for Danielson, to see the trajectories of their careers, and admits it was a mixed bag seeing the American Dragon win the AEW World Championship. But McGuinness looks forward to the day when Danielson drops the belt and rides off into the sunset as well.
“It’s going to come, someone is going to beat him for that title and he will go quietly into the night and we will never see crying Bryan again,” McGuiness says. “But I will forever make sure no one forgets him, because every week I’m going to bury him on commentary as if he was still wrestling.”
But what if that person to end Danielson’s full-time wrestling career is McGuiness himself?
“Oh, hey, what a story. What an end to a story that would be,” he continues. “That would be incredible. He’s too smart to ever get himself put in that position to where I could beat him for that title. So I don’t see it happening. But listen, I didn’t see myself walking out of Wembley Stadium and getting a bigger reaction than Bryan winning the title either. These things can happen.”