Nigel McGuinness picked up pro wrestling titles all over the world during his time in the ring, including a run as ROH World Champion. His career in the ring is over, and he’s focusing on commentary. That seems to be a much safer place for him.

AEW brought Nigel McGuinness in to be the voice of ROH. This only happened after his release from WWE, something that many fans found as a big surprise.

While speaking with Wrestling News, Nigel McGuinness was asked if he would ever get back in the ring. Nigel didn’t seem to give much hope of that happening, even with All In London coming up.

“To be honest with you, I’m better used in a commentary role at the moment. I don’t want to injure myself. I don’t want to kill myself.”

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Nigel McGuinness will be in London on May 28th for a magic show. He took a moment to discuss this, and he also shared a few thoughts on 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.”

We will have to see how involved Nigel McGuinness gets with the television storylines. He can always take a bump in the ring again, but he would probably prefer to keep both feet on the ground.

AEW is still sorting out the commentary team for AEW Collision. Perhaps Nigel McGuinness will have his name called, but that will take up his Saturday nights, for sure.

What’s your take on AEW bringing in Nigel McGuinness? Are they using him properly? Sound off in the comments!

Felix Upton

Felix Upton is a seasoned writer with over 30 years of experience. He began his career writing advertisements for local newspapers in New York before transitioning to publishing news for Ringside News. His expertise includes writing, editing, research, photo editing, and video editing. In his free time, he enjoys bungee jumping and learning extinct languages.

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