Nigel McGuinness got the chance to dust off the boots not once, but twice in the last couple of months.
Talking to AEW’s Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho, Nigel McGuinness, who returned to the ring on two occasions spoke about the plans that were made and if he or Tony Khan knew a year in advance if the return for McGuinness was possible.
“No, not in this life. I don’t think he [Tony Khan] was either, because as much of a wrestling fan as he is, you have to be an obsessed Nigel McGuinness fan to know my backstory and to understand why I wasn’t wrestling. I think Tony probably believed what a lot of other people believed, that it was perhaps a hepatitis issue or perhaps it was an injury that stopped me. The actual truth was that the only thing stopping me wrestling was me. It was only Wembley when that came around, I was on his jet. He said, ‘Keep this to yourself,’ as we were taking off, ‘We’re gonna be running Wembley.’ I sort of said tongue and cheek to him, ‘You know what, maybe if I set out, I could dust off the old boots.’ There was a spark in his eye and he said, ‘Can you wrestle, are you okay to wrestle?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure, absolutely.’ I didn’t really know at that point whether I was mentally and physically [ready], because you take that long off.’”
McGuinness wanted to battle Bryan Danielson at the first-ever All-In
H/t to Fightful for the transcription.
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at Wembley Stadium. But, due to the broken arm suffered by Danielson against Kazuchika Okada, those plans had to shift for the time being.
