By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Nigel McGuinness
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On if he is working towards a return match: “I was open to the suggestion, open to the idea when I originally signed with AEW. I took a flight cross-country with Tony and he said ‘I’ve got to swear you to secrecy, I’m telling you something, you can’t tell another soul. We’re doing Wembley Stadium.’ I was like, Oh, my God. Then just the idea occurred to me. Could you? Should you? Because Wembley Stadium 1992. That was an epiphany for me, that was a moment. I went there with my friend and I sat about 50 rows back, and I just remember having this strange sensation, I talk about it during my magic show how I just had this weird feeling, this belief that somehow I knew I was going to be a professional wrestler. So to go back to that venue and wrestle would just be off the charts. But the only thing that really made sense was Bryan, and he broke his arm [in 2023] because he’s got osteoporosis.”
On if a match against Bryan Danielson was ever on the cards: “I don’t know. I mean, there’s so much of it that is out of my control really. It’s whether he wants to wrestle me. I always thought it was kind of funny. Someone asked him about that time if he’d ever wrestle me again and he said ‘If I ever wrestled Nigel, I’d break his neck.’ Then three weeks later he breaks his arm, which I thought was karma. I’ve always thought as well, sometimes you get couples and the girl is always jealous and blaming the guy for cheating. ‘You’re cheating on me. You are thinking of cheating.’ But it always turns out, she was thinking of it. So I think maybe when Bryan said, ‘If I wrestle him I’ll break his neck.’ He probably remembers those lariats and thinks [he] doesn’t want that. Go back and watch that match at Liverpool where we had that incredible match. There was a time after he ran my head into the ring post. I rolled back in, blood pouring, looked him in the face and perhaps the only time I’ve ever seen true fear in his eyes. So yeah, I think he was having a flashback, PTSD from that. So I make jokes about it, but I don’t think he’s ever going to wrestle me to be perfectly honest.”
On Bryan Danielson and Wembley Stadium being the only terms for a comeback match: “It certainly feels like that. You know what I mean? It certainly feels like that. All roads to me I think certainly aim towards him. Because there’s so much talent in AEW, so many young guys who deserve those spots. I’m very inspired by Christian Cage, obviously, and Adam Copeland as much as I’d hate to admit it [laughs]. These guys can show that they haven’t lost a step. They can still go and all the knowledge that they have, they can convey and pass on to the next generation by being in the ring with them as well I’ve been like, wow. Getting back in the ring I felt like, wow, it is a strange realization when you figure out that the only thing stopping you being a wrestler is you. Now, having said that I’ve certainly got no desire to step away from the announcing booth. I don’t want to become a full-time wrestler. I don’t really want to wrestle anymore, to be honest with you. Other than beating Bryan, obviously, because there’s our story. There’s our history.”
On ending his career on his own terms: “That’s definitely a possibility. I mean, you mentioned before we started filming that you watched the documentary, it was rather an ignominious end to my career. I was very grateful to all the independent promoters who booked me on my final retirement tour. But I certainly never imagined that my last match would be in a small volunteer fire department in West Virginia. But yeah, you just don’t get to choose it sometimes.”
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