Nigel McGuinness says full-time AEW run is ‘definitely a wait-and-see’

Nigel McGuinness isn’t going to rule out a full-time return to the ring.

McGuinness will likely wrestle his first singles match since 2011 at AEW Grand Slam next week, provided his opponent, Bryan Danielson, is medically cleared in storyline. He told TV Insider recently that he wants to see how his match against Danielson goes before deciding on his in-ring future.

“It’s definitely a wait-and-see. I’m not going to rule it out,” he said. “I think for the longest time there has been the saying of never say never and never really meaning it. I think we’ll see how the match goes. If Bryan is able to compete, as he is legitimately pretty banged up. Hopefully, it comes to fruition when he honors the booking. I think we’ll see how things play out after that.”

McGuinness continued to say he felt fantastic after the Casino Gauntlet Match at AEW All In.

“People asked me after the match in Wembley how I was feeling. I felt fantastic. It will be different going into a gauntlet match like that versus a one-on-one with expectations. I feel confident about it.”

McGuinness also clarified that when he retired in 2011, it was not due to injuries but because he was not able to make a living from it.

“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.”

“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.”

McGuinness commented on Tony Khan’s reaction when he mentioned possibly coming out of retirement. Shortly before the 2023 AEW: All In was announced, McGuinness says he was on a flight with Khan when the topic came up.

“I can’t remember what I said. I think to the effect of if we get a sellout, then maybe I could dust the boots up. He perked up and said, ‘Would you be interested? Is that a possibility?’ We had a brief discussion at that point. I tried to hunt Bryan Danielson down that day to see if it was a possibility. That was a long time ago. Tony was ecstatic at the possibility. It just took a lot longer to come to fruition than either of us thought or planned.”

The full interview with Nigel McGuinness is available here.