Nigel McGuinness fought his first singles match in 13 years at AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam in New York City. Nigel faced his old rival Bryan Danielson in a match that received primarily positive feedback from fans on social media.
During an interview with the Battleground podcast, McGuinness commented on how his match with Bryan Danielson at AEW Grand Slam came about:
“It was a gradual thing. Certainly, the story goes, I was on Tony Khan’s plane flying from Los Angeles to the East Coast. I forget exactly where it was, and on the flight, he told me about Wembley Stadium. They were going to do that and I don’t know why, I sort of said to him, sort of tongue in cheek, ‘Well, you know, if we sell out, I might have to dust off the old boots.’ That sparked something in him.
He asked me, ‘Could you do that legitimately?’ I explained, ‘Yeah. The only thing stopping me from wrestling is me, really, to be honest with you.’ So that was a possibility then, but it didn’t work out for that year because Bryan broke his arm in that match with Okada, although, as I’ve said before, 206 bones in the human body, 205 were perfectly okay, yet somehow that was an excuse not to wrestle me. So fast forward another year, another opportunity with Bryan winning the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. He had that title opportunity and so the only option left open to me was to take part in that Casino Gauntlet match to try and earn an opportunity if Bryan was to win that night. As you saw, I shot my shot, took my opportunity, and it did pay off.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
