AEW commentator Nigel McGuinness appeared on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including WWE rescinding his contract in 2009.
McGuinness said, No, it’s a little convoluted, but I’ll give you the condensed version. I got signed by WWE, they decided to rescind the contract because of an arm injury, even though my doctor said it was perfectly healed and I had wrestled with it for two years. But that was it, that was their doctor’s [decision].”
On being told by WWE’s doctor he would need surgery:
“After I passed the physical, he said, ‘Just in passing, you’ve never had any other injuries, have you?’ Being honest, I said, ‘Well, I partially tore my bicep a couple of years ago but it’s perfectly healed.’ He said, ‘Just let me see the MRI.’ So I sent him the MRI, he took a look at it and said, ‘Oh no, you need surgery.’ What was I gonna do? At that point, I had only ever wrestled in Ring Of Honor. My best year in wrestling as an active competitor was for Ring Of Honor believe it or not and I made $46,000 with no health insurance. So, at the end of the year, I didn’t have any savings. So, was I going to pay out of pocket, because I didn’t have insurance, to have a bicep surgery that I didn’t think I really needed. My doctor, who was a renowned orthopedic surgeon in Tampa, he agreed as well. On the off chance that they might be interested, and we all know how that goes as well. They didn’t even say, ‘Get the surgery and we’ll be interested.’ They just said, ‘Nope, that’s not going.’”
On his run with TNA:
“So, I then went to TNA, took them up on their offer thank god and proved that my arm was perfectly okay wrestling some of the best matches in my career against Kurt Angle, which, let’s be honest, it’s hard to not have a great match against Kurt Angle. So I had that and everything looked for a second like I was going to show WWE that they made a mistake and then on just a random blood test, I tested positive for Hepatitis B. I had no idea how I got it, I hadn’t done anything that would have stereotypically given you it. No heroin needles, no heroin at all [laughs]. That being the case though, most people clear Hepatitis B in ten weeks I believe. Hep b, very contagious, you can get it through blood that’s been out there in the air. Hence why for the longest time after testing positive and coming out with that notion that I was kinda against blood in wrestling. Long story short, to answer your question, after I got hepatitis, I didn’t clear it like most people do. But because I didn’t clear it myself, I had to take these antiviral drugs, which were fantastic. Say what you want about the pharmaceutical industry, but because I didn’t have any money at the time, they pretty much gave me the drugs which were relatively new antiviral drugs that people had been using for HIV. That helped me clear the virus. After a year, I finally cleared the virus, but of course I got let go by TNA two weeks before finally getting the all clear. Of course, I wasn’t on a guaranteed deal at TNA, I was actually making less money per match in TNA than I was in Ring Of Honor. When I got hepatitis and couldn’t wrestle, I made zero money. I drove to TV on my own dime hoping I could be used, but they were cautious, they didn’t really understand how the complexity — it’s much like HIV in the early days when everyone was freaking out about that. At the end for that, there I was, pretty much broke. I hadn’t wrestled in a year, I obviously couldn’t go back to TNA, WWE wasn’t interested with the bicep, I didn’t want to go back to Ring Of Honor and wrestle that style again for that sort of money because it was at least another five years before Ring Of Honor guys started making six figures. So, what was I gonna do?”
On his The Last Of McGuinness documentary during his retirement tour:
“It was kind of like there was nowhere that I wanted to wrestle. Sometimes I think about it and I go, ‘Well, maybe I should’ve just went to Japan.’ If you look at the guys like Fergal and Jay and Kenny, being able to make a career outside of WWE, maybe I could’ve done that. I was just so, I felt so kicked in the balls by fate. So, then what I decided to do, Colt Cabana had just done that wrestling road diaries and I was on the beach with him in Florida. I said, ‘I don’t know what to do, what am I gonna do here?’ He said, ‘Get a video camera, go and record wrestling on independents, make a documentary and see what happens.’ So, I went on a three week retirement tour all around America and I think I went to Europe as well, videoed it all, made a documentary, The Last Of McGuinness. That was an incredible story as well. The documentary, I filmed it. A buddy of mine bought me a laptop to edit it on. I cut together a couple of teases about pro wrestling and seeing behind the scenes. It wasn’t overt as it is now, now there’s everything out there. I put it out on Kickstarter and within a week or two, I had $50,000, which I was asking for to make the documentary. Here I was, I traveled around the world thinking that I didn’t make a difference and that nobody knows who I was, and then all of the sudden, the people that really cared were there for me. I made a documentary and it’s been lauded as one of the best self made pro wrestling documentaries of all time.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
