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At All In 2024, Bryan Danielson created history by winning the AEW World Championship for the first time in his career. However, earlier in that show, his close friend Nigel McGuinness came out of retirement and entered a 12-man Casino Gauntlet match.
Several years ago, McGuinness had to bid adieu to professional wrestling due to medical complications. After leaving the industry, he struggled a lot to get by. In a new documentary about his life and career titled Nigel McGuinness: The Road Less Traveled, the AEW star revealed that he drove for Uber after retiring. Furthermore, he watched Bryan Danielson reach new heights in his career. This made him feel small as he strongly believed that he, too, deserved the same level of success as The American Dragon.
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"To have to stand by on the sidelines and watch the success of Bryan Danielson reach the very top, the pinnacle of the professional wrestling industry. While I went back to normal life (after retiring). I drove for Uber," said McGuinness.
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AEW star Nigel McGuinness explained why he retired from wresting
Nigel McGuinness was interviewed by TV Insider last year. In this interaction, the 48-year-old said that he had to retire years ago because he was not able to make ends meet as a professional wrestler. The top wrestling promotions back then were WWE, TNA, and Ring of Honor, and due to various reasons, he couldn't go there.
"There is a lot of confusion and misinformation. 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. That style in Ring of Honor just wasn’t doable. 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." [H/T PW Mania]
Nigel McGuinness is a former ROH World Champion and a former ROH Pure Champion. It remains to be seen what the future holds for him in the Tony Khan-led promotion.
