Nigel McGuinness: Bryan Danielson Has All His Bones Together Except One, Does He Really Need Time Off?
Nigel McGuinness is calling out Bryan Danielson.
Nigel McGuinness retired in 2011 due to medical complications, but has remained active in the business as an on-screen character and commentator. He’s previously said that, should he get back in the ring, Bryan Danielson would be an opponent for him.
At the AEW Double or Nothing media scrum, Danielson warned Nigel about getting back in the ring, saying he’d break his neck. Unfortunately, Danielson suffered an arm injury at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.
Speaking on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Nigel was asked about doing one more match.
“The truth of the matter is, the only way I was going to come out of retirement was for a match against Bryan Danielson at Wembley Stadium. It was going to take something like that for me to come out of retirement, because I really value my job doing announcing and there are so many other guys on the card that are so much better than me and deserve those spots, but in the right situation, I’d be crazy to not be open to that possibility. Now, [Danielson] has gone and broken his arm. Let’s be honest. We all saw the x-rays, and one of those bones was perfectly okay. I don’t know how many bones are in the human body. He’s got all of them apart from one, does he really need time off? He’s sitting at home, taking a paycheck, digging those clams out of the sand. He could be in there wrestling me. To be perfectly honest, he’s probably a bit scared. It’s ironic isn’t it? Someone asked him that question in a media scrum and he was like, ‘I respect Nigel as a commentator, but if he gets in the ring with me, I’d break his neck,’ and he’s the one with a broken arm, and I never got a chance to wrestle him. That is karma. I’m not saying he’d be scared of wrestling me again, he’s had a lot more experience than me, but I’m in as good of shape now as I’ve ever been. I’m in ring shape, I’m ready to go, but I can’t see myself wrestling at this point in that sort of situation at this point. That’s the truth of the matter. It made me think, I remember when he said that ‘he’ll break my neck,’ I’m sure he can’t feel threatened, but it took me back to the match we had in Liverpool where he ran my head into the ring post four times, knocked me out damn nearly, and left me on the outside to get counted out. I got back in the ring, and I will always remember the look on his face when I came up, covered in blood, ready to murder him. That look of fear. That’s a look of fear that doesn’t disappear in 12 years, that stays with him for the rest of his life. To me, that sounded like someone who didn’t want the match to happen. You can understand why,” said Nigel.
It is unknown when Danielson will return from injury, but Tony Khan recently said he’s optimistic that Danielson will be back by the end of the year.
Nigel currently provides commentary for AEW Collision.
Danielson and Nigel had critically acclaimed battles in Ring of Honor, including a 2006 match to unify the ROH World and ROH Pure Titles. Danielson’s last match in ROH was in 2009 against Nigel.
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