September 24, 2024 • 18 mins
In this exclusive interview, Nigel McGuinness opens up about his highly anticipated rematch with Bryan Danielson, his journey to getting ring-ready, and what fans can expect in this once-in-a-lifetime match. Nigel also shares insights on his passion for magic, thoughts on AEW Women’s World Champion Mariah May. Don't miss this in-depth conversation about one of the most awaited matchups in pro wrestling!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all things for.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Resting and exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
Round podcast stop.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
What's up you guys? Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast,
the Battleground Podcast. And man, tomorrow night is going to
be one hell of a night. You've got a ew
Dynamite Grand Slam up there in New York. And here's
the deal. We have seen this for weeks and our
guest today Nigel Again, lets let's go ahead and introduce
Nigel sir.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
How are you very well? Thank you very much? Just
enjoying this California sun?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Oh that must be nice. We've got some pretty gnarly
sun here, but it's not the California temperature. We got
miserable ninety two degrees.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Here, so muggy Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, I hope you're enjoying it. But we kind of
talked about this for briefly before we started recording it.
You've cut some great promos here recently. This past Wednesday
you called out Brian Danielson of course no show. You said, hey,
if you really want to put the test to test,
who is the real goat? Meet me here Wednesday night, Dynamite.
(01:18):
So let me just go ahead and ask the obvious question.
Get it out of the way. When did you know
another match between you and Danielson was one hundred percent
of possibility and not just fantasy booking by fans.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, it was a gradual thing, certainly. The story goes,
I was on Tony Kahn's plane flying from Los Angeles
to the East Coast.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I forget exactly where.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
It was, and on the flight he told me about
Wembley Stadium.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
They were going to do that, and I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I sort of said to him, sort of tongue in cheet, well,
you know, if we sell out, I might have to
dust off the old boots.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
And that sparked something in him, you know, and he
asked me, did you do that generally?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
And I explained you, I mean, you know, the only
thing stopping me wrestling is me really to be honest
with you. And so that was a possibility then, But
it didn't work out for that year because Brian broke
his arm in that match with Okada. Although, as I've
said before, two hundred and six bones in the human body,
two hundred and five were perfectly okay, yet somehow that
(02:25):
was an excuse not to wrestle me. So fast forward
another year, another opportunity, and you know, with Brian winning
the O in Half Foundation Tournament, he had that title opportunity,
and so the only option left open to me was
to take part in that Casino Gautlit match to try
(02:45):
and earn an opportunity if Brian was to win that night.
And as you saw, I shot my shot, took my opportunity,
and it didn't pay off, you know, but it couldn't
have couldn't have been won by a better man? Was
that that line, Buddy Rogers line to a better man?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
It couldn't have happened. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I was actually went to the Memphis Wrestling Hall of
Fame this weekend and kind of filling nostalgic. Were what
were some of the you know, outside of your bubble
wrestling that you gravitated to. Were you a big Japanese fans?
Did you get into any of the Memphis wrestling from
back in the day.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
As a fan or once I was in the job
as a fan? Sorry, yeah, as a fan.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I mean that was you know, trapped back to the
to the nineties, and there wasn't a lot of access
back then, and tape trading wasn't really a thing in
England in the nineties, at least not that I was
aware of. So it wasn't until I was in the
job that I even realized the majority of professional wrestling
(03:51):
outside of what was w w F at the time
even really existed, you know, And I think that's always
been a battle for anyone who's tried to compete against them. Obviously,
I got pro wrestling illustrated, so I was aware of
the other things, but you you just saw the pictures.
You never actually saw any of the videos or anything
like that. So it wasn't until I got in the
(04:12):
job that I really started diversifying.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
My interest and my fandom, if you will.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So I guess it was probably ww and then World
Sports was that the kind of the.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
World of Sport was on TV until at eight, I believe,
give or take. And so that was the first professional
wrestling I ever saw. And if you've ever seen any
of that, very different style than what was w w
f's producer at the time. And it was funny actually
because they would towards the end of their run they
would split one week. Would the World of Sport and
(04:44):
one would be a tape that WWF would send in
and the difference was dramatic, you know, so that was
really Yeah, what really got me into it first of
all was seeing guys like fit for me. But then
when it disappeared from TV to all intents and purposes,
didn't really know that it's still existed at all until
I got Sky TV and then started to be received
the WWF product and got into.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
It then, you know, Yeah, how was the museum though?
Was it pretty cool? What was the cool stuff there?
It was good.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
So they don't have a proper museum. They've just had
some ceremonies. But like Rock and Roll Express went in
this year.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
My cousin, My.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Cousin is night Danny Davis.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
He went in.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
He's kind of more known now for his training. He
trained Cody and Brock and John c and all those,
a bunch of yeah, downtown Bruno you know wherever he
was in w W. I can't remember his name there,
but yeah, there's a bunch of legends there, a bunch
of Dave Brown announce that's him, Whippleman, yes, so, and
(05:46):
the Rock just bought him a truck.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I just found out. That's crazy. That was wild. It
was good. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So anyways, back to your match. What has been the
biggest challenge or challenges of getting ring ready again?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Oh, there's been There's been a few.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It's kind of interesting because pro wrestling exists in this
strange sort of misty limbo between sports and entertainment.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And I better not use that phrase, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
The truth of the matter is you have to be
esthetically pleasing as well as athletically you know, good as well.
And that being the case, it's a different form of
because people often see, you know, Wrestless show up on
TV and what the easy job you just you work
for half an hour a week. But that's the fun
part of it. What you don't see is having to
(06:38):
go in the gym, having to eat right, having to
work with injuries, et cetera, et cetera, travel one hundred percent,
you know. So the biggest part of it for me,
I think, is the diet of it. I've been on
the Vigie diet, which is a good friend of mine
I've known a long time in the job, Dan Viggerty.
He's got me on a great diet that you know,
(06:59):
we can bulk up and then lean out for the
actual show. So I've been doing that takes a lot
of time, and then in the gym three days a week,
and then swimming and then stretching, and then yoga and
then actually in a ring a couple of times a
week as well.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Give or take whatever's available, give and travel. So it's
been hectic.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
It has been hectic, and part of me coming back
to wrestling was like, this is a full time commitment
outside of even doing the commentary, you know, but it's
worth it because ever since I started with lefs Stature
in HWA, it was instilled in me to treat this
job as a professional. You know, you've got to have
(07:37):
respect for it, respect for the way you look, respect
for the way that you act, and respect for what
you do in the ring as well.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So I've always tried to uphold that.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, absolutely, and of course we're going to have a
fun night tomorrow night aw Dynamite Grand Slam. Now, the
talk has been this whole dream match of you and
Brian Danielson, when when people thought about this, for many people,
they thought that this match we would never see again.
(08:05):
We thought that it was done back in the day
with the r h s and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
What are you looking.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Forward to the most in this match, other than the
obvious of kicking Brian Danielson's ass.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, right, yeah, you know, I just think the the
experience of being in front of those people. Again, it's
something that I arguably took for granted when I was
a wrestler.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I suppose toll Amarristla to that extent.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
But you know, when I walked out at Wembley Stadium
and got that reaction, it was just just incredible and
you know, so heartwarming to be remembered that way and
respected that way. So you know, I know it's not
going to be the same reaction, and I'm going to
be plenty of people in New York that don't like me.
But I've always said when people ask me about getting
(08:55):
in the job, you know, what do you need? You
just need people to care about you, you know. And
it was always the case with me. People I have
loved me or hated me, but as long as they
had an opinion, that was all that mad. And I
think there's going to be a lot of that. Hopefully
as me, A lot of those people who followed our
careers since Ring of Honor are going to come out
and really want to see who can prove that today
(09:15):
they are the better wrestler.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And that's all I'm trying to do.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I'm just trying to show that all the success that
he's had should have, could have and would have been
mine in a different universe, you know, right.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
And it's also just really cool that this is also
happening under the Ring of Honor Banner two in present day.
That's just very cool from the history standpoint. So sliding
over a little bit, when did the magic bug hit you?
And what do you consider the parallels between what you
do in the magic world and in the pro wrestling world.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
A lot of parallels.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Actually, when I came out here to Los Angeles, Good
Lord a decade or so ago, I start going to
the Magic Castle, and one of the pre eminent mentor
lists in the magic world as a guy by the
name of Max Maven, who unfortunately has passed away now,
but he was always a big wrestling fan as well,
read up on the job, and whenever we started hanging out,
(10:13):
we always would talk about those similarities. The big covers
are small is one thing, and the sense of how
seeing it live is a very different experience than seeing it,
you know, through your TV or your computer, as the
case may be. Now. So a lot of those similarities
are there, certainly, But the buve for me, I suppose
(10:33):
it would have started mid two thousands.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I was going out to Japan a lot, and the.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Sponsors would take us out afterwards, and I didn't speak
a lot of Japanese, and so we were there sometimes
for three hours. Sometimes the food wasn't really what I
wanted to eat, so I would use a deck of
cards to pass the food that I didn't want to
eat onto the next person, and to try to entertain
our hosts and our sponsors who would have paid good
money to take care of us for the evening. So
(11:00):
he started like that and then became more of a
backstage thing around the boys, just taking out a deck
of cards, doing a few different things like that, and
then good lord, it would be Yeah, it would have
been January of twenty twenty three where I've finally made
the decision to actually do a show. I've been let
(11:22):
go from WWE, and we'd had the unfortunate pass in
a Jay Brisco, which was a huge inspiration for me
actually doing the show, because people that ask for the
longest time when you do a show. When you do
a show, and it's so different to do an actual
magic show versus just doing a few little things here
and there. And so I just, you know, Jay's passing
reminded me that you're not guarantee tomorrow and if this
(11:44):
is something you want to do, now is the perfect
time to do it. So I took three weeks and
sat down and wrote out what I wanted to do.
It's not just a magic show, it's a spoken word
show as well, try and meld those two things together,
and started doing it sort of March April of that year.
We've done about ten to fifteen shows now. They've I've
done everywhere from England. We've done London, Manchester, Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
We've got two shows.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Back to back, same night coming up the night before
Wrestled Dream. So the first one sold out in a day.
So it's been fantastic and a real fantastic experience and
I've consider myself very blessed to have been at that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, absolutely, and that's that's awesome because like I remember,
this was when aw was in Memphis.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think you had a show in Memphis.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Afterwards, and me and I talked about driving down, I
was like, we can go to wrestling, but we're getting
the shows.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
If we're known.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Yeah, if we'd known you were doing that, we would
have definitely made the road trip.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
But I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I do want to ask this because I we all
scrolled through social media and uh, there's a guy on
social media or girl with the drain maker accounts on Twitter.
I'm still calling you Twitter, I won't call it X
And they said things that have happened since Mariah May
kissed Nigel mcginnison Wimbley Stadium, and let's go over this thing.
Nigel came out of retirement the same night. Nigel will
(13:13):
eventually wrestle Brian Danielson and the Third Point Oasis Reunited
and Fucking in the Bushes will play at Arthur Ash.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Who ken be incredible. We should send her over to
Palestine in Israel.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Maybe she could you know, create world peace right possibly,
So we kind.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Of know your thoughts as we watch AW. When she's
on TV and you're a commentary, what are your thoughts
on AW Women's World Champion Mariah.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
May fantastic speaks for herself, doesn't it. She's everything you know,
She's the glamor. She's got the look, but she can
back it up once the bell rings as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
one hundred percent. She's the epistome of what is needed
in a world champion, certainly, and you know she speaks well,
she does the job. She's fantastic. I couldn't be any
(14:02):
more proud of a fellow country woman. The right term,
I'm not sure I should do.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah a way.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
So on the other side of the aisle is Danielson's
theme Final countdown. A lot of people are expecting that
to be played tomorrow night. If you could, if you
could sabotage his match, his entrance music before the match
tomorrow night, what would you do to kind of throw
him off his game?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah? Maybe love and marriage. That would be a good
one if.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
He yeah, hinting at that retirement.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
There's one you know, when you go on Instagram and
you post a video, you can add music to it, right,
there was one I just typed in Coward and it
brought one up, which is just perfect. But whatever it is,
that's if I could choose, that's that's the song I'd
have him played on his way out. But you know,
he is legitimately banged up and say what you want
about him. He just you know, his pride is bigger
(15:02):
than his brain, which you know is not saying I lot,
but bitter.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
As it may. You know, you've got to think he's
going to show up.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I would certainly hope he's going to show up on
what condition he's going to be in his next being
banged up for the longest time. Yeah, and all you
know all storyline asiet. He's been a big inspiration to me.
When I started in ae W he came up to
me and he said, you know, Nigel, it's great to
have you here, but I hope you don't wrestle because
I'm petrified I've ever facing you again. And I said,
(15:29):
don't worry, Brian, if that was to ever happen, I'm
sure you're just faking injury and get out of it somehow.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So and fast forward here we are. Well, it's going
to be a fun night for sure, tomorrow night, aw
Dynamke Grand Slam. You could watch it starting at seven Central.
And before we let you go, I have been holding
onto this for the end of the interview because this
is a funny story. My seven year old has gotten
(15:55):
really big into collecting wrestling figures, and so somehow he
figured out how to buy stuff with my phone online. Well,
he ordered a John Cena Action figure. I open the
action figure up and it's this action figure and not
the John Cena Action figure. Nice, and so I think
(16:16):
I was a little bit more excited to get this
action figure than he was not getting his John Cena
Action figure. Oh, I'm hoping that maybe tomorrow night we
get the blonde frosted tips.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Back, And as you can see, it looks highly unlikely
at this junction. No, his hair is far too far,
too precious to me at this point in my life
to risk blonde in the tips like that.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
But how disappointed must your kid have been?
Speaker 1 (16:42):
He was like, I don't know who this is, and
I was like, I do. It's mine now, I don't
care that you just spent thirty dollars on an action figure.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
He will know my collection, he will know who it is.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
He's going to know exactly who it is, and he
will be able to see me. I can promise you there.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Well, Nigel, I would like to end it right there,
but before we let you go, we always got to
send everybody off. Is there anything you want to say
to people watching or listening to this right now.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Other than just you know, tune in because I can
promise you this is going to be a monumental match,
a monumental night for me. It's it's destiny that's come
about now after sixteen years to your earlier point.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Never would have dreamt this would happen.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
And if Brian's got the balls to show up, then
I guarantee you it's going to be a match for
the ages. It's you don't often get an opportunity like
this in sports, you know, because of the nature of sports.
But to me, this would be perhaps like a Michael
Jordan against a Kobe Bryant.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You know, the ability to see where they are now, and.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
That's what you're going to get. You know, Brian's backs
against the wall. That's often times where he's at his best.
But I promise you I'm going to do absolutely everything
to just prove my point. Titles not on the line,
so you know, whether we lose or draw. He's leaving
after ash with the belt and he's heading to wrestle
dream to defend it.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
But I can beat him, and I
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Can prove that I was every bit the wrestler that
he is what he was, and that's going to be
in the back of his mind for the rest of
his life and he deserves it.
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all things for.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Resting and exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
Round podcast stop.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
What's up you guys? Welcome back into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast,
the Battleground Podcast. And man, tomorrow night is going to
be one hell of a night. You've got a ew
Dynamite Grand Slam up there in New York. And here's
the deal. We have seen this for weeks and our
guest today Nigel Again, lets let's go ahead and introduce
Nigel sir.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
How are you very well? Thank you very much? Just
enjoying this California sun?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Oh that must be nice. We've got some pretty gnarly
sun here, but it's not the California temperature. We got
miserable ninety two degrees.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Here, so muggy Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, I hope you're enjoying it. But we kind of
talked about this for briefly before we started recording it.
You've cut some great promos here recently. This past Wednesday
you called out Brian Danielson of course no show. You said, hey,
if you really want to put the test to test,
who is the real goat? Meet me here Wednesday night, Dynamite.
(01:18):
So let me just go ahead and ask the obvious question.
Get it out of the way. When did you know
another match between you and Danielson was one hundred percent
of possibility and not just fantasy booking by fans.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, it was a gradual thing, certainly. The story goes,
I was on Tony Kahn's plane flying from Los Angeles
to the East Coast.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I forget exactly where.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
It was, and on the flight he told me about
Wembley Stadium.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
They were going to do that, and I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I sort of said to him, sort of tongue in cheet, well,
you know, if we sell out, I might have to
dust off the old boots.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
And that sparked something in him, you know, and he
asked me, did you do that generally?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
And I explained you, I mean, you know, the only
thing stopping me wrestling is me really to be honest
with you. And so that was a possibility then, But
it didn't work out for that year because Brian broke
his arm in that match with Okada. Although, as I've
said before, two hundred and six bones in the human body,
two hundred and five were perfectly okay, yet somehow that
(02:25):
was an excuse not to wrestle me. So fast forward
another year, another opportunity, and you know, with Brian winning
the O in Half Foundation Tournament, he had that title opportunity,
and so the only option left open to me was
to take part in that Casino Gautlit match to try
(02:45):
and earn an opportunity if Brian was to win that night.
And as you saw, I shot my shot, took my opportunity,
and it didn't pay off, you know, but it couldn't
have couldn't have been won by a better man? Was
that that line, Buddy Rogers line to a better man?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
It couldn't have happened. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I was actually went to the Memphis Wrestling Hall of
Fame this weekend and kind of filling nostalgic. Were what
were some of the you know, outside of your bubble
wrestling that you gravitated to. Were you a big Japanese fans?
Did you get into any of the Memphis wrestling from
back in the day.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
As a fan or once I was in the job
as a fan? Sorry, yeah, as a fan.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I mean that was you know, trapped back to the
to the nineties, and there wasn't a lot of access
back then, and tape trading wasn't really a thing in
England in the nineties, at least not that I was
aware of. So it wasn't until I was in the
job that I even realized the majority of professional wrestling
(03:51):
outside of what was w w F at the time
even really existed, you know, And I think that's always
been a battle for anyone who's tried to compete against them. Obviously,
I got pro wrestling illustrated, so I was aware of
the other things, but you you just saw the pictures.
You never actually saw any of the videos or anything
like that. So it wasn't until I got in the
(04:12):
job that I really started diversifying.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
My interest and my fandom, if you will.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So I guess it was probably ww and then World
Sports was that the kind of the.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
World of Sport was on TV until at eight, I believe,
give or take. And so that was the first professional
wrestling I ever saw. And if you've ever seen any
of that, very different style than what was w w
f's producer at the time. And it was funny actually
because they would towards the end of their run they
would split one week. Would the World of Sport and
(04:44):
one would be a tape that WWF would send in
and the difference was dramatic, you know, so that was
really Yeah, what really got me into it first of
all was seeing guys like fit for me. But then
when it disappeared from TV to all intents and purposes,
didn't really know that it's still existed at all until
I got Sky TV and then started to be received
the WWF product and got into.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
It then, you know, Yeah, how was the museum though?
Was it pretty cool? What was the cool stuff there?
It was good.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
So they don't have a proper museum. They've just had
some ceremonies. But like Rock and Roll Express went in
this year.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
My cousin, My.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Cousin is night Danny Davis.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
He went in.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
He's kind of more known now for his training. He
trained Cody and Brock and John c and all those,
a bunch of yeah, downtown Bruno you know wherever he
was in w W. I can't remember his name there,
but yeah, there's a bunch of legends there, a bunch
of Dave Brown announce that's him, Whippleman, yes, so, and
(05:46):
the Rock just bought him a truck.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I just found out. That's crazy. That was wild. It
was good. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So anyways, back to your match. What has been the
biggest challenge or challenges of getting ring ready again?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Oh, there's been There's been a few.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It's kind of interesting because pro wrestling exists in this
strange sort of misty limbo between sports and entertainment.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And I better not use that phrase, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
The truth of the matter is you have to be
esthetically pleasing as well as athletically you know, good as well.
And that being the case, it's a different form of
because people often see, you know, Wrestless show up on
TV and what the easy job you just you work
for half an hour a week. But that's the fun
part of it. What you don't see is having to
(06:38):
go in the gym, having to eat right, having to
work with injuries, et cetera, et cetera, travel one hundred percent,
you know. So the biggest part of it for me,
I think, is the diet of it. I've been on
the Vigie diet, which is a good friend of mine
I've known a long time in the job, Dan Viggerty.
He's got me on a great diet that you know,
(06:59):
we can bulk up and then lean out for the
actual show. So I've been doing that takes a lot
of time, and then in the gym three days a week,
and then swimming and then stretching, and then yoga and
then actually in a ring a couple of times a
week as well.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Give or take whatever's available, give and travel. So it's
been hectic.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
It has been hectic, and part of me coming back
to wrestling was like, this is a full time commitment
outside of even doing the commentary, you know, but it's
worth it because ever since I started with lefs Stature
in HWA, it was instilled in me to treat this
job as a professional. You know, you've got to have
(07:37):
respect for it, respect for the way you look, respect
for the way that you act, and respect for what
you do in the ring as well.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So I've always tried to uphold that.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, absolutely, and of course we're going to have a
fun night tomorrow night aw Dynamite Grand Slam. Now, the
talk has been this whole dream match of you and
Brian Danielson, when when people thought about this, for many people,
they thought that this match we would never see again.
(08:05):
We thought that it was done back in the day
with the r h s and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
What are you looking.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Forward to the most in this match, other than the
obvious of kicking Brian Danielson's ass.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, right, yeah, you know, I just think the the
experience of being in front of those people. Again, it's
something that I arguably took for granted when I was
a wrestler.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I suppose toll Amarristla to that extent.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
But you know, when I walked out at Wembley Stadium
and got that reaction, it was just just incredible and
you know, so heartwarming to be remembered that way and
respected that way. So you know, I know it's not
going to be the same reaction, and I'm going to
be plenty of people in New York that don't like me.
But I've always said when people ask me about getting
(08:55):
in the job, you know, what do you need? You
just need people to care about you, you know. And
it was always the case with me. People I have
loved me or hated me, but as long as they
had an opinion, that was all that mad. And I
think there's going to be a lot of that. Hopefully
as me, A lot of those people who followed our
careers since Ring of Honor are going to come out
and really want to see who can prove that today
(09:15):
they are the better wrestler.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And that's all I'm trying to do.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I'm just trying to show that all the success that
he's had should have, could have and would have been
mine in a different universe, you know, right.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
And it's also just really cool that this is also
happening under the Ring of Honor Banner two in present day.
That's just very cool from the history standpoint. So sliding
over a little bit, when did the magic bug hit you?
And what do you consider the parallels between what you
do in the magic world and in the pro wrestling world.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
A lot of parallels.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Actually, when I came out here to Los Angeles, Good
Lord a decade or so ago, I start going to
the Magic Castle, and one of the pre eminent mentor
lists in the magic world as a guy by the
name of Max Maven, who unfortunately has passed away now,
but he was always a big wrestling fan as well,
read up on the job, and whenever we started hanging out,
(10:13):
we always would talk about those similarities. The big covers
are small is one thing, and the sense of how
seeing it live is a very different experience than seeing it,
you know, through your TV or your computer, as the
case may be. Now. So a lot of those similarities
are there, certainly, But the buve for me, I suppose
(10:33):
it would have started mid two thousands.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I was going out to Japan a lot, and the.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Sponsors would take us out afterwards, and I didn't speak
a lot of Japanese, and so we were there sometimes
for three hours. Sometimes the food wasn't really what I
wanted to eat, so I would use a deck of
cards to pass the food that I didn't want to
eat onto the next person, and to try to entertain
our hosts and our sponsors who would have paid good
money to take care of us for the evening. So
(11:00):
he started like that and then became more of a
backstage thing around the boys, just taking out a deck
of cards, doing a few different things like that, and
then good lord, it would be Yeah, it would have
been January of twenty twenty three where I've finally made
the decision to actually do a show. I've been let
(11:22):
go from WWE, and we'd had the unfortunate pass in
a Jay Brisco, which was a huge inspiration for me
actually doing the show, because people that ask for the
longest time when you do a show. When you do
a show, and it's so different to do an actual
magic show versus just doing a few little things here
and there. And so I just, you know, Jay's passing
reminded me that you're not guarantee tomorrow and if this
(11:44):
is something you want to do, now is the perfect
time to do it. So I took three weeks and
sat down and wrote out what I wanted to do.
It's not just a magic show, it's a spoken word
show as well, try and meld those two things together,
and started doing it sort of March April of that year.
We've done about ten to fifteen shows now. They've I've
done everywhere from England. We've done London, Manchester, Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
We've got two shows.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Back to back, same night coming up the night before
Wrestled Dream. So the first one sold out in a day.
So it's been fantastic and a real fantastic experience and
I've consider myself very blessed to have been at that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, absolutely, and that's that's awesome because like I remember,
this was when aw was in Memphis.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think you had a show in Memphis.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Afterwards, and me and I talked about driving down, I
was like, we can go to wrestling, but we're getting
the shows.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
If we're known.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Yeah, if we'd known you were doing that, we would
have definitely made the road trip.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
But I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I do want to ask this because I we all
scrolled through social media and uh, there's a guy on
social media or girl with the drain maker accounts on Twitter.
I'm still calling you Twitter, I won't call it X
And they said things that have happened since Mariah May
kissed Nigel mcginnison Wimbley Stadium, and let's go over this thing.
Nigel came out of retirement the same night. Nigel will
(13:13):
eventually wrestle Brian Danielson and the Third Point Oasis Reunited
and Fucking in the Bushes will play at Arthur Ash.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Who ken be incredible. We should send her over to
Palestine in Israel.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Maybe she could you know, create world peace right possibly,
So we kind.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Of know your thoughts as we watch AW. When she's
on TV and you're a commentary, what are your thoughts
on AW Women's World Champion Mariah.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
May fantastic speaks for herself, doesn't it. She's everything you know,
She's the glamor. She's got the look, but she can
back it up once the bell rings as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
one hundred percent. She's the epistome of what is needed
in a world champion, certainly, and you know she speaks well,
she does the job. She's fantastic. I couldn't be any
(14:02):
more proud of a fellow country woman. The right term,
I'm not sure I should do.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah a way.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
So on the other side of the aisle is Danielson's
theme Final countdown. A lot of people are expecting that
to be played tomorrow night. If you could, if you
could sabotage his match, his entrance music before the match
tomorrow night, what would you do to kind of throw
him off his game?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah? Maybe love and marriage. That would be a good
one if.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
He yeah, hinting at that retirement.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
There's one you know, when you go on Instagram and
you post a video, you can add music to it, right,
there was one I just typed in Coward and it
brought one up, which is just perfect. But whatever it is,
that's if I could choose, that's that's the song I'd
have him played on his way out. But you know,
he is legitimately banged up and say what you want
about him. He just you know, his pride is bigger
(15:02):
than his brain, which you know is not saying I lot,
but bitter.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
As it may. You know, you've got to think he's
going to show up.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I would certainly hope he's going to show up on
what condition he's going to be in his next being
banged up for the longest time. Yeah, and all you
know all storyline asiet. He's been a big inspiration to me.
When I started in ae W he came up to
me and he said, you know, Nigel, it's great to
have you here, but I hope you don't wrestle because
I'm petrified I've ever facing you again. And I said,
(15:29):
don't worry, Brian, if that was to ever happen, I'm
sure you're just faking injury and get out of it somehow.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So and fast forward here we are. Well, it's going
to be a fun night for sure, tomorrow night, aw
Dynamke Grand Slam. You could watch it starting at seven Central.
And before we let you go, I have been holding
onto this for the end of the interview because this
is a funny story. My seven year old has gotten
(15:55):
really big into collecting wrestling figures, and so somehow he
figured out how to buy stuff with my phone online. Well,
he ordered a John Cena Action figure. I open the
action figure up and it's this action figure and not
the John Cena Action figure. Nice, and so I think
(16:16):
I was a little bit more excited to get this
action figure than he was not getting his John Cena
Action figure. Oh, I'm hoping that maybe tomorrow night we
get the blonde frosted tips.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Back, And as you can see, it looks highly unlikely
at this junction. No, his hair is far too far,
too precious to me at this point in my life
to risk blonde in the tips like that.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
But how disappointed must your kid have been?
Speaker 1 (16:42):
He was like, I don't know who this is, and
I was like, I do. It's mine now, I don't
care that you just spent thirty dollars on an action figure.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
He will know my collection, he will know who it is.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
He's going to know exactly who it is, and he
will be able to see me. I can promise you there.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Well, Nigel, I would like to end it right there,
but before we let you go, we always got to
send everybody off. Is there anything you want to say
to people watching or listening to this right now.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Other than just you know, tune in because I can
promise you this is going to be a monumental match,
a monumental night for me. It's it's destiny that's come
about now after sixteen years to your earlier point.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Never would have dreamt this would happen.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
And if Brian's got the balls to show up, then
I guarantee you it's going to be a match for
the ages. It's you don't often get an opportunity like
this in sports, you know, because of the nature of sports.
But to me, this would be perhaps like a Michael
Jordan against a Kobe Bryant.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You know, the ability to see where they are now, and.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
That's what you're going to get. You know, Brian's backs
against the wall. That's often times where he's at his best.
But I promise you I'm going to do absolutely everything
to just prove my point. Titles not on the line,
so you know, whether we lose or draw. He's leaving
after ash with the belt and he's heading to wrestle
dream to defend it.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
But I can beat him, and I
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Can prove that I was every bit the wrestler that
he is what he was, and that's going to be
in the back of his mind for the rest of
his life and he deserves it.
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