THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
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SPORTS Q&A: Nigel McGuinness Nigel McGuinness is one of the best British wrestlers of his generation to pursue his career and make it over in America. Growing up in Staplehurst, Kent, England he first got into the sport of professional wrestling by watching a documentary. “I saw Robbie Brookside’s documentary in the early nineties,” McGuinness told The American. “If you talk to a lot of people from England in my generation, that inspired us because growing up with the WWF and seeing those monstrous bodies and these jacked up guys the other side of the Atlantic, the dream seemed so impossible. However when I sat down and saw Robbie’s documentary I realised you can be an intelligent human being and a very grounded person and not have to look like The Ultimate Warrior to become a professional wrestler. There is more to this than being jacked up and shaking the top rope.” McGuinness traveled to America to pursue his dream of becoming a professional wrestler and made a name for himself in Ring of Honor. During his time with the promotion he became a long term champion and had many memorable matches, most notably against current WWE star Daniel Bryan. “I was a champion in ROH for a very long time; I held the Pure Championship for 350 days and the World Title for 545 days, when I first started out I didn’t have any concept of the success I would have there,” he continued. “Those matches against Daniel Bryan were the epitome of me, they are what I will be remembered for; they put me on the map and allowed me to stake my claim as one of the top guys in the promotion. Whenever we went out together we would always try to push the envelope with state of the art wrestling, it was stuff you couldn’t see elsewhere.” The next step in McGuinness’ career was a move to TNA and he was thrust into action against the Olympic Gold medalist Kurt Angle. “I think being involved in a story-line with Kurt straight away, I was in the right place at the right time,” the 37-year-old reminisces. “I think it was originally supposed to be an angle with Kurt and Booker T but he had gone back to WWE; Kurt had heard a little bit about me and he was very open to ideas. He really helped me out a great deal and once again he helped make my career what it was.” That career was unfortunately cut short due to McGuinness contracting hepatitis B. This led to the grappler making a documentary of his farewell tour as well as talking about the importance of not having to bleed in wrestling. “I put a lot of myself into the documentary, a lot my heart has gone into it. I have put myself out there to be judged as well,” he said. “I knew there would be some kind of strong reaction to it especially surrounding the whole blood issue and everything like that. “It caused some controversy but I wasn’t quite sure how touched a lot people where but I’ve received so many emails from people that really enjoyed the documentary but telling me they got quite emotional.” The documentary has enjoyed great success from DVD sales and McGuinness is coming over to the UK in May and early June to showcase the film along with a live Q&A. “It’s going to be great to come back to the UK. When I was wrestling I always used to enjoy coming back over to the country I grew up in. With the Q&A I will deal with a lot of the questions people have for me about the documentary and also the issues involved around intentional blood loss in wrestling which I obviously want to address.” The documentary is an emotional roller-coaster following McGuinness during his farewell tour. If you are going to to attended on of the UK screenings make sure to bring a box of tissues with you as I guarantee you’ll need them. For more information and to buy tickets for the UK screenings of The Last of McGuinness including live Q&A sessions with Nigel visit www.eroscomedy.com and follow @ErosComedy To buy the documentary you can also visit www.nigelwrestling.com and follow Nigel on Twitter @McGuinnessNigel |
