Nigel McGuinness joined WWE yesterday, signing up to serve as an announcer for their upcoming United Kingdom tournament.
Back in 2009, McGuinness was set to leave Ring of Honor (ROH) for a job with the ‘E, along with his friend and rival, Bryan Danielson, but he failed a pre-signing physical. Nigel would go on to have a decent run in TNA as Desmond Wolfe (which at least gave us a really good Kurt Angle feud), and Danielson went on to star on Total Divas, and some other stuff I’m sure is just slipping my mind right now.
Now they’re both with WWE, but with job descriptions and/or company-mandated restrictions in place which will keep it so their September 2009 Final Countdown match for ROH remains the last time they’ll wrestle.
A fact not lost on the man now known to WWE fans as Daniel Bryan:
Congratulations to @McGuinnessNigel! It's a shame we're both w/ @WWE and neither of us wrestling. P.S. Sweet hair https://t.co/QVLcsolPP2
— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) December 15, 2016
Nigel, perhaps recognizing how his old friend Bryan will bring up how bummed he is that WWE won’t let him wrestle at every possible opportunity, took the joke about his Sex Pistols-inspired hairstyle and kept things breezy:
@WWEDanielBryan @WWE cheers me old friend, let the arguments about whose feet are more attractive recommence :)
— nigel mcguinness (@McGuinnessNigel) December 15, 2016
It is a bit of a bummer two guys who were very, very good at wrestling and loved to perform together won’t get to do that on the biggest stage possible. But they’re healthy, and very high on the “I’d like to listen to that guy talk about pro graps” list, so at least we’ve got that.
With that in mind, congrats to McGuinness. Now everybody distract Bryan with foot jokes so he doesn’t get sad.