This afternoon wrestling fans began to notice that a key piece of AEW’s Nigel McGuinness and Bryan Danielson story was removed from YouTube, pointing to a supposed DMCA claim WWE made that removed the video from AEW’s YouTube channel. While it’s raises many questions, the answer might not be as malicious as things appears. McGuinness worked for WWE for several years as a WWE commentator and during that time there was a special highlight on his Ring of Honor career on WWE Network. He was also part of a Ring of Honor roundtable with Seth Rollins and Cesaro. A lot of Ring of Honor footage was in the aforementioned special, so WWE’s systems very well could have flagged the footage in the case it was the same.
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As AEW President Tony Khan now owns Ring of Honor and the footage, it seemed to be a quick fix as the video has now made its way back to the channel. After a near two decade long rivalry, McGuinness and Danielson will battle one last time at AEW Grand Slam in New York, pending Danielson’s clearance to wrestle. Their feud was a defining part of ROH’s early years, and the very last time they ever met in a ring was all the way in 2009.ย
On AEW Collision this past weekend, McGuinness addressed Danielson one final time before their match is set to take place. He accused the AEW World Champion of faking his injury and that by him having yet to accept the challenge, he’s afraid of McGuinness. Ahead of the match, McGuinness has been on a media tour discussing his decision to return to the ring at AEW All Inย to now dusting off the boots for a match with his greatest rival.
Nigel McGuinness Reveals Real Reason He Retired
“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,” McGuinness clarified to TVInsider about his decision to retire in 2011. “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.”
Stay tuned to ComicBook for updates.