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AEW Star Discusses Being Hidden Away Before Surprise Debut

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An AEW-ROH newcomer has revealed how he was hidden from the rest of the roster when he made his debut.

At ROH Supercard of Honor on March 31st, Nigel McGuiness made his return to the ROH brand. Less than a week later, AEW announced that Nigel was All Elite.

After ending his in-ring career over a decade, the former ROH World Champion signed with WWE in 2016 as an announcer. During his WWE run, Nigel McGuiness worked on shows like NXT, 205 Live, Main Event, and NXT UK, but was never called up to the main roster.

After becoming a free agent, he chose to sign with AEW and made his debut at Supercard of Honor as a surprise.

During an interview with Stephanie Chase on YouTube, Nigel McGuiness how he was hidden prior to his AEW-ROH debut.

“It was very exciting (being at ROH Supercard of Honor) in the sense of, I thought about it for a while. Obviously, as soon as Tony (Khan) came on with AEW and got them going, everybody in the business thinks, oh, maybe at some point I could work there, you know? And so, it was exciting in that respect but at the same time, I didn’t get to be backstage before the show.”

“They kept me in one of the production trucks and no one knew I was gonna be there so I was kind of just sat back there with my girlfriend, going over notes, getting ready for the show, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So it was very nerve-wracking in that regard but once I walked out on stage — people have said to me, ‘You look the most like you that we’ve seen you in like a decade,’ you know? And there’s certainly something to that.”

“It’s a different environment and I think Ring of Honor is viewed very differently in AEW obviously than in WWE for various reasons and so, yeah, I felt like I had that more cachet from being a World Champion there than I had in the past.”

In addition to that, Nigel also teased the possibility of wrestling one more match at the AEW All In show in Wembley Stadium in August, perhaps against an old ROH rival, Bryan Danielson.

H/T PostWrestling