Between making his big return at AEW All In, then having his first singles match in a decade with Bryan Danielson at Grand Slam, and his commentary work on Collision, Nigel McGuinness is having a major resurgence in the professional wrestling world since being released from WWE last year.

Fans love his efforts, the unique spin he puts on matches from the booth, and his weird little feuds with the likes of Bryan Danielson, even if that effort ultimately ended in a brutal tragedy at WrestleDream that even McGuinness couldn't have imagined.

Discussing why he took a decade away from the ring in an appearance on Talk is Jericho with Chris Jericho, McGuinness broke down why he stepped away, which had more to do with WWE rescinding a contract offer than his inability to operate in the ring at a high level.

“No, it's a little convoluted, but I'll give you the condensed version,” McGuinness noted via Fightful. “I got signed by WWE, they decided to rescind the contract because of an arm injury, even though my doctor said it was perfectly healed and I had wrestled with it for two years. But that was it, that was their doctor's [decision].”

Wait, that can't be the whole story, right? Fortunately, Jericho had that question too and was able to get much more out of McGuinness that really paints WWE in an ugly light for how dirty they did him at the time.

Nigel McGuinness was left with no option but to retire after WWE's exit

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Discussing the matter further after Jericho understandably asked for more context, McGuinness broke it down, revealing that he was left with little choice but to leave WWE and then wrestling as a whole.

“After I passed the physical, he said, ‘Just in passing, you've never had any other injuries, have you?' Being honest, I said, ‘Well, I partially tore my bicep a couple of years ago but it's perfectly healed.' He said, ‘Just let me see the MRI.' So I sent him the MRI, he took a look at it and said, ‘Oh no, you need surgery.' What was I gonna do?” McGuinness asked.

“At that point, I had only ever wrestled in Ring Of Honor. My best year in wrestling as an active competitor was for Ring Of Honor believe it or not and I made $46,000 with no health insurance. So, at the end of the year, I didn't have any savings. So, was I going to pay out of pocket, because I didn't have insurance, to have a bicep surgery that I didn't think I really needed. My doctor, who was a renowned orthopedic surgeon in Tampa, he agreed as well. On the off chance that they might be interested, and we all know how that goes as well. They didn't even say, ‘Get the surgery and we'll be interested.' They just said, ‘Nope, that's not going.'”

Fortunately for McGuinness, he was able to find a second life as a commentator and has since become one of the premier talents on the color side of the booth. While it would have been nice to see him work matches over the last decade, he now has a chance to make up for lost time against folks like the “American Dragon.”