AEW commentator and occasional wrestler Nigel McGuinness has discussed how his role in AEW differs from his time in WWE, highlighting the greater freedom he has in Tony Khan’s promotion.

During his time in WWE, McGuinness was only a commentator, featuring on “WWE NXT.” Following his switch to AEW, the English star has not just commented, but also got back in the ring for the first time in over a decade. He recently spoke to “The Wrestling Classic” on the major difference between his time in WWE and AEW.

“When I was in WWE, they like to keep everybody in their lane. If you’re a commentator, that’s what you do. You do commentary. If you’re an agent, etc. And that works for them,” he began. “But in AEW, you have far more, I don’t want to say lax, but not so stringent rules and categories of who you are. So I started as a commentator. I now do a little bit of wrestling.” 

McGuinness stated that he is always willing to help his peers in AEW in the ring and pass on his knowledge to them before the show.

“But before the show, I’ll always get in the ring, I’ll warm up, and if anyone wants to roll around a little bit, I’ll roll around a little bit. If someone has ideas, some questions about moves, I’ll answer them]. I certainly don’t want to suggest that I’m willing to take anybody’s finishing move because certainly not. But I’m more than willing to watch you put it on somebody else and see if there’s anything I can do to tweak it.”

McGuinness wrestled for the first time in AEW in 2024 and has wrestled a handful of matches in AEW and ROH, including a clash against compatriot Zack Sabre Jr. at AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door 2025.

It’s true what she says: “No one is ready for Asuka.” But certainly, no one was ready to see her final curtain call as a full-time in-ring competitor at WWE Backlash earlier this month. No one was more fired up by Asuka’s farewell than Bully Ray, who reactively asked the powers that be in the WWE, “How do you f*** that up?” On “Busted Open Radio,” Ray highly praised who he called the “Female Great Muta,” while surmising why “The Empress of Tomorrow” is changing her status to part-time.

“My point is: I’m not quite too sure about the personal reasons back home or the personal reasons…I don’t think she was happy with Kairi [Sane] being let go, and I think she was tired of being background noise,” the WWE Hall of Famer speculated. “There’s so much of her story [that] was not told, and they never truly, truly gave you the version of Asuka that Asuka could have been. It was okay to get the Three Faces of Foley, but we couldn’t get the multiple personalities of Asuka…But we couldn’t get something that was so successful in Japan and give it some WWE life and modernize it. Asuka should have been special. Special for a long time. I don’t care if she would have had a translator, a manager, spoken broken English, anything. The woman wrestled like a million dollars and she looked like a million dollars.”

Hoping to clear any doubts of uncertainty, Asuka recently addressed where her future stands with the company, stating that she is still with the Stamford-based promotion; however, her appearances will be rare from now on. As previously reported, the second-ever Women’s Grand Slam Champion had requested time off for personal reasons, yet her request was put in before her Kabuki Warriors tag team partner was released last month.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

WWE recently announced the addition of a few house shows, a move JBL has welcomed. 

The TKO-owned promotion had reduced house shows in 2024, but has now scheduled a few house shows for the summer. JBL spoke about WWE’s decision on the “Something to Wrestle” podcast, highlighting how it will help develop its young stars.

“So, look, I’m not pushing for house shows. I think it’s great that guys don’t have to work and girls don’t have to work. But I think it would certainly help. You know, how else are you going to learn how to work? You know, these guys who already don’t know how to work, who are learning, that’s why producers are still important right now. Producers are the most important thing in a lot of respects with a lot of talent in the business because they’re the ones that put these matches together from A to Z, and that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Aside from helping inexperienced wrestlers get some much-needed ring time, JBL believes that house shows can also boost TKO’s bottom line. The Hall of Famer revealed a recent conversation he had with WWE executive Bruce Prichard, who told him that WWE can generate more than a million dollars in revenue from a house show.

“But also, look, you’re going to make money. I was talking to someone recently the other day, I won’t say who, he’s the person that I fu**ing stole his podcast, but I was talking to that person the other day, and he told me how much money they were making in one of these towns. It was like a tier two town, [and] it was like a million something dollars. I mean, the rent had to be like $18 for the building or something,” he joked.

WWE will have a series of house shows during its European tour, and then a few house shows in North America before and after SummerSlam.

Last year, Joe Hendry answered Randy Orton’s WrestleMania 41 open challenge as TNA World Champion in what was one of the most surprising moments of two-night event. Although he lost to “The Viper” he just over three minutes, Hendry recently claimed on “Insight” with Chris Van Vliet that the match instantly became the best moment of his career, surpassing the time he competed against a wrestling legend on the independent scene at 28 years of age.

“I got the opportunity when I was only three years in the business to wrestle Kurt Angle and that was for What Culture Pro Wrestling,” Hendry shared. “Jim Ross is commentating with Jim Cornette and I’m just thinking like this is ridiculous. I’m three years in the game and I thought to myself, I’ll never have another moment in my career that’s a jump like this … I thought I’ll never have another moment that’s as crazy as that. But wrestling Randy Orton at WrestleMania as TNA World Champion before I was even signed to the company, that was just ridiculous. So, that’s my all-time moment.”

Six months after wrestling Orton, Hendry would officially sign with “WWE NXT” and would quickly find success by winning the brand’s world title in February. Following this year’s WrestleMania, Hendry was called up to the main roster where he was assigned to “WWE Raw” and began feuding with The Vision.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Insight” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

These days, Trick Williams is a champion on WWE’s main roster, but he almost had a very different career path. Williams opened up about his journey from football to pro wrestling during an appearance on “Battleground Podcast.”

“I would say the hardest part, for me, was accepting the fact that I was no longer a football player,” Williams said. “When I tried out [for WWE] for the first time, this was at the end of 2018. I’m fresh out of [training] camp with the [Philadelphia] Eagles. … I’d been playing football for 20 years up to that point, and my identity was kind of wrapped up in being a football player.”

Williams was excited to have an opportunity with WWE, but that first tryout didn’t result in him joining the company. After that, he experienced a period of doubt, feeling unsure if he should continue to pursue football or pro wrestling. That decision was made even more difficult because he had no contacts within the wrestling industry, and had no idea how to handle things like getting his gear or building a persona.

“There was a moment in time where I had to really sit down to think, ‘This 10,000 followers I have on social media, or whatever the case is – everybody knows me as Matrick Belton, the football player,'” Williams continued. “Am I okay with getting rid of all of that? What everybody knows me as?”

At that crossroads, Williams made the tough choice to leave football behind him and put all his effort into learning the wrestling business. It paid off. Belton began training and eventually signed a developmental contract with WWE in 2021. He has since become a two-time WWE NXT Champion, an NXT North American Champion, and Williams captured the United States Championship at WWE WrestleMania 42.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Battleground Podcast” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.