TNA Wrestling is making its way to Ireland in 2011 for their Maximum Impact tour, taking place on 24 January in Dublin’s National Stadium. Featuring legends like Ric Flair, and top stars like AJ Styles and TNA champion Rob Van Dam, it’s sure to be a hot ticket.
With tickets going on sale this week , JOE’s Conor Hogan met up with former Ring of Honour champion and current TNA wrestler Desmond Wolfe, sometimes known by his real name of Nigel McGuinness.
The Englishman talked about TNA, his career, his life outside wrestling, and his attempt to get his screenplay made.
Desmond: Conor Hogan? Is that your real name?
JOE: Yes, it is.
Desmond: You sound like a wrestler I know.
JOE: Hulk Hogan?
Desmond: You got it. You’re familiar with his work?
JOE: Of course. You wrestle for TNA wrestling and their Maximum Impact Tour is visiting Ireland in January. The last show here sold out. Do you think this one will do as well?
Desmond: It’s been a year and a half now or something like that since we are last there. I’d say it’s going to sell like proverbial hot-cakes (he laughs). Why do people say that? That’s a silly phrase, isn’t it?
JOE: It is very silly. Do you enjoy wrestling in Ireland? You wrestled for Irish Whip Wrestling before.
Desmond: I did a couple of shows for Simon Rochford [owner of IWW]. I really enjoyed it actually. The crowds are always super hot, and they never fail put on a good show. Good bunch of people in Ireland, maybe it’s all the Guinness they drink.
JOE: We are certainly fond of the odd pint. With TNA and WWE’s shows usually selling out in Ireland, there is obviously a huge appetite for wrestling here. Do you ever reckon TNA might do a major Pay-Per-View (PPV) event in Ireland?
Desmond: It’s definitely been talked about, I know Dixie Carter [owner of TNA wrestling] has been weighing up the pros and the cons. There hasn’t been a major wresling PPV in Europe or outside of North America for a long time.
JOE: Summerslam ’92, wasn’t it?
Desmond: Yeah, in Wembley Stadium. The issue has always been with the time-delay. The thought is that people in America would already find out what happened before it aired, and that would stop people buying it.
I don’t know if that’s true though. When Mick Foley’s title win [against The Rock on Raw in January 1999] was announced [by rival show Nitro’s announcer Tony Schiavone], it ended up getting the best number the WWF [now-WWE] had done in a long, long time.
JOE: People actually switched over from WCW to watch it.
Desmond: Exactly, and if word got out that there was a great match or a five-star match of the year candidate I think that would actually have more people buy it than otherwise would have. Then again it all comes down to costs as well, as compared to running an event in North America, running one overseas is astronomical.
JOE: We’re very used on this side of the world at getting up at one in the morning to watch pay-per-views. When you were young, would you have watched ITV’s World of Sport, American wrestling or both?
Desmond: I started off watching World of Sport when I was 8 or 9. I remember Kendo Nagasaki and [Northern Ireland wrestler] Fit Finlay and guys like that. Then when they took it off the TV, to all intents and purposes like most people in England I’d assumed wrestling had died.
A friend of mine, Lying Dave, got hold of a copy of Summerslam ’90. I watched that and was hooked. Everyone else watching it at the time were saying stuff like ‘Oh that’s so fake,’ but for some reason that just didn’t bother me at all. I’ve been a lifelong fan since then. Until I got into the wrestling business and then I hated it. (laughs)
JOE: Yeah? You must have sustained a lot of the injuries?
Desmond: I’ve had a lot of concussions, stitches, gashes in my head, two torn biceps, herniated discs in my back, tore one of my cruciate ligaments. The wear and tear when I was in Ring of Honour certainly caught up with me.
JOE: Ric Flair is 61. Could you ever imagine being in the ring then?
Desmond: (Laughs) I can’t imagine myself alive at 61, never mind in the ring.
JOE: Flair doesn’t wrestle as much as he used to. Would you like to get in the ring with him a couple of times before he finally hangs up his boots?
Desmond: I’d love to. He’s one of those guys, kind of like Buddy Rodgers, who is going to just keep on going. He’s unstoppable.
JOE: Considering Summerslam ’90 was the one that hooked you, and that Hulk Hogan wrestled at that event, how incredible is it to be working with Hogan now?
Desmond: It’s phenomenal. Sometimes in the wrestling business it is frowned upon to be all googly-eyed about some of the guys you grew up watching.
But that’s why you love this business, because of those feelings that those people contributed to our lives as we were growing up. It’s nice to be able to meet these guys, try and earn their respect, and learn from all the things they’ve learned.
JOE: Taking a look at wrestling now, why in your opinion is TNA better than the WWE?
Desmond: Well, I think we are really trying to push the boundary of certain aspects of the business at the moment. And we are talking to our fans about what they want to see. We listen to the fans and what they want.
Not only that, we present a product where all the wrestlers practice different styles, there are your legends, the faces you recognise from years past, there are young guys who are hot and hungry. We have wrestlers from every different corner of the world.
Whatever you like in Pro-wrestling there is something in TNA wrestling for you. Dixie has always been very hands on, and believes the fans should be very close to the wrestlers, to see a part of the wrestling business you can’t see elsewhere.
JOE: You’ve wrestled Kurt Angle several times in TNA and had a rivalry with him. Some people consider him the greatest professional wrestler of all time. Would you hold that opinion?
Desmond: He’s gotta be up there. Of all the wrestlers I’ve wrestled, and obviously I’ve never been in the ring with people from other generations like Lou Thez, he’s certainly the best.
It’s not just his athletic ability, or his ability to have great matches, it’s his passion for the business, it’s his genuine belief that he can make somebody else look better. Half the problem in this business is the people who don’t care how good the other guy looks. He’s great on the microphone too. His sense of humour is very dry.
JOE: Who else do you rate highly in TNA?
Desmond: There’s a lot here now. Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair are two of the most enduring legends of the business. Then you have Kurt, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. They are guys who can really go, and can really bring it.
Ken Anderson is a tremendous talent. Jeff Hardy is one of the most recognisable faces in the business today. Brutus Magnus, Rob Terry, Rob Van Dam too, the list goes on and on.
JOE: Sheamus is WWE champion while another Irishman Fergal Devitt is IWGP junior heavyweight champion in Japan. Are there any plans to introduce Irish wrestlers in TNA?
Desmond: I think it would behoove them greatly to have an Irish wrestler. It is a great market in Ireland, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have someone from Scotland either. It’s just a case of finding a place on the roster and finding an angle for them.
I wrestled Sheamus for Brian Dixon’s All-Star Wrestling four years ago and he was good even then. And Fergal as well, I wrestled him a few times in Japan for NOAH, he’s a tremendous talent.
JOE: You mentioned that Ring of Honour was where you suffered a lot of your injuries. You were [as Nigel McGuinness] the champion there for 565 days. Is that the highlight of your career?
Desmond: It is difficult for me to pick out a highlight. One of my first matches with Kurt in TNA was a great sort of benchmark for me, certainly personally and professionally. But I’m very proud of my work in Ring of Honour.
Not just when I was the champion, but overall, it was a great learning experience. I started out doing the opening cards, doing very sort of British technical style. Then I sort of moulded my style watching the guys who were further up the card. Eventually I was in the main event, where I held that position for a good year and a half.
JOE: You were ranked sixth in Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Top 500 wrestlers in 2009? Did you hold onto that magazine proudly?
Desmond: Yeah, I definitely got a copy of that. I get a copy of Pro Wrestling Illustrated whenever there is something of note about me in there, because that was one of the magazines I used to buy when I was growing up.
Actually when you asked me earlier about what got me into wresting originally, I remember getting a copy of Pro Wrestling Illustrated and on the back was a picture of James Hellwig before he became the Ultimate Warrior.
JOE: He was Dingo Warrior wasn’t he?
Desmond: Yeah, he was part of a tag team with Sting called the Blade Runners. It was before he wore the make-up or anything like that. In the picture he kind of looked like me. And I didn’t say anything until one of my mates said to me, ‘that guy looks like you.’ I know sometimes people put a little too much credibility into those kinds of things, but for some reason I thought that was a sign.
JOE: What hobbies do you have outside of Wrestling?
Desmond: Lots and lots and lots. I’ve just got an electric keyboard and I’m teaching myself to play the piano. I’m big into magic actually. I’ve been working on a lot of card illusions and a few other illusions. I’m a huge fan of Darren Brown, Chris Angel, David Blaine and a lot of those guys.
JOE: Would you ever be tempted to create a magician type character for the ring?
Desmond: No. I think the two are kind of mutually exclusive. A couple of wrestlers have tried to do a magician gimmick in the past and it failed. It doesn’t translate. It comes across as too hokey at times.
JOE: Anything else you do?
Desmond: Yeah. I’ve done a little bit of stand-up comedy, open-mic, that sort of stuff. Nothing too crazy. I do a lot of writing too. I’ve written a screenplay and I’m trying to get that made.
JOE: Really? Is that wrestling themed or completely different?
Desmond: It’s completely different. It’s a comedy of errors so to speak.
JOE: Like Oscar Wilde?
Desmond: (Laughs) Nothing like Oscar Wilde. Nothing close as witty. More Lock, Stock and Three Smoking Barrels meets There’s Something about Mary. Three guys come home from work one day and find out that one of their housemates has kidnapped Kylie Minogue, and is holding her captive in their flat in London.
JOE: That sounds brilliant. Any actors in mind for the film? Would you be in it yourself?
Desmond: Ah, I don’t know. I co-wrote it with a friend of mine who had the idea originally. He initially wanted to be in it, I don’t know. We’ll have to see. It’s a great script, we optioned it and got a bit of money for it but the production company could never get the money together to make it. We still got it, we still own it.
JOE: And you are hopeful it’ll get made.
Desmond: Definitely. I did a little bit of a re-write recently with Amy Winehouse as the main character, to add a little bit of an edge to it. We still have that copy as well.
JOE: You had a small part in Darren Aronofsky’s the Wrestler. What did you make of the film?
Desmond: I had a tiny part towards the end. I thought it was illuminating, if that is the correct word. It gave a view into that side of the professional wrestling industry [small independent promotions] where most people who don’t make it straight into one of the big two companies have to try and cut their teeth.
It showed everything in the indies that you find yourself having to deal with. It’s a very gritty and enthralling piece, like all Darren’s movies.
JOE: Was it good to see wrestling takes so seriously in a movie?
Desmond: Very much so. I think a lot of us kind of hoped it would give a little bit more credibility to wrestling and take away some of the stigma associated with it sometimes in the past. And I think to a certain extent that’s what it did.
JOE: I’ve seen it described as the Raging Bull of Wrestling.
Desmond: Funnily enough, I just watched Raging Bull the other day. One of the agents had me watch it because of De Niro, whose charachter had such great emotion. It was very similar to The Wrestler.
JOE: Have you gotten into contact with Aronofsky to see if he wanted to make your film?
Desmond: I did. I sent him a copy of the rewrite, and he liked it but if wasn’t his sort of thing.
JOE: He doesn’t do comedies.
Desmond: (Laughts) No.
JOE: He prefers to make really depressing movies.
Desmond: (Laughs) Very thoughtfull, pensive, thought-proving movies.
JOE: That’s what I mean. Has multiple-time best-selling author and TNA wrestler Mick Foley helped you at all with your writing?
Desmond: Actually, I penned a little bit of an autobiography many years ago about breaking into wrestling that I didn’t do much with. I gave him an early copy of that, and he took the time to read it and was very insightful. At that stage I wasn’t anything in the wrestling business.
Before I started, he was always kind of one of my idols. He showed you don’t have to be some big jacked up meathead to be successful in the wrestling business. Here’s a guy who made the most of his benefits. He’s intelligent; he can talk on any subject in the world and has great fantastic matches as well.
He gave some notes on my book. I still have it stacked away in drawer to finish sometime before I get old.
JOE: You seem to be a multi-faceted person.
Desmond: I try to be. You are only on this earth for four-score-year and however many. And I just think you should try and do as much as you can with that limited time that we have here.
JOE: We’ll end with a very serious question. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Desmond: It would probably be X-Ray vision to see through girl’s dresses or something like that.
JOE: Thanks very much for that, it was good talking to you.
Desmond: No problem. See you Conor. Ciao.
Tickets from €34 including booking fee go on sale 30 Friday July at 9am through Ticketmaster.ie and usual outlets nationwide.
