Backstage Report On AEW Match Between Bryan Danielson & Nigel McGuinness

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Following a triumphant return to in-ring competiton at Wembley Stadium, Nigel McGuinness is wasting little time addressing old rivalries, challenging AEW World Champion Bryan Danielson to a match at "AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam." According to the latest "Wrestling Observer Radio," the match was not a part of some grand storytelling plan, instead falling into the promotion's proverbial lap.

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"From what I understand, the whole McGuinness thing was not something long planned out ... You always thought they were going to do [the match] before Danielson retires," Dave Meltzer said. "I guess New York is a place. They'll probably have a great match."

Danielson is only free to have the match because Darby Allin will put his shot at Danielson's title on the line against Jon Moxley at the September 25 event. The winner will go on to face Danielson, presumably at WrestleDream in Allin and Danielson's home state of Washington.

"Darby was at one point winning [the world title] and he's from the area essentially, however, the money match is very much Moxley," Meltzer said. Moxley and the Blackpool Combat Club broke off from Danielson at All Out and are now claiming they are taking over the promotion as a whole.

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Prior to his return in the Casino Gauntlet at All In, McGuinness had not wrestled since 2011. The AEW broadcaster was one of Danielson's fiercest rivals during the 2000s, having famously brutal matches for the ROH World and ROH Pure Championships in the promotion's early years. Danielson is still recovering from the attack by the BCC, which saw him asphyxiated with a plastic bag.