Desmond Wolfe (Nigel McGuinness) Discusses His Time in TNA

[Testify]

In an interview with Wrestling Observer Radio, Desmond Wolfe spoke candidly about a few TNA related topics. Below are the highlights:

On his program with Kurt Angle:
"My series of matches and my program with Kurt Angle has to be considered one of the highlights of my career, and I’ll never take that for granted. I’ll always appreciate Dixie (Carter) for seeing the talent in me and signing me and putting me right into that program. I believe that program was supposed to be for Booker T originally and then he went to WWE, so they just kind of slotted me into it. Nonetheless, the people there had faith in me and my abilities to put me in that spot. Kurt was as good as everybody tells you he is."

On his reaction to his popularity in the Top 10 contenders’ poll:
"It was a strange situation. To me, it just speaks volumes for what a great job they did with me when I first came in. I’m not sure whether it was Eric (Bischoff) or Hulk (Hogan) who knew that much about the program I had with Kurt or how they rated me, I really don’t know. But I think the fans that watched that program were like, ‘Wow, this is a guy we want to see more of.’ I don’t think that’s egotistical of me to say; I just think that because of our matches and because they had given us the stage to do it – there was a lot of legs with Desmond Wolfe in TNA and people wanted to see that. You give people the chance to voice their opinions and they will voice their opinions."

"I always remember, when I saw that I was winning the vote, I was kind of a bit embarrassed to be honest with you. I talked to one of the agents and I was basically like, ‘Am I going to get heat for this?’ I know how crazy that sounds in any other form of entertainment where someone would say, ‘God I’m winning a poll on popularity, is that a bad thing?’ But that was my first instinct because I’m not a pushed guy here at the moment. There are other guys who are being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and aren’t getting half as many votes as me. I know how things work in wrestling. I know what happens in these situations. So, I was a little concerned about it."

"The truth of the matter is, at first you could vote as many times as you want. I think the notion was, okay there are all these smart internet wrestling fans who are sitting in their parents’ basement and clicking, clicking, clicking, you know what I mean? And then TNA did it again and changed it so you could only vote one time, and I still won. I think I won more the second time than I did the first one. I did not think for one second that means I’m a better wrestler than Sting or any of the other guys that didn’t win as many votes. That had nothing to do with it at all."

"What it has got to do with, in this day and age we’re seeing more and more in the world of social media that wrestling fans or fans in general do not want to be told what they want to see. They don’t want to be told who they’re going to cheer or boo, they don’t want to be told who’s a top guy and who’s not. They want to be able to say, ‘My voice is heard.’ I think that’s what spoke to me so much."

"Because I had to have a title match and it only ended up being like a 3 or 4 minute match on TV, people wanted to go, ‘You know what? We want to get what we want to get. We voted so we can see a decent title match for Desmond Wolfe.’ It never ended up happening, but I’m not bitter about it. It’s just one of those things that happens in professional wrestling and happens a lot. You’ve got to call a spade a spade, you know what I mean?"

On his short-lived tag team with Magnus:
"I don’t think I’m being over the top when I say that was one of the biggest disappointments in my career. I’ve always liked Nick, not just the fact that he looks good but he’s a really good wrestler as well. I don’t think people give him enough credit for being a decent hand in the ring. When we got together, we just had a charisma and we fed off each other well, especially with Chelsea being there as well. I thought it really had some legs."

"It wasn’t anybody’s fault other than the fact that just what happened to me to where they couldn’t use me. It was really, really disappointing. It almost felt like (Brian) Pillman and (Steve) Austin when they were the Hollywood Blondes. They kind of got their legs cut out from them. That wasn’t what happened to me and Nick, but I felt like given a little bit of a push and given the chance to really do a program, we could have been something like the Hollywood Blondes."