NXT announcer Nigel McGuinness has been furloughed by WWE. According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, this was done as part of the recent cuts the company made last month.
“The reason Nigel McGuinness hasn’t been around is that he was one of the people furloughed during all the cuts,” wrote Dave Meltzer.
McGuinness signed with the promotion as a commentator in 2016. He made his commentary debut with the company in January 2017 for the WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament. He’s also worked at commentary for Main Event and 205 Live.
Last year, the WWE Network released a documentary on McGuinness’s career titled Chasing the Magic: The Nigel McGuinness Story.
As a wrestler, Nigel McGuinness is a former ROH World and Pure champion. He defeated Samoa Joe for the Pure title in 2005 and held it for 350 days before dropping it to Bryan Danielson. McGuinness won the ROH World title from Takeshi Morishima in 2007. He held that title for 545 days before dropping it to Jerry Lynn in 2009. Also in 2009, Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked Nigel McGuinness as the 6th top wrestler in their annual PWI Top-500 rankings.