Nigel McGuinness

Steven Haworth (born 23 January 1976), better known by his ring name Nigel McGuinness, is an English professional wrestling commentator and retired professional wrestler.

He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) where he serves as a color commentator on Collision.

He is best known for work with Ring of Honor, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (now Impact Wrestling), Pro Wrestling Noah and WWE.

Steven Haworth was born in London on 23 January 1976.

He grew up in Staplehurst, Kent, where he attended Maidstone Grammar School.

He studied at the University of Leicester in the 1990s and spent a sandwich year at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, graduating in 1997 with a 2:1 degree in chemistry.

He was a wrestling fan from the age of 12, particularly enjoying The Hart Foundation and The British Bulldogs, and attended SummerSlam in 1992 while wearing The Ultimate Warrior face paint.

In September 1998, Haworth began training under Les Thatcher in the Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) in Cincinnati, Ohio, incurring large debts in the process.

Haworth started his career in 1999 in the American independent circuit as Nigel McGuinness.

He debuted in September 1999 under the ring name "Nigel McGuinness", defeating GQ Masters III in a match that was featured on ABC's 20/20.

He subsequently spent a year wrestling in the Midwestern United States.

Haworth then returned to England, where he worked two full-time jobs to earn enough money to be able to return to the United States to wrestle and wrestled for All Star Wrestling promotions between September and December 2001, where he learned from wrestlers such as Robbie Brookside.

McGuinness developed a heel character which he described as "a punk rock soccer hooligan... Billy Idol meets Johnny Saint".

On 10 July 2001, McGuinness defeated Dean Jablonski in a singles match with the HWA Tag Team Championship on the line (the co-holder of the title, Chet Jablonski, was indisposed), claiming the title for himself and his partner, The Human Time Bomb.

McGuinness and The Bomb held the title until 7 August, when the Jablonski brothers regained the title.

McGuinness and The Bomb would become champions for a second time on 23 July 2002, defeating the Jablonski brothers once more.

They lost the title to Southern Breeze later that year.

He would begin to work with ROH in 2003.

In 2003, McGuinness introduced the HWA European Championship to HWA.

He held the title until 30 September 2003, when he lost to Hoss.

He regained the title on 4 November and promptly retired it.

McGuinness won the HWA Heavyweight Championship on 6 September 2003 in Batavia, Ohio, defeating Chad Collyer, He held the title until 3 January 2004, when he lost the title to Hoss.

McGuinness debuted in Ring of Honor (ROH) on 9 August 2003, defeating Chet Jablonski.

McGuinness defeated Hoss to begin a second reign with the title on 6 January, and held it until 17 March 2004, when he lost to El Temor.

He wrestled for ROH throughout 2004, but had limited success.

In 2005, he held the ROH Pure Championship for a record 350 days, eventually losing the title to Bryan Danielson in a unification match with Danielson's ROH World Championship.

In March 2005, McGuinness and Colt Cabana teamed together to challenge for the ROH Tag Team Championship, but lost to the incumbents, Dan Maff and B. J. Whitmer.

Cabana and McGuinness then began fighting one another, with McGuinness defeating Cabana on 7 May 2005, with an accidental low blow for a shot at the ROH Pure Championship.

He challenged the champion, Samoa Joe, on 12 June 2005, but was defeated.

He faced Joe once more on 27 August, and defeated him to win the Pure Championship.

After becoming champion, McGuinness turned heel and for several months was engaged in a feud with Claudio Castagnoli, instigated by a non-title match on 14 October where Castagnoli was able to use his knowledge of McGuinness's European wrestling style to score a pinfall on the champion.

This led to a series of matches for the title, with McGuinness using underhanded tactics to avoid losing the championship belt.

On 25 March 2006, McGuinness defeated Castagnoli in a match billed as the latter's last chance to win the championship as long as McGuinness was champion.

During his Pure Championship run, McGuinness regularly carried an iron (decorated with the Union Jack) to ringside.

When asked, the typical story given was that a group of men once broke into his home to attack him, but he was able to defend himself with the iron.

In reality, he began carrying the iron after a girlfriend's mother asked him why some wrestlers carried weapons to ringside, and then inquired as to whether anyone had ever carried an iron before.

He won the World Championship in 2007 and held the title for 545 days.

From October 2009 to June 2011, Haworth wrestled for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Desmond Wolfe.

This was his last run as an in-ring performer, as he retired in 2011 due to medical complications.

He returned to ROH in August 2011 as a colour commentator and on-screen authority figure, but left in December 2016 and signed with WWE shortly after, working as a commentator for NXT and NXT UK.