Steven Haworth (born 23 January 1976), better known by his ring name Nigel McGuinness, is an English professional wrestler, sports commentator and magician. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he serves as a colour commentator on Collision and an occasional in-ring talent. He is known for work with Ring of Honor (ROH), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Pro Wrestling Noah and WWE.
Haworth started his career in 1999 in the American independent circuit as Nigel McGuinness before signing with ROH in 2003. In 2005, he won the ROH Pure Championship and held it for a then-record 350 days (before it was eclipsed by Lee Moriarty's reign in 2025). He also won the ROH World Championship in 2007 and held the title for 545 days. In 2009, Haworth worked with TNA under the ring name Desmond Wolfe until his in-ring retirement 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. After his departure from WWE in October 2022, he signed with AEW in April 2023 as a commentator and returned to in-ring competition in August 2024.
Early life Steven Haworth was born in London on 23 January 1976. He grew up in Staplehurst, Kent, where he attended Maidstone Grammar School. 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 Ultimate Warrior face paint. 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.
Professional wrestling career Heartland Wrestling Association (1998–2006) In September 1998, Haworth began training under Les Thatcher in the Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) in Cincinnati, Ohio, incurring large debts in the process. 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.
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 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.
Ring of Honor (2003–2009)
Pure Champion (2003–2006)
McGuinness debuted in Ring of Honor (ROH) on 9 August 2003, defeating Chet Jablonski. He wrestled for ROH throughout 2004, but had limited success. 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 would often use the iron as a weapon to win his matches.
McGuinness also had a malapropistic gimmick in ROH of mispronouncing words. An example would be at Survival of the Fittest 2005 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, when he said the fans appreciated him as much as "their beloved Boston Red Stockings".
During the rest of 2006, McGuinness was mostly uninvolved in the war between ROH and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), instead developing a new gimmick where he would win his matches by countout by using (often unfair) methods of preventing opponents from returning to the ring. McGuinness received a shot at the ROH World Championship against Bryan Danielson with his own Pure Championship on the line and contested under pure wrestling rules on 29 April. McGuinness again won by countout, by which only the Pure title could be won, but not Danielson's World title. The victory was enough to earn a rematch under regular rules on 29 July, in which Danielson narrowly managed to retain his title. A month later in Liverpool, England, ROH arranged a unification match between the two titles and guaranteed there would be a winner, with both titles able to change hands due to countout or disqualification under pure wrestling rules. McGuinness lost the match on 12 August and the Pure Championship was unified and retired. McGuinness reign of 350 days is the longest in the two-year history of the Pure Championship. After the match, Danielson offered McGuinness one more shot at the unified ROH World Championship and on 25 August the two of them wrestled a two-out-of-three-falls match to a 60-minute time limit and as a result McGuinness could no longer challenge for the title as long as Danielson was the champion. After the match, Danielson recognised McGuinness' efforts and gave him the now retired Pure Championship belt as a trophy.
Feud with Jimmy Rave and Chris Hero (2006–2007) After losing the Pure Championship, McGuinness, now a face, challenged for Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Heavyweight Championship on 16 September 2006, at ROH's Glory by Honor V – Night 2, but was defeated by the defending champion Naomichi Marufuji. The rest of the year saw McGuinness feuding with Jimmy Rave, who, using his new submission manoeuvre, the Heel Hook (a single leg Boston crab and twisting ankle lock combination), forced him to tap out on two separate occasions, first on 8 December 2006, at The Chicago Spectacular Night 1 and then on 23 December 2006, at Final Battle 2006. Rave followed that up with another victory over McGuinness on 27 January 2007, this time in an "I Quit" match, which he won via referee stoppage. In February, McGuinness began acting as a representative of NOAH and as a spokesperson and tag team partner of NOAH talent Takeshi Morishima, upon his arrival to the company. On 4 March in Liverpool, McGuinness ended his feud with Jimmy Rave by defeating him with a Rebound Lariat, which in storyline resulted in Rave suffering a broken jaw and earned the move the new name of Jawbreaker Lariat, when in reality Rave had broken his jaw a month earlier. McGuinness' next feud would be with Chris Hero, who had dubbed himself the best pure wrestler in the world. During this feud McGuinness also received two shots at the ROH World Championship, on 14 April and 16 July, but was both times defeated by champion Takeshi Morishima. On 23 June, McGuinness defeated Hero in a 30-minute time limit match, but Hero came back on 10 August and defeated McGuinness with help from his agent Larry Sweeney and the Sweet 'n' Sour Inc. in a match contested under pure wrestling rules.
ROH World Champion (2007–2009)
On 15 September 2007, at Man Up, ROH's third pay-per-view, McGuinness defeated Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli and Naomichi Marufuji in a four-way match to earn one more shot at Takeshi Morishima's ROH World Championship, which McGuinness won at Undeniable on 6 October 2007.
In late 2007, ROH confirmed that McGuinness had suffered a torn biceps and would be out of action until Final Battle 2007, however he would not be stripped of the ROH World Championship. On 2 November, the first night of ROH's Glory by Honor VI event in Philadelphia, Chris Hero and his agent Larry Sweeney complained of McGuinness' injury, calling him a fluke champion. Sweeney felt that Hero's victory of the Survival of the Fittest in Las Vegas earned him a title shot any time he wanted. McGuinness, in street clothes, accepted the challenge. He successfully retained the title against Hero, despite first losing the match due to the referee failing to notice McGuinness' foot on the rope while Hero made him tap out to submission.
On 29 December 2007, McGuinness returned to the ring full-time at ROH fifth pay-per-view, Rising Above. During his defence of the ROH World Championship against Austin Aries, however, McGuinness injured his head when Aries dove from the ring onto him, which resulted in him hitting his head on the metal guard rail. The impact gave McGuinness a concussion, broke his nose, opened his eyebrow, and required 14 stitches.
On 25 January 2008, McGuinness wrapped up his feud with Chris Hero by successfully defending his title against him in a steel cage match. In February at ROH's Sixth Anniversary Show, McGuinness turned heel during his successful title defence against Bryan Danielson by breaking an earlier agreement and targeting his head, injured earlier at the hands of Morishima. Throughout the rest of the year, McGuinness successfully defended his title against the likes of Tyler Black, Austin Aries, Kevin Steen, Claudio Castagnoli, Go Shiozaki, Jerry Lynn, Roderick Strong, El Generico and on 22 November 2008, at Rising Above, in a grudge match against Bryan Danielson.
On 20 March 2009, McGuinness sustained an arm injury competing in a tag team match. However, despite the injury reportedly requiring surgery, he still wrestled at the Seventh Anniversary Show the next night and defeated KENTA to retain his title. Finally, on 3 April 2009 at Supercard of Honor IV, McGuinness lost the ROH World Championship to Jerry Lynn at his 39th defence, ending his reign at 545 days.
Injuries and departure (2009)