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McGuinness approached the company after World Wrestling Entertainment rescinded their contract offer. WWE sources indicated yesterday that the results of McGuinness' pre-contract screening turned up several injury issues that led to the company backing off on their interest in signing him. McGuinness has torn both biceps while working an extremely physical style for Ring of Honor as well as suffering (I believe) a pair of concussions during his ROH tenure.
The actual deal with TNA went down about 5-6 days ago and McGuinness was instructed to keep mum, going as far as to act "wary" towards friends when he was asked when he would debut for WWE.
As I noted yesterday on my Hotline, TNA President Dixie Carter has been a huge fan of McGuinness for several years. At one point, McGuinness was going to be offered a TNA deal, but had already signed with Ring of Honor. TNA instead signed Doug Williams at the time.
When McGuinness learned WWE wasn't going to sign him, he contacted TNA, who jumped at the chance to sign him up. Any stories based around the idea that WWE "held up the paperwork" on McGuinness, allowing TNA to jump in and sign him up, are completely without merit.
McGuiness' new TNA ring name, Desmond Wolf, was created as the company wanted a name they could trademark and copyright for their own purposes. McGuinness himself came up with the name and TNA ran with it. As those of you who have seen spoilers for the next two episodes of Impact know, McGuinness will be in the TNA mix in a MAJOR way starting this Thursday.
For those who are curious, Ring of Honor wasn't aware McGuinness had signed with TNA until after he was in Orlando at the Impact taping yesterday, so there were no discussions in regard to McGuinness returning to ROH. McGuinness lost to Bryan Danielson in their respective farewells at the 9/26 ROH event in New York City.
WWE sources indicate Bryan Danielson passed his pre-contract screening and will start shortly with the company. Rumors he was TNA-bound in the last 24 hours were also without merit as Danielson has had zero interest in working for TNA dating back several years.
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