By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

Nigel McGuinness’s “Last of McGuinness” documentary is a powerful look at the pro wrestling industry and the desire of one man to achieve the dream he had to a pro wrestler in WWE since he was a teenager. McGuiness funded the documentary on Kickstarter earlier this year and the original idea for the documentary was McGuinness was going to film his final days as a wrestler as he tried to find some sort of resolution in his own mind about his wrestling career.

McGuinness nailed nearly everything while telling his story of coming to grips with the fact that he was never going to make it to WWE and be a recognizable face all over the world. It’s a very dark documentary at times, as McGuinness narrates footage of his final days and wrestling and several segments on the documentary focus on him discussing how unfair it was for him not to succeed as he always expected to.

The two big hooks of this documentary going in were McGuinness revealing why he wasn’t signed by WWE after agreeing to a deal with the company in 2009 only to end up having his deal rescinded after a medical red flag came up and why TNA released in him in 2011. McGuinness answers both questions in the documentary and delivers the answers that people wanted as promised when he launched his Kickstarter campaign earlier this year.

As it turns out, those revelations are not nearly as interesting as the main themes that run throughout the documentary. It is difficult to watch McGuinness come to grips with his place in the wrestling industry after his career unraveled. On the tour, there’s a particularly harrowing scene featuring McGuinness on a show with several former big name performers, but he ends up not wrestling because the promoter didn’t think he was worth the money it would take to book him on the show. McGuinness looks depressed as the big name wrestlers get attention while he is largely left alone.

McGuinness also uses the documentary to spread awareness about the dangers of blood being used in wrestling matches. McGuinness’s message is that there should no longer be intentional bleeding in wrestling and wrestlers should be required to take measures to get the vaccine to prevent hepatitis b and be tested regularly for it. There’s a powerful scene where McGuinness is booked on a show and one of the wrestlers ends up bleeding and to compound that, the ring announcer intentionally blades himself. It sets up a good contrast with McGuinness’s thoughts on hepatitis b and what he’s trying to get across compared the practices that still exist in independent wrestling promotions.

This is a sad documentary to watch, but it is also compelling to see McGuinness embark on a journey of self-discovery. None of his colleagues can make him feel any differently than he does about being a failure, despite the many positives about his career that they point out. The biggest reward comes at the end of the film when everything comes full circle and McGuinness finds a resolution in his mind and comes to grips with his place in the wrestling business.

This is one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. McGuinness did an incredible job of putting the footage together and adding music and his narration to the finished product. There’s a lot to learn from this documentary and there’s a human message here that’s accessible to people that aren’t fans of wrestling.

You can buy “The Last of McGuinness” at NigelWrestling.com

***

Please click HERE and click “like” to join the Radican’s Wrestling Community Facebook fan page.

Follow Sean on Twitter at Twitter.com/SeanRadican

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com

We suggest these recent related articles...

RADICAN'S Beyond Wrestling "Greatest Rivals Round Robin" review 9/26 - incredible show of the year contender, Busick-Edwards top-flight MOTYC, more!

RADICAN'S "The Pull List" (Vol. 5) "Young Bucks Too Sweet Journey" doc review, The Flash season 1 Blu-Ray, Top Ten MOTYC for 2015

RADICAN'S ROH "All-Star Extravaganza VII" PPV BLOG 9/18: Booking issues dampen excellent in-ring action