Nick Aldis Discusses How Recent Triple H Interview Was A Factor In NWA Situation
Nick Aldis has explained why he chose to leave the NWA while saying he related to a recent story told by WWE’s Triple H.
It has been a very interesting week for the National Wrestling Alliance and the former two-time NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis. Earlier in the week, Aldis revealed accidentally on Instagram (in a message meant for subscribers only) that he gave his 60-day notice to the NWA making himself a free agent on January 1, 2023. The NWA didn’t like that Aldis did that, so they suspended him and removed him from their upcoming NWA Hard Times pay-per-view in New Orleans on November 12th.
Aldis joined the Billy Corgan-owned National Wrestling Alliance in 2017 and was one of the biggest stars in the company for several years. However, Aldis and Corgan had a falling out due to creative differences with Aldis saying he knew when things weren’t going to work out, so that’s why he opted out of his contract, which he was contractually able to do after signing a one year deal in January 2022.
In an interview to explain his side of the story, Aldis talked to Sam Roberts on the Notsam Wrestling podcast where the two men had a lengthy discussion. When the interviewer Roberts mentioned that Aldis was viewed as the face of the brand, Aldis agreed to it and mentioned a recent Triple H interview talking about NXT changes in 2021 when it became NXT 2.0 because that’s what Vince McMahon wanted at the time.
“I understand what you’re saying and appreciate it. I tried to avoid saying anything like this, because there’s no way to say it without sounding you know, like you’re sort of self-promoting and being egotistical. But yes, I was the sort of perennial face of the brand. You know, I heard an interview that Triple H did with Ariel Helwani. Ariel asked him about NXT, you know, and how it had changed. And I, you know, and it, to me, his answers sort of mirrors how I feel in a lot of ways about the NWA. Like it moved away from what I had, you know, wanted it to be. And I, again, much in the same way, I suppose not now, obviously, because he’s (Triple H) running the place (WWE) now. But like, at that time, he kind of had this, it seemed to me he had this mentality of, ‘It’s not my [fault] there’s nothing I can do about it, you know.’ And that’s sort of where I got to it, you know, with with the NWA is when this not, it’s become now is not what I envisioned it to be in certainly isn’t what I was laying the groundwork for it to be didn’t have the core values that I had tried to sort of maintain. And again, this was not a knock. It was just me going this isn’t for me anymore.”
Aldis, who is married to wrestling legend Mickie James, spoke about his vision for what he wanted the NWA to be.
“I wanted to do an alternative wrestling brand that represented all those things about the NWA, that people missed in the current product, whether it be from sort of overproduction or from you know, a different mentality or different style, like, let’s give them all those things, because I felt like there was a good portion of the audience, particularly in the south, who missed rasslin. That was it. Like I wanted it to be burgers and fries, red, white and blue rasslin, because I love that stuff. But it wasn’t because it was like, I hate high spots, you know, and I hate these other type of [wrestling], I hate sports entertainment. It wasn’t that, it was more like looking at it from a business point of view of hey, there’s a gap in the market, I think for this type of product. And when I had the influence to sort of make that happen, like you said, we steered everything toward that vision, and it worked.”
While the next stop for Aldis is unkown at this time, he will have about two months to figure because his NWA deal will expire at the end of the year and he will be free to sign anywhere he wants starting in January 20203.