Nick Aldis Says Not Getting an Opportunity With WWE Was a ‘Tough Pill to Swallow’

– Sporting News recently interviewed NWA World champion Nick Aldis ahead of the return of the Crockett Cup. Below are some highlights.

Nick Aldis on not getting an opportunity in WWE: “I’m not alone in this but there’s a lot of people who thought I’d end up in WWE or at least have an opportunity and I didn’t get a sniff. It was a tough pill to swallow at the time and I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do next. Marty and I spoke all the time but it was when I finally checked my pride and checked my ego. For the first time, I was looking up to him and being inspired by what he was doing whereas up until that point, it had always been the other way around because I had always gotten an opportunity before he had and then I would always try to help open the door for him wherever I could. I had found myself looking at what he had done by going out on his own and producing his own vignettes and creating this whole character and really creating one of the most iconic characters of the last decade. I started going, ‘Yeah, that’s the real work.'”

Aldis on NWA being at a crossroads with ROH: “I think we’re at a crossroads with Ring of Honor. I think they’ve been a valuable partner to us in terms of us being able to get our message out there. We felt that Ring of Honor represented a lot of the things that the NWA represented in its heyday but in a more modern era. We looked at it that the guys like Nigel McGuinness, Bryan Danielson, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe. We felt like those guys in the early 2000s represented the closest thing to the sort of ethos and spirit of the NWA in its heyday in the ’80s. We’ve benefited each other, but we are ready to move. We’ve had some very good momentum for a short period of time and we know that one way or another in the next few months after the Crockett Cup—depending on how things shake out there—it’s going to be time for us to make a move. Where that takes us in terms of our existing relationships with Ring of Honor or anybody else, who knows.”

Nick Aldis on ROH and NJPW not wanting a match for him at the G1 Supercard: “They didn’t want it. I’m not going to sit here and politically dance around and give some bulls— answer as to why that didn’t happen. They didn’t want it. We did offer them—I volunteered to wrestle Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger at that show for the title. I pitched that. Hell, if I had known that Muta was going to be at that show, I would have pitched me and Great Muta. They obviously decided that what they had to offer and the debuts they had in mind and the other things they had in mind, the obviously decided that those were more fitting of Madison Square Garden than the NWA champion who had been the first one to defend the title there since Harley Race in 1980. But, hey, I’ll get there and I’ll do it on my terms and it will be a great night.”