Aldis was aiming to land in WWE after his 2017 exit from IMPACT.
As a part of NWA 74 weekend, Nick Aldis was in action on night two and went on to defeat Flip Gordon in singles competition. Aldis had originally been scheduled to challenge Trevor Murdoch for the Worlds Heavyweight Title in the main event of night two but was swapped out for Tyrus.
On the lead-up to NWA 74, Nick made the media rounds and one of the outlets he appeared on was The Kurt Angle Show podcast. Aldis and Angle spent time together in TNA/IMPACT Wrestling and that portion of Nick’s career was further highlighted.
When Aldis returned to TNA in 2017, he did not have any expectations that the company would be different from his previous go-around. He mentioned that when he left, he wanted to see if he could go to WWE and added that he still does.
I think that Jeff [Jarrett], he had the best intentions with GFW. But, his heart wasn’t really in it and obviously now, knowing what we know now, I didn’t know at the time, we know that Jeff was having some personal issues with addiction and I don’t wanna harp on that too much. So, I was just treating it as, let’s just see what happens. I didn’t have any expectations. The company was more or less the same from how it had been when I left and it was great to see all the guys and I was excited to work with [Alberto] Del Rio because I’d never wrestled him before and I thought he was a great worker and you know, so I thought that could be a big match. You know, I just sort of came in and did business. I got a nice payday for it. But I remember just sort of being like, hey, I’m just gonna come in and do business. It’s good to see everyone but I’m gonna keep moving on. It was time for me to move on. I wasn’t released. My contract expired and I didn’t sign another one. I was sort of ready to try something else. Truth be told, I wanted to see if I could get to WWE and still do. In my mind, I was like, I’ve paid my dues, I’ve worked with a lot of guys, I’ve done about as much as I can do… It’s a Tony Robbins phrase I like to use, ‘You won’t take the island unless you burn your boats,’ you know?
Going back further into Aldis’ time with IMPACT, in 2013, he had AJ Styles’ last match with the company. Aldis expressed how that impacted him because of the way Styles was sent off and the connection he established with the fan base.
They were scheduled to head out to the U.K. a few weeks later and Aldis felt it made more sense to let things play out in his home country, but they needed to get things moving because AJ’s contract was expiring.
It’s a period… I’ve tried not to beat myself up about it because I accept that the majority of that situation was out of my control [Aldis responded when asked about facing AJ Styles in Styles’ last TNA/IMPACT match]. My biggest — it’s not even a regret because it wasn’t something that I did but when I think back on that time, I won the title in December in Orlando. One month later, we’re gonna be in the U.K. and call me crazy but, for me, the obvious thing was always like is there not some way we can put this off for four weeks and I can win the title in London or Manchester? Manchester was always such a good town for me and all I could think of was instead of doing it here at Universal Studios, it’s like, could we not figure out a way to — and look, I was okay with the heel turn. They wanted me to be this corporate champion with Dixie [Carter] and everything and I was totally cool with that but I was like, well we’re taping — we’re gonna tape two episodes in Manchester and two in London so my argument, my suggestion was, ‘Can I not win it in Manchester and get the big babyface moment and then turn heel in London and get the –’ it would have been a huge babyface moment and then a huge heat, you know, heel moment… They were adamant like, ‘No, no. We’ve got to wrap this stuff up with AJ because his contract is up’ and so on and so forth and obviously, look, it was not my place to say, it was not my decision to make. I sort of plead the case, but… it was a good match, it wasn’t anything. It was just a whole load of nothing and I’d had some good matches with AJ so, it’s sad that-that was the end of it and I felt like it was a little unfair to me only in the sense that I knew how much this was gonna hurt people for AJ to be — for his exit from the company to be this way and I knew that, you know, even though on a logical level, the people knew that I didn’t have anything to do with it, I was still gonna be associated with it and I knew that was gonna be difficult for me to overcome and I think in the end, that is what happened. I think in people’s eyes, they had such a love and respect for AJ and he represented that brand that I ended up representing all the things that they didn’t like, even though it wasn’t my choice obviously. But hey, you play the hand you got dealt. That’s the way I looked at it and I did what I was instructed to do.
Coming out of the 9/6 episode of NWA Powerrr, it was made official that Taya Valkyrie is getting another shot at the World Women’s Championship at Hard Times 2022. She fell in defeat to Kamille on night one of NWA 74.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Kurt Angle Show with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
