NWA superstar Nick Aldis recently appeared on the Ranters Nation Network to discuss a wide range of topics, including his thoughts on becoming TNA world champion at a time of peak viewership, and how much becoming NWA world’s champion meant to him. Highlights from the interview are below.
How he became TNA heavyweight champion at a peak time for the promotion:
So, I would say the occasion of winning the TNA World Title was bigger to me because it — you know, I was on the same roster as Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, Samoa Joe and I’m winning the world title so that to me — and it was on worldwide television. People always seem to give TNA a hard time for that peak period but it’s like, they were doing two million viewers consistently on Spike TV primetime, and I was there and it was on Spike TV so you know, millions of people saw it and people around the world and it was a big deal in the U.K. and we ended up throwing an impromptu, kind of like world title party almost. Me and J.B. [Jeremy Borash] came back — came to England for Christmas that year and he was like, ‘Hey, you wanna do a fan party?’ And I was like, ‘Sure’ and it was packed and it became kind of this big deal because the British media kind of picked up on me winning that belt and made a big deal of it so, I would say that.
Says winning the NWA world’s title meant more to him because of the belt’s lineage:
Now, the flipside of that is the NWA World Title means more to me because of the lineage but it’s more important to me because of what I was able to do with it, to get it, to sort of put it back in the consciousness of the wrestling business, right? Do you know what I mean? The first time I won it, I beat Tim Storm at a CZW show in New York or whatever it was or in Philly. So, you know, not exactly my cup of tea. But you know, more power to ‘em. But, it wasn’t like I was sitting there like, this is it, you know? But, you know, winning it in a TV main event with Jeff Hardy, obviously, whole different ball game. What I was then able to do but then you contrast that with a year later, less than a year later after winning the NWA Title, it’s like, me and Cody [Rhodes] are stood face-to-face in a sold-out building and it ends up being a real sort of milestone event in wrestling. So yeah, I’d say that the occasion was bigger for the TNA one for me but the NWA Title means way more to me.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
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