NWA world’s champion Nick Aldis was a recent guest on Busted Open Radio to talk all things pro-wrestling. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
How he didn’t take a salary when NWA started and made his living on indie bookings:
I’m very blessed. I make a good living as a contracted full-time talent for Lightning One and the NWA,” Aldis stated. “I make six figures. So that’s not the case for everyone. I had to earn that. The first six months I worked for this company, I didn’t take a check. I literally earned what I got and said, ‘Hey, I’ll get whatever I get from independent bookings, and I’ll prove my value.’ I made plenty of money from the independents. I mean I defended the title in seven different countries, four different continents. I was doing just fine. But my point is I’ve been all in on this, no pun intended. There were times where Billy said, ‘Hey, just let me know when you’re ready to take a salary’, and I said ‘No, we’re good.’ As I said, it was about six months and I said, ‘Alright. Now we got All In on the horizon and obviously, I can do business and big business. You can stick me on a salary now.’ I’ve been very fortunate to do that.
Being proud of Ricky Starks signing with AEW:
Look, what you got to do is look back and listen to multiple interviews where I was the one who towered Ricky Starks before anybody was talking about that kid, and I’m proud of him. That’s a perfect example, where it’s like if there’s an opportunity for you right now to make some bread, go take it, man!
On a possible alliance between NWA and AEW:
It’s difficult for me to answer that because I can’t speak for Tony. That would be something that would have to be discussed between Billy and Tony,” Aldis noted. “As I said, I had a great conversation with him. My decision at that time to stay with the NWA was based on loyalty. Like I said, I’m very confident in who I am, and I’m very confident in my value to this organization and to the value I’ve been with myself in the pro wrestling business. I was also aware of the fact at that point in time, AEW was going to be successful and just fine with or without Nick Aldis. However, the NWA would have been in serious trouble. In that respect, my take at the time was basically, ‘Hey maybe we can work together somewhere down the road,’ but right now, my loyalty is with the guy who pays me and gave me the opportunity to show the world who I really am.
Whether he and Cody will have a rubber match and the success of NWA 70:
As regard to Cody, somewhere shape or form, there is some sort of fan sentiment every day from someone, ‘When do we get Cody-Aldis III?, When do we get the rubber match?’ I think that there’s no doubt it will happen at some point,” Aldis said. “It’s developed some sort of mythology, and it’s taking a life on its own. I think at this point, I rather wait until we get an audience, because when you look at All In, 11,000 people standing at the belt, before we even touched. Then, NWA 70, we set a box office for one of the most historic pro wrestling buildings in America. It’s like that rubber match has to meet the same level of prestige and for me, I like it with an audience, so he knows where I am. We still maintain a dialogue from time to time. We still text each other and stay in chat. Nothing but respect from Cody. I learned a lot of him and I dare say vice versa. I got nothing but love for Cody, The Bucks, and all those guys.
Full interview can be found here. (H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.
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