Nick Aldis Reveals Why Jeff Jarrett Cornered Him At 'All In' Despite Past Falling Out
For the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship match at "All In" both Cody Rhodes and Nick Aldis came to the ring with a number of important friends and family members. Rhodes had people like DDP and Tommy Dreamer, while Aldis brought along former NWA Champion Tim Storm, Shawn Daivari, and interestingly enough, Jeff Jarrett.
Aldis tweeted out a statement to those who were surprised to see Jarrett in Aldis' corner after the two had a falling out during their days in GFW/TNA/Impact. In the statement, Aldis wrote:
"When we discussed the concept of having teams lead us to the ring for the biggest match of our career, the conversation inevitably turned to whom the team member would be; friends, colleagues, mentors, and put simply, people who have been important figures in our respective tapestries. Jeff [Jarrett] is without a doubt one of those people to me.
"What you may not know is that I, like several others, had my own fallout with Jeff and Karen [Jarrett] a couple years ago. I could have written them off and enjoyed taking the moment in the spotlight as an 'F-U' to them, and anyone else that has wronged me over the years. But that's bad energy, and I made a choice to focus on good energy in the last year, which absolutely led me to that moment at "All In." I should point out that despite their initial hesitation, Cody, Matt [Jackson], and Nick [Jackson] also agreed to accommodate Jeff for this match as a symbolic gesture that we don't dwell on negativity and we don't hang people out to dry forever just because they made a mistake or two. Three thumbs up. Thank you guys.
"This was about giving a second chance to the man who gave me my first chance to be a champion. Thank you, Jeff."
Some of you may have been surprised or even bothered by seeing @RealJeffJarrett at #ALLIN. Before you rush to judgment, please take a moment to read this... pic.twitter.com/pftAB5P6lF
? Nick Aldis (@RealNickAldis) September 3, 2018
Known then as Magnus, Aldis first won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship back in 2013. He made his return to TNA/Impact in 2017, following Jarrett's hiring as an executive consultant, and then promotion to Executive Producer and Chief Creative Officer.
At this point, Aldis was the GFW Global Champion, which found its way into the Impact brand, thanks to a merge between Impact and GFW (Global Force Wrestling). Aldis would end up dropping to the title to Alberto El Patron and later rejected a contract offer from Anthem Sports and & Entertainment (parent owner of Impact) in July of 2017.
Last year, Nick Aldis spoke with Wrestling Inc's Chris Featherstone on his Pancakes and Powerslams podcast about not signing due to lack of financial compensation and creative challenges.
"There was no release. There was nothing like that," Aldis said. "A contract was offered to me, which I declined ? Anthem offered me a contract, I read the contract, it's not something that ? I'll say this in the nicest way that I can; it's not a contract that anyone with any value, any sense of self-value or self-worth would sign. To me, the only time you should put your name on the dotted line, is if you are getting something in return. Because, otherwise, you may as well be an independent contractor. There's no point in signing a contract to make you exclusive to one place if you're not getting anything in return.
"I wish them nothing but the best, but, the only guy I was really excited to work with was Alberto [El Patron], and I worked with him right away. And I just didn't feel like I would be challenged there the way I wanted to be challenged, creatively and artistically. Obviously, monetarily, they're not going to be able to be in a position to offer anything that would offset those things. So, I politely said that I won't sign this contract, however, if you need me, we can work on a handshake which we did for a number of shows.
"I guess the only thing that bothered me a bit was the fact that I feel like I've been very dependable and loyal to Jeff Jarrett, and I didn't find out from him that they didn't want to keep working that arrangement. Which is fine in a sense, because I didn't have any long-term plans to be around that stuff anyway. I could see all of the negativity and I just didn't want to be associated with it. But, at the same time, I had dates in my calendar that I had written down, just like any other independent promotion."