Nick Aldis Talks Not Having A Match At G1 Supercard, Marty Scurll, NWA Working With Ring Of Honor
Nick Aldis spoke with Sporting News before his NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship match against Marty Scurll at tonight's NWA Crockett Cup in Concord, North Carolina. We will have full live coverage beginning at 7 pm ET.
During his interview, Aldis spoke about the resurgence he's had in his career since working in NWA, leaving Impact Wrestling for good in 2017. Aldis said once he was able to check his ego about not getting an opportunity in WWE, he looked to what Scurll had done with his career as a model for what he should be doing with his own.
"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," Aldis said. "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.'"
NWA and Ring of Honor have developed a partnership over the past year, especially with ROH putting the NWA champ on their show from time to time. Aldis felt like NWA is reaching a point where they need to make a move and was unsure how they will change things with ROH and NWA.
"I think we're at a crossroads with Ring of Honor," Aldis said. "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."
Earlier this month, ROH / NJPW G1 Supercard took place from Madison Square Garden and it did not include a NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship match. Aldis was very straightforward with reason being NJPW didn't want it.
"They didn't want it," Aldis said. "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."