Nick Aldis Explains Why He Turned Down An Offer From AEW

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis spoke with Daily DDT about receiving an offer from AEW, but deciding to turn it down. Aldis noted that he had spent two years building up the NWA and had a tough time just walking away from that.

Aldis said he made a counter-offer that would allow him to work for both AEW and NWA, but it sounds like that is still under consideration.

"I'll tell you the truth: I was made an offer by AEW," Aldis confirmed. "I counter-offered with, 'I'd like to be able to do both.' I'd like to work with them because obviously I have great admiration for Cody and the Bucks for what they've been able to do. But I wasn't prepared to walk away from the two years of work I've done with the NWA. And that was that. I left it open with, 'If you can find a way to keep doing this and do your show, I'll do your show.'

"They essentially wanted to offer me a contract and have me walk away from what I'm doing here and I said that doesn't make any sense to me. Really, there's no reason to. It's just a hangover from the way things have always been done. Obviously, we hear this 'Change the World' phrase a lot, but that was my pitch to them. 'If you really want to change the world, why can't we do that?'

"Because that really would be a change for one guy to work there, but also come here. I'm still on very good terms with Cody and the Bucks and I had a very nice conversation with Tony [Khan] and everyone was aware of it. Billy [Corgan] and Dave [Lagana] were aware of it. At the time, my stance was if I can do both, then I'll do it and I think that as it shakes out and everyone starts to realize the demand that will be on them with cable TV and stuff like that, those possibilities will be way more apparent in the next coming year for some guys."

Aldis lost the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship to Cody at last year's All In, then won it back at NWA 70th Anniversary Show in October of last year.