Nick Aldis has been synonymous with the National Wrestling Alliance since Billy Corgan bought the iconic promotion in 2017. But for months now, we’ve been hearing about issues between the NWA and the man who held their Worlds Heavyweight title for most of the last five years.
Those issues came to a head over the weekend. Aldis posted a video on his subscriber-only Instagram in which he said he won’t be renewing his NWA contract when it expires in January of next year because he doesn’t want to be associated with the product given its current creative direction.
Addressing that today (Nov. 7), the NWA issued a statement suspending Aldis. It takes effect immediately, meaning the National Treasure won’t be appearing on their Nov. 12 Hard Times 3 PPV or this weekend’s associated television tapings.
NWA response to recent statements made by Nick Aldis
Pursuant to the recent comments made by Nick Aldis, the National Wrestling Alliance, has suspended Aldis from the main roster and effective immediately Aldis will not appear for the
Hard Times 3 PPV and Revolution Rumble television tapings in New Orleans, LA on Nov. 12, 2022 and Nov. 13, 2022.
As such, the National Wrestling Alliance reserves its right to comment on this matter at a future date.
PWInsider, the first outlet to receive the statement, reached out to NWA commentator and Chief Operating Officer Joe Galli. He confirmed that Aldis’ contract expires in two months and:
Galli stated, on the record, “This is not a wrestling angle.”
Galli also noted that he does not yet know how this suspension would impact the promotion’s planned TV Tapings in December.
The 36 year old Englishman, who is married to Mickie James, has been on Twitter this morning to both apologize to fans…
Also, fans in NOLA: Sorry to disappoint but I was removed from the shows this weekend after giving my notice. I fully intended to fulfill my obligations to the audience but unfortunately the company doesn’t seem to share the same values.
— Nick Aldis (@RealNickAldis) November 7, 2022
… and to draw attention to one of his issues with Corgan & NWA management — the lack of follow-up on last year’s James-produced EmPowerrr women’s wrestling show, and the company’s reasons for not putting on a sequel. Aldis retweeted a pair of stories on recent interviews done with Steve Fall of The Ten Count to promote Hard Times 3 in New Orleans.
One with reigning Worlds champ Trevor Murdoch where he said:
“At the time when we were putting the show together for The Chase [NWA 74 weekend in St. Louis, Aug. 27-28, 2022], there wasn’t — I’m gonna get heat for this too, but shit, I’ll say it. At the time we couldn’t find enough TV-quality talent when it came to the ladies to produce a full pay-per-view and for it to be as successful or as popular as the last one…
It’s important for Billy and the NWA to put out the best quality product. So there’s nothing the matter. We’re not burying any of the ladies that are out there. We just at the time couldn’t find enough women to put together a show that held the same quality as last year.”
And one with Corgan where the owner spoke about EmPowerr 2:
“When you create a world-class event like EmPowerrr, and it was a world-class event, you set a very high standard of what you should expect. Of course there are plenty of great professional women’s wrestlers in the world. Can they wrestle the NWA style? Can they carry a three-hour pay-per-view? Can they move the case of women’s wrestling, not just in wrestling but in terms of international media, forward? These are my concerns. Everybody has their own version of it. That’s my version of it and that’s why I’m still on that.”
Like a lot of folks with wrestling brain, my first reaction to all of this is: “could be a work.” A public beef like this is making a lot of people aware that the NWA even has a PPV this weekend, and you can imagine a scenario where Aldis puts over the company one more time on his way out the door (if the entire thing isn’t an angle and he’s already re-signed).
If EmPowerrr 2 is a real sticking point, it’s kind of remarkable Aldis & Corgan couldn’t hash this issue out behind closed doors after having a good working relationship for years. While they could have avoided issuing juicy pull quotes while making it, Murdoch & Corgan do have a point about the amount of female wrestling talent on the independent scene. The Women’s Evolution has brought a lot of talented ladies into the business, but they’re not all ready for prime time. Rushing folks with limited training onto television has been a frequent criticism of AEW’s women’s division, and WWE is currently locking up as many female wrestlers with television experience as they can.
Agree to work toward growing the women’s division, pay Mickie to work on scouting the most “NWA caliber” free agent talent she can find while partnering with other companies around the world to bring in their top female wrestlers, issue a statement about how hard you’re all working to pull off EmPowerrr 2, and keep one of your biggest stars in the fold.
But maybe that’s easier said than done. And it’s not like we haven’t seen plenty of things we outsider thought could have been settled with a conversation or two blow up into major dramas. This very well may be another one of those.
What’s your take?
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