Last year, Nick Aldis revealed that he had talks with AEW.
The reigning NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion ultimately stated during his interview with Daily DDT that he does want to work with the new promotion, but he didn’t want to abandon the work he’s put into NWA at the time.
These days, it appears that NWA and AEW are working together as NWA Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa is coming off a feud with AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida.
Speaking with Wrestling Inc.’s Raj Giri on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast, Aldis speaks about the relationship between the two companies, but also expanded on why he didn’t sign with All Wlite Wrestling:
"It's like you feel like the train is leaving the station without you a little bit because you knew that it was going to be this big thing that everyone was talking about," Aldis expressed. "You knew it was going to take all this oxygen, and it was very tempting to think, 'well, this could be validation for the last sort of year and a half at the time,' because this was January of 2019.
"So it was like early, early days and honestly, that was a big factor in my decision because I knew that the TV wasn't going to start until fall, and in my mind, I wasn't sure that I had built up enough momentum yet to be able to last through to that time. I was worried that by the time we got to the end of the year people kind of go, 'oh yeah, I forgot he's on it too,' and I just didn't want to be that guy because I had worked too hard with All In, which is two years ago today."
Overall, Aldis wants to be seen as a star if he makes the transition over to All Elite Wrestling and hopes that his name will provide excitement for fans over potential match-ups:
"I wanted people to feel like when I step in the ring with the title, like I wanted people to feel like this is a big deal. Like this is a happening," Aldis described. "I don't have to be considered the best wrestler in the business. I don't have to be number one on the PWI 500, and I don't have to have people sort of saying, 'oh, he's the best.' When I wrestle, I want people to be like, 'this would be interesting. Cool, I'm ready to see that.' I wanted to have situations that made somebody at home feel the same way I felt when I watched like Rock and Triple H or Sting."
The NWA World Heavyweight Champion also touched on the relationship between the two companies and whether there’s a future partnership down the line after the Thunder Rosa/Hikaru Shida rivalry:
"All I know, at this point in time and this is the truth and you're right, if there was more to it, I probably wouldn't be able to say but I genuinely don't know, but it was just a situation where they approached Billy [Corgan] and expressed their interest in wanting to book this sort of prize-fight match," Aldis explained. "I don't know. I probably should know, but I wasn't sure if there was any history prior to AEW and the NWA between Rosa and Hikaru Shida. I know that Rosa has wrestled in Japan a lot.
"So I don't know it was just one of those things where it was presented, and it was a no-brainer. We said, 'that sounds like a good idea.' Ultimately, we were very confident in the reaction. We were very confident that that the fans would bite and feel like this was special because Rosa is special, and the NWA is special.