NWA Worlds Champion Nick Aldis spoke with Kevin Kellam in advance of the NWA Crockett Cup event. Aldis talked about how the NWA Championship has garnered a rejuvenated interest into professional wrestling thanks greatly in part to staying true to the promotion and title’s historical roots, as well as his chemistry with Cody Rhodes.
On how expectations can be heavy carrying around the NWA’s “Ten Pounds of Gold”:
“It’s an exciting place to be honestly. We’ve proven that who we work end up coming out the other end better and you know Ring of Honor is an example of that and All In obviously. You look at a line-up for All In and if you’d have told those people, ‘Hey there’s going to be this mega show, it’s gonna sell out in 30 minutes, it’s gonna be 11,000 people in this arena in Chicago’…but the match that’s gonna leave everybody talking and that’s gonna hold up historically and stand up the test of time is gonna be Nick Aldis and Cody Rhodes. People would have been like, ‘What?’ But that’s what happened.
A great deal of that is because of the prestige and the lineage and the legacy of the NWA Worlds Championship and what we’ve been able to do to sort of restore that and remind people of it. The great thing about the ever evolving landscape is that the more things change, the more people want to latch onto something that has the legacy and has a history and nothing has a deeper history than the NWA Worlds Championship. For one reason in particular—more than anything—is we’re still using the same belt. You can’t do that with the WWE title cause they’ve change it so many times. And that’s not a knock on them, that’s just something that we’ve stumbled on that happens to be something that people really like cause they’re like, “Don’t ever change that belt.’ You know, it’s like the Stanley Cup, you just can’t change it. That’s the championship. I’m telling you, I’ve never experienced it. I was a TNA World Champion, I’ve held other championships that have a lot of merit and I’ve never held a championship where fans, and even some cases wrestlers, have come up to me and been like, ‘Man, let me see that.’”
Read More: NWA’s ‘Cup Runneth Over’ In Latest ‘Ten Pounds Of Gold’
On working with Cody Rhodes:
“It’s probably why Cody and I had such good chemistry or have such good chemistry, because it felt like I knew him already and we had so many moments like that where I would think of something and then next thing I know they would tell me, ‘Cody wants to know if you’re interested in doing this,’ and I’d be like, ‘That’s so funny cause I was about to suggest it.’ And in many ways, Marty and I have the same thing because we’re all on the same wavelength.”
Read More: Nick Aldis On Facing Marty Scurll At Crockett Cup: ‘He’s The Natural Best Option For A Title Match’
