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A former WWE World Heavyweight Champion supported AEW during his time in the company. This came after he admitted to not being proud of the work he was doing then.
The star in question is Nic Nemeth. AEW became WWE's prime competitor after WCW's demise in 2001, following the culmination of the famous 'Monday Night Wars' that became a rage in the mid-1990s.
Current TNA wrestling star Nic Nemeth became popular in WWE as Dolph Ziggler. On the latest edition of Busted Open, he spoke about his perception of Tony Khan's company while he was working for WWE.
Nemeth admitted that he was not proud of the work that he was doing back in WWE. He believed that the wrestling world needed an alternative and saw the Jacksonville-based promotion as one, while also being excited at all the different possibilities that were coming up at the time.
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"I was in WWE when I was doing work that I wasn't really proud of," Nemeth said. "I go, man, there's something not so special happening right now. We need an alternative, and the world wanted one, and they got one, holy crap... I want 10 alternatives where I wanna be able to go. I don't know which one I can watch this week, because I'm so hooked at all these different possibilities." [H/T: WrestlingInc.]
Nic Nemeth believes AEW's emergence led to WWE taking things to greater heights
In the same interview, Nic Nemeth also stated that he got called out for supporting AEW while being a part of WWE and has been having similar discussions for the past year or so. In his perception, the emergence of the company led to WWE upping their game and taking things to the next level.
"But there are so many people like that saying, I was rooting for this, it was an awesome alternative, it really made WWE step up their game. Now every time in the last year or so I get similar discussions, [it's] I'll always love this alternative, it's cool, I'll probably watch it sometimes, but it's just not grabbing me. It's not keeping me long-term, and a really important part is it's not forcing me to go, I have to see this next week." [H/T: WrestlingInc.]
While Nic Nemeth is currently thriving as one of the top TNA stars, it would be interesting to see if he chooses to sign with AEW in the future.
