Pro Wrestling News: NWA World Champion Nick Aldis refused to sign with AEW 

What's the story?

In an interview with the Daily DDT, Nick Aldis revealed that he turned down an offer to sign with AEW. He did so because he felt obligated to the NWA as he has spent 2 years building up the brand and couldn't see himself walking away from the company. He also said that his counter-offer was also rejected by AEW.

In case you didn't know...

Nick Aldis is the reigning NWA world champion. With him as a touring world champion, the NWA has returned to their roots. Nick Aldis had a nice, well-drawn out feud with Cody Rhodes at All In when he lost the NWA world title. He regained it at the NWA 70th Anniversary show a couple of weeks later.

The heart of the matter

Nick Aldis explained that he didn't sign with AEW because he was committed to NWA and felt obligated to stay after building the brand for two years. He also said that he made a counter-offer to AEW to appear with both promotions but they were not interested. He explained,

I'll tell you the truth: I was made an offer by AEW. 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?

Nick Aldis maintains that he has a good relationship with Cody and the rest of the AEW crew. He also insisted that if they can come around to what he wants, there's nothing stopping from working together in the future.

What's next?

Nick Aldis's counter-proposal was actually fairly reasonable. With AEW's upcoming TV show premiering in October, it would be interesting if Nick Aldis made an appearance on AEW's TNT debut.