All Elite Wrestling's roster could have had an NWA, TNA and GFW World Champion.
NWA Worlds Champion Nick Aldis had a high profile title match against All Elite Wrestling EVP Cody Rhodes last year. As it turns out, we could have seen a lot more, because Aldis claims that he was made an AEW offer, but wasn't willing to walk away from his National Wrestling Alliance job. When speaking to Daily DDT, Aldis broke down the talks.
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?”
Because that really would be a change for one guy to work there but also come here. I’m still on very good terms with Cody and the Bucks and I had a very nice conversation with Tony [Khan] and everyone was aware of it. Billy and Dave were aware of it.
At the time, my stance was if I can do both, then I’ll do it and I think that as it shakes out and everyone starts to realize the demand that will be on them with cable TV and stuff like that, those possibilities will be way more apparent in the next coming year for some guys.
Aldis wouldn't close the door on possibly working with or for AEW, and it's worth noting that the partnership between NWA and Ring of Honor dissolved shortly after the interview was published.
You can see Aldis' full interview with Daily DDT at this link.
