NWA owner Billy Corgan isn't backing down from his decision to suspend former two-time NWA World Champion Nick Aldis, giving his rationale in a spirited defense during a Tuesday appearance on Busted Open Radio.
In a video that was deleted from his Instagram Sunday, Aldis revealed he had given his notice to the NWA and was not complimentary of the company or Corgan. He was then suspended on Monday and pulled from this Saturday's Hard Times 3 pay-per-view.
Corgan's main issue is the timing on Aldis vocally criticizing the product when he could do the same thing in less than two months when his deal is up.
"Ask yourself why in a pay-per-view week and with a talent who is leaving the company, does he decide to start blasting me and the product, 55 days before he's out and he can do whatever he wants to do? Why does he have to bury the locker room and bury the product?" Corgan said.
Corgan reiterated that Aldis was the highest-paid talent in his company the last five years and that their business relationship "proved to be a good bet" with Aldis having his voice heard in both how the NWA was run and how he was booked.
He said Aldis is still being paid throughout the end of his deal and that they simply disinvited him from appearing Saturday. Aldis emailed in his notice to head of talent relations Pat Kenney about a week ago and while Corgan wished he could have heard it from Aldis directly given their history, he was fine with the decision to move on.
However, he is not happy with Aldis turning the focus to himself ahead of Saturday's show and apparently, he isn't the only one.
"How do I, as the leader of this company, allow a key talent, the most highly visible talent in the company, up until he opens his mouth and tells people he's leaving, blast the company?," he said. "I can't have a guy like that show up because what message does that send to the locker room? There are a lot of people in the locker room not happy about this. They have to do their job. Why is the focus not on Matt Cardona, Tyrus, Trevor Murdoch, Kamille, KiLynn King, or Chelsea (Green)? The focus is on Nick Aldis, who is not on the show anymore. It's not animosity. It's just 'Why are we doing this?'"
Corgan was confused as to why Aldis was using the NWA and his name to "work an angle" when he's leaving.
"He's working something. I don't know what he's working, but he's willing to sacrifice me and the NWA to prove something or get something going or get out early to go do something...This is not cool," he said.
Corgan said Aldis never came to him to ask for an early release if that is what he wanted and said he told Aldis years ago that if Vince McMahon wanted him to come to WWE, he would release him from his deal.
Corgan also said his decision has nothing to do with Aldis' critiques of the company.
"I want to remind everybody: everything that he's said, I've been hearing that stuff for years. It's not like I heard it and got sensitive," Corgan explained. "Again, I've heard all of this stuff privately for years. These are not new criticisms. He and I have battled about the product for years and he's helped make the product behind the scenes better with those battles. This is not a sensitive reactionary thing."
Corgan admitted that a few months ago when he ripped on Aldis on Busted Open Radio, they were working an angle that was going to build to something between them in 2023.
He said Aldis wasn't happy with how he was booked with Corgan rationalizing that he couldn't just build the company around Aldis or else it would become the Nick Wrestling Alliance.
He also railed against the narrative that he is against women's wrestling, defending his comments that there isn't enough top talent available to do a better show than the first Empower event they did. He said they are not in a working agreement with AEW right now and part of the reason is because Tony Khan tried to take credit for Mickie James' accomplishments in putting Empower together.
He said he told James they would table the discussion for a second Empower for now and has been friends with her for 20 years. He said any related issues didn't come up until this Aldis situation happened.
"It seems pretty obvious they are after something. She doesn't work for me. He does. They want to get out early for some reason. Just say you want to get out," he said.
The NWA owner is convinced Aldis has a specific goal for going "scorched earth" on the company.
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