Billy Corgan believes Nick Aldis is using his departure from the NWA to work an angle for himself.
During Tuesday’s episode of Busted Open Radio, Billy Corgan detailed his issues with Nick Aldis and why the NWA suspended him after announcing he intended to become a free agent in January. Billy said Aldis informed him about his intentions to leave NWA about a week ago, but now questioned why Aldis chose to bury the company on the way out.
“Why does he have to bury the locker room, why does he have to bury the product? And again, I have heard all this stuff privately for years. These are not new criticisms. He and I have battled about the product for years and he has helped make the product behind the scenes better with those battles, so this is not a sensitive, reactionary thing. But 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, allow him to blast the company?”
Corgan clarified that Aldis is still under contract and still being paid, but the suspension just took him off of NWA events.
“I can’t have a guy like that show up, because what message does it send to the locker room? There’s a lot of people in the locker room that are not happy about this.”
Bully Ray asked what specifically about Aldis’ remarks upset him, and Corgan said that it was the fact that Aldis went public with his gripes in the first place.
“Nothing, I just think that it’s talking about these things in public. I don’t understand what the point is. Why is he working an angle when he’s leaving? Why is he using the NWA’s good name, or my good name, to get himself over in a way that’s not necessary? If he’s everything he thinks he is, go into the free market like any free agent and test your mettle. He’s working — and I’m using the industry term here — 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 go do something early because someone’s given him an iggy and said, ‘Hey, if you can get out early…’ This is not cool, he’s under contract, he’s a paid talent. He didn’t come to us and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to get out for ‘x,y,z…’’ I’ve been in those situations, I can deal with those things. I used to tell Nick in the early days of the NWA that if Vince [McMahon] calls you tomorrow, I’ll release you from your contract. So why is a guy like that, me, who’s willing to let a guy go chase bigger opportunities, why does this guy [Aldis] got to burn down the company 50-something days out when he can just leave in 50 days? It’s not what he said. I’ve heard it all. Criticisms of the company are valid, it’s OK. But why does a key talent who is supposed to be a locker room leader doing this on the way out, basically setting the pay-per-view into a weird cloud, and then after we said publicly he’s not going to be on the pay-per-view, then he tweets — what are we, on the schoolyard? He tweets, ‘hey sorry fans, I won’t be there. I was prepared to perform. Don’t watch the product, it’s terrible, but I won’t be there.’ C’mon. That’s not a clear message. That’s somebody working something that I can’t see.”
Corgan stressed that Aldis could have left and voiced his issues after he was gone, and it would’ve been valid. Right now, he’s still working for NWA and putting them on blast, creating a scenario where now talent might follow his lead and put them on blast every time they want to leave too.
Corgan says Nick Aldis emailed Pat Kenney, NWA Director of Talent Relations, and informed him of his plans to leave. Kenney relayed the message to Corgan, who said these things happen and he was OK with Aldis leaving. He added that he didn’t think things would have been better if they did a direct call, but Aldis gave his legal notice and did things the right way.
Now, Corgan says Nick Aldis went “scorched Earth” and doesn’t see a way to repair the relationship. Corgan said he’d been on Busted Open a few months ago and blasted Aldis, but they were working an angle that both signed off on. Corgan says he’d prefer to have fans remember Aldis in NWA with his hand raised, but now he’s ripping the company. Corgan says Aldis went into business for himself and now the NWA has to defend themselves from unnecessary criticism.
Later in the show, Corgan was asked about the response to Empowerrr and why there hasn’t been a second event yet. Corgan said that if there were issues with Mickie and Nick, they weren’t brought to his attention recently.
“I’ve known Mickie James as I’ve said before for 20 years. I’ve only been in the wrestling business with Mickie for a few years. Because I think of Mickie as a friend first, I’m thinking if Mickie’s got a problem with me, Mickie should pick up the phone and go ‘I didn’t like the way this went down.’ By the way, the issues with Mickie never came up from Nick in the last six months. So if it’s this huge issue… it never came up. Never came up, not once. And I will remind you, if it was an issue, from when the issue would have started, which was around NWA 74 or before when we were booking it out, Nick Aldis has worked for the company another 10, 15 times and been paid, so all of the sudden it’s this ‘Oh my God’ [moment]
“No, people are throwing logs on the fire to create some smoke to divert from the fact that they’re on about something. I’m not saying you’re going to turn on your television [and see them together in a rival promotion], but it seems pretty obvious to me they’re after something. She doesn’t work for me, but she does. They want to get out early for some reason. Just say you want to get out! No, it’s this weird thing of ‘I’ve got to be babyface and bury the company.’ It’s bad conspiracy stuff, and now I’m in the position of defending something that doesn’t need to be defended. There’s nothing to defend!”
Corgan closed by saying he has had people try to bury him throughout his whole career and is upset that this is the road Nick chose to take. He doesn’t understand why Nick is burying the company he helped build on the way out, and Nick picked this fight.
Billy believes Nick Aldis is only hurting his own stock for the future, and he will regret it later. Billy said he hopes that none of this reflects on Mickie James and he wants to hopefully resolve his issues with her because he would never disrespect her as a woman or talent.
Read More: Billy Corgan Believes More Transparency With Contract Negotiations Is Better For Business
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