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During the 2019-2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, the world of professional wrestling has certainly been shaken up. AEW Revolution and WWE Elimination Chamber were the last major shows to take place in front of a live, paying audience, and major shows such as Slammiversary for Impact Wrestling, Wrestlemania 36, and AEW’s Double or Nothing have taken place in empty buildings and amphitheaters. Although WWE’s ratings have declined and a lot of fans of Impact, WWE, and AEW don’t enjoy watching the shows without an audience, no company has suffered greater during the pandemic than the National Wrestling Alliance. Their biggest show since Billy Corgan’s purchase of the promotion, the 2020 Crockett Cup, was forced to be postponed due to the pandemic. The company hasn’t produced any new in-ring content since March. While other companies like Ring of Honor and Major League Wrestling have suffered the same fate, the NWA has taken the biggest blow for one reason: Nick Aldis. Nick Aldis was a standout performer in TNA about a decade ago, but bad wages, silly creative, and a toxic work environment sent him out of the organization, despite winning their World Championship at a young age. TNA was never able to crack the surface on Aldis’ potential. Then known as Magnus, he had matches and programs with wrestling legends like Kurt Angle and Sting, and was given an opportunity at the top of the card. It wasn’t until 2017, though, when he was introduced to William Patrick Corgan and ran into the NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion, Tim Storm, where Aldis cemented himself as one of the very best in the business in a plethora of categories.
If you are a mark for pro wrestling like I am, do yourself a favor and spend an afternoon watching the Ten Pounds of Gold series on YouTube. Watch Aldis win and defend the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship against the likes of Cody, Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana, Jake Hager, and Tim Storm. And, if you haven’t yet, you need to watch NWA Powerrr. Powerrr really serves as the “coming out party” for Nick Aldis, where he is reintroduced to a mainstream audience as a bonafide star. His work on Powerrr, from October-March was truly something spectacular. During that time he wrestled Tim Storm, Ricky Morton, Ricky Starks, James Storm, Trevor Murdoch, and Flip Gordon, tagged up with Scott Steiner in a surprise appearance, formed Strictly Business with Kamille, Thom Latimer, and Royce Issacs, and consistently was the best dressed and best on the microphone week in and week out, compared not only with the NWA, but the entire wrestling world.
Watching Nick Aldis is like stepping into a time machine. Aldis carries himself like a million bucks every single time he steps through the curtain. He is always wearing a custom tailored, absolutely stunning suit, and he brings it on the microphone. Both as a babyface and a heel, he brings fire, passion, and reality to the podium. He engages with Joe Galli, Dave Marquez, and Sean Mooney with incredible chemistry, and is never afraid to remind the live audience who the champion is and who the “grown ups” are. Whether it be Kamille not speaking, forcing Tim Storm to keep his name out of his mouth, going back and forth with “Big Money” Marty Scurll, acting despicable towards both Ricky Starks and Ricky Morton, or just putting himself over as the greatest NWA Champion of the modern era and the “Real World’s Champion”, Aldis is one of, if not the best on the microphone not only in the game today, but in the history of professional wrestling.
The fact of the matter is that Nick Aldis is class personified. He knows how to cut a promo and carry an audience, he knows how to put himself over, his promotion over, and the people around him over, and he always looks sharp and pristine, wearing a gorgeous suit and holding the classic Ten Pounds of Gold. And, on the debut episode of NWA Powerrr, Nick Aldis gave an “all time” interview, comparable with the work at the podium from Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes some 40 years ago. You see, you talk about your Rock’s and your Flair’s, your Jericho’s and your Race’s, your Austin’s and your Heyman’s. You talk about Hard Times and Pipe Bombs. But for some reason, nobody talks about the Powerrr Promo, and nobody talks about Nick Aldis. And I’ve got news for you, he belongs at the start of that conversation, not as an afterthought. The fire he brings to the table, discussing how wrestling is his entire life, implying that he is the reason for the relaunch of the NWA, putting over the entire roster, and establishing Tim Storm, a relative unknown to the general public, as a worthy opponent and a seasoned, respectable veteran, prove the genius he has in the promo department. The promo takes up about half of the video below, and if you’ve never seen it, or even if you have, watch it again. Because I promise you, it’s absolutely amazing.
Aldis’ combination of class and mastery of the microphone, he is truly wrestling’s best World Champion in 2020. I don’t mean to disrespect EVIL, Tetsuya Naito, Kazuchika Okada, Brock Lesnar, Drew McIntrye, Braun Strowman, The Fiend, Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Adam Cole, Keith Lee, PCO, Rush, or anybody else who has held a major wrestling championship since the launch of NWA Powerrr. Obviously, Okada is one of the best of all time, as is Jericho, and Lesnar is a so-called legitimate big money draw. But, in this writer’s opinion, none of these names bring to the table the same meaning or prestige that Nick Aldis does. Not even mentioning his match quality, Aldis looks like a champion and is nearly unmatched in telling stories both in the ring and on the microphone. If the year was 1985, or if he was on the top of WWE, AEW, or NJPW, Aldis would be considered by the mainstream to be the best in the business. It’s hard to compare him to names like Okada, Jericho, and Lesnar due to their platform being significantly bigger, but his natural talent puts him on their level in my opinion. If he had their spot, he would be in the same ballpark, if not better than, most of the names that I mentioned above. Here’s hoping that he finds his way into AEW a la Ricky Starks and Eddie Kingston, and here’s hoping that when the NWA returns, it returns as hot and exciting as it was before the pandemic, with the National Treasure and the Real World’s Champion running the show.
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