Nick Aldis doubles down on NWA criticism after Hard Times (Updated)

While announcing his plan to exit the National Wrestling Alliance when his contract expires in January, Nick Aldis was critical of the direction owner Billy Corgan was taking the company.

After the NWA ended their Hard Times 3 PPV on Saturday by putting the Worlds title on Tyrus (real name George Murdoch), a Fox News regular who was accused of sexual harassment by a co-worker there (a claim he denies and that Fox says they investigated, which eventually led to a settlement with Murdoch’s accuser), and who’s hottest run in pro wrestling was in the WWE midcard as part of a fun-loving, funk dance trio? That probably wasn’t going to change.

It didn’t. Aldis took to his subscriber-only Instagram feed again to share his thoughts:

“I hope now you see why it was important to me to let you know that I had given my notice to the NWA BEFORE this ppv. What was once a promising endeavour that I turned down bigger opportunities to take the lead on, has become the most toxic brand in pro wrestling.

Thank you all for the support.”

It seems pretty clear at this point that, even in the never say never wrestling business, Aldis will not be back with the NWA. What’s next for him, and Corgan & his new champion?

We shall see.

UPDATE: Aldis has issued a statement to Wrestling Inc explaining what he meant when he called the NWA a toxic brand.

“I’m not trying to get into the political stuff. That’s not interesting to me. Politics in this country is very, very split. Very divided. And I’m a centrist. However, I feel like as a brand, you should do your best to be apolitical as well. ... And that’s not really the meat of the matter. It’s more about the audience [having] been telling them one thing for a long time, and Billy specifically has been disregarding them and doing the complete opposite, almost out of spite.

“At some point, it feels like he’s sort of deliberately going against one the fans are asking for, and it just feels like a very spiteful approach. And I just don’t think that it’s got anything to do with business. I think it’s just to do with ego.”