Nick Aldis Clarifies Comments About NWA As A 'Toxic Brand' - Exclusive

Former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis has been a hot topic of conversation over the last week following his announcement that he would be leaving the NWA. The promotion, and owner Billy Corgan, responded to this announcement by suspending Aldis and removing him from upcoming NWA shows, which Aldis had intended to fulfill before his departure. Following the company's recent Hard Times pay-per-view over the weekend, Aldis took to social media to decry the company as a "toxic brand," and in an exclusive interview with Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman, Aldis elaborated on his comments.

"I'm not trying to get into the political stuff," Aldis said. "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."

Aldis continued, detailing how he disagrees with Corgan's operation of the NWA. "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."

Fox News contributor and former WWE performer Tyrus won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on Saturday night, defeating Trevor Murdoch and Matt Cardona. Corgan himself recently suggested that the situation between the NWA and Aldis might be some kind of a work, though it should be clear by now that this isn't the case.