Nick Aldis Takes Shot Again At Bruce Prichard For Declining WWE Ratings
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis took to Twitter to address Executive Director of SmackDown and RAW Bruce Prichard's comments on Aldis saying that he doesn't have the "It Factor". Aldis said he would talk more about Prichard's comments on Busted Open, and Aldis did just that.
"Well, you've seen some of my reactions. Bubba knows that 10 years ago, I might have reacted slightly differently," Aldis admitted. "I may have been slightly more reactant in general. This time I took a moment to process it. Bruce and I even spoke on the phone.
"Bruce claimed, 'Oh I was talking about the Magnus character. I wasn't talking about Nick Aldis.' OK, well, his team uploaded a video that was a separate clip, and they had a picture of me with the NWA Title. The same title that Harley Race, Ric Flair [and] Dusty Rhodes held. The same lineage I busted my ass to rebuild and put into the Modern Era, and they used my name. So, he's full of sh-t is the reality."
Aldis worked for TNA from 2008-15 before returning to the company for a year in 2017. Aldis talked about the opinions that other WWE Hall of Famers and wrestling legends have on him while also taking a shot at Prichard's TNA runs in 2010-2013 and 2017.
"Honestly, what he did was just expose the fact that he hasn't been paying attention to anything that's been going on," Aldis stated. "Because like you said, anyone who has seen my sh-t the last three years, the one consistent thing that comes up from everybody, from Mark Henry, to Hall of Famers, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, even tippy-top guys in WWE who have text me privately, whose names I won't mention. They all say the same thing, which is 'You have that thing. You send yourself like a real pro wrestler. The kind of wrestling that I miss. The kind of wrestling I thought wasn't here anymore.' And for Bruce to say that, it just showed that he hasn't been paying attention, kind of like when he was running TNA.
"He wasn't paying attention. He was asleep, and the reality is he took a shot and he tried to give some half bait reason to why he decided to say it and whatnot. [He said] he was going to address it. Did not. Let it breathe. So now, he's getting a receipt. He's not getting a fu–ing receipt, he's getting a fu–ing invoice is what he's getting. There's different Hall of Famers who have a different opinion, and he likes to float things out that are subjective and sort of present it as fact."
Aldis again took a shot at RAW's current ratings while also saying that Prichard was responsible for TNA's down ratings. He talked about how the ratings went up after Prichard left and when he became TNA World Champion.
"He lives in this past sort of mentality, where he thinks because he's WWE, he can just say whatever about someone and that's the only thing anyone will hear and that will be the opinion everybody shares," Aldis remarked. "Well, it doesn't work like that anymore. Times have changed. People fact check. People can go present their opposing opinion and you know, I'll follow up with facts if he wants to go there because by the time Bruce was relieved of his duties in TNA in 2013, he brought the viewing figures down to like 1 million people.
"By the time I had the World Title at the end of that year and through the start of 2014, we got the average going figures back up to like 1.3 and peaked at 1.55, which was just short of 1.561, which was the lowest RAW rating in history, which was the rating that came out the same week that he decided to trash me on his podcast. I guess that maybe that extra bit of rating that RAW got must be the 'It Factor' I don't have."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Busted Open with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Mehdy Labriny contributed to this article.