Hulk Hogan's Advice To Nick Aldis: "The Guy Who Makes The Most Money Is The Best Worker"
In an interview with Spencer Love, NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis talked about being considered both an overrated and underrated talent. Aldis doesn't really put much thought into the subject, mainly because he believes such terms don't apply.
"I just try not to put any stock in that in that sort of term," Aldis said. "It's not a quote – there's no quantifiable metric by rated. Now, I think underappreciated, overappreciated, over pushed, under pushed, I think is usually what people are driving at when they're using that term.
"My whole career, I've seen people be like, 'wow, he's so underrated.' And then 'it's so overrated. 'It's like, okay, so in other words, someone's like 'I'm a big fan,' and someone goes 'I'm not a big fan.' That's okay! But, people just live in this desperate need all the time for their opinion to represent everyone's opinion. That obviously impossible.
Aldis continued. "It just doesn't exist. So, a lot of the time, I think when people use that term, especially overrated as a sort of derisive term, what they really mean is over-pushed. Because, they're kind of like, 'Oh, this guy's all over my TV, or all over the show, and I don't like it.' Okay, I'm sorry you feel that way."
"So, I've always been, and the ironic thing is, the only way you could really quantify the term overrated is if, like, if there is an individual who continually gets ranked highly in those kind of fictitious sort of rankings, or someone's subjective rankings and stuff, but then doesn't draw money. That's happened a lot. Like, that's really the only way that you can quantify overrated, isn't it? If all the critics or the supposed experts are saying this guy is the best wrestler in the world, but then he doesn't draw as much money as someone else, it's kind of like, well, which one is it?"
To further illustrate his point, Aldis brought up something that was once said to him by WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan. According to Aldis, the event, while both Aldis and Hogan were working in TNA, put into perspective what should be considered a "good" worker in wrestling.
"I was doing an appearance with Hulk in Tampa," Aldis recalled. "And someone, I forget what it was, but it was one of those things where it was somebody who was kind of pseudo-involved with like, the radio or TV or something, someone who was kind of overstepping their bounds a little bit as far as using insider lingo and stuff like that, and he was just being a bit obnoxious.
"I was kind of being gracious and like, 'oh, yeah, that's pretty cool,' and this one guy went, 'man, your work is really getting better. You're becoming a really good worker.' I was kind of like 'Oh, thanks.' He walked away, and I turned to Hulk and sort of smiled. I said, 'you hear that?' He goes 'brother, the guy who makes the most money is the best worker.'"
You can watch the full interview below.