Nick Aldis is a big fan of Rusev and would love to have him be a part of the NWA.
During an interview Post Wrestling's Andrew Thompson, Aldis spoke about how much of a Rusev fan he is, calling him someone that was taylor-made to be a top WWE star. Rusev's time with WWE, however, came to an end in April when he was a part of the company's long list of releases as part of cost-cutting measures to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
“Absolutely. I mean look, you won’t find a bigger Rusev fan than me. I remember pretty much from the beginning, I would be like, ‘God, Rusev is money.’ I would text him [David Lagana] all the time, ‘God, Rusev is money,’ and he’d be like, ‘I know,’ and I remember when he first showed up on TV and they were doing kind of the Ivan Drago kind of stuff with him and Lana was very much playing that role. I was like, ‘This is money. This is perfect,’ and he worked with [John] Cena at WrestleMania so I go, ‘Okay great. They’re getting this one right. This one’s ready-made. This is a star,’ and for… whatever. It wasn’t him. It wasn’t his fault, and I think he’s a great example of, unfortunately, it’s over-engineered sometimes. There’s 50 people that are all paid to have ideas. It’s like now you have 50 ideas to sift through," Aldis said.
With Rusev now technically be able to test the open wrestling market soon, Aldis said he believes it would big if the NWA could get Rusev, even if it isn't for a long time. Aldis says he would try and get Rusev if he was AEW, believing that he won't be a free agent for too long.
"Sometimes the obvious thing is right in front of you. I felt like with Rusev it was there. Like okay, this guy, totally unique look, he’s a horse, unbelievable athlete, he can work, charisma, whole thing is ready to go. I dare say that he would be… if I were AEW and I had the resources to pay for it, I think he would probably be [at the] top of my list. I think he would probably end back up at WWE, but I’m not sure how confident I’ll be that he’ll be on the open market for very long, but hell yeah. If we could get him at the NWA, even for a short period run, it would be huge,” Aldis said.
The full interview can be read at this link and seen in the video at the top of the page.
