NWA Champ Nick Aldis recently appeared on the Arm Drag Takedown with Pollo Del Mar to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Aldis discussed big spots being used too much in wrestling today, reusing an older style of promotion in professional wrestling (similar to what the UFC is doing today) to get fans interested, and more. Here are the highlights:
Big spots being used too much in wrestling today:
“[Wrestling] got hoodwinked into thinking the most important thing in our business was the match in the ring. I got into this to tell stories and to get people invested into characters and emotion. I wanted to be an entertainer! I wanted to be able to indulge in all the things pro wrestling provides which ‘real sports’ don’t.”
Reusing an older promotion model in pro wrestling (similar to what the UFC does today) to get fans interested:
“Essentially, if you changed the final outcome of the UFC builds with an NWA World Championship match from the 1980s, the whole lot of it leading up to that is very much the same. The reality was, if you wanted to see these two guys go at it, without interference or in the full match, you either had to buy a ticket or you had to tune into this pay-per-view or this special. That’s essentially what UFC’s model is. They put out [UFC Embedded], they put out smaller cards on free TV, but everything else they put out is press conferences, interviews, profile pieces, all of which is leading to the fight. The fight is the attraction.”
Taking the “unknown champion” (then-NWA Champion, Tim Storm) from a less popular promotion and turning it into an angle:
“Dave [Lagana] and Billy [Corgan], as the Managing Editor and Executive Producer, took that story and instead of [pretending] certain elements [that] some people might look at as ‘negative’ didn’t exist, they, in fact, embraced that and made it a compelling part of the story. In fact, that’s the part people have been most interested in. … You can find the elements of people’s real lives and make them into a compelling story, if you know how to do it right.”
Listen to Aldis’ interview on The Arm Dram Takedown by clicking this link here.
You can check out the full highlights from Aldis’ appearance on the Arm Drag Takedown podcast via The Huffington Post here.
