Ahead of NWA Hard Times 3, Nick Aldis has picked up some hardware. The National Treasure became the Stu Hart Heritage Championship this past weekend at Dungeon Wrestling’s WrestleWeen 2, defeating Harry Smith for the title. This is Aldis’s first championship since losing the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title last year to Trevor Murdoch at NWA 73, which wrapped a historic 1,043 day reign.
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Speaking with ComicBook.com’s Liam Crowley, Aldis revealed that Bret Hart himself was the one who presented him with the opportunity to compete for the Stu Hart Heritage Championship.
“Some of the other old timers who were aware of me and had been around me and stuff, they kind of talked to Bret and said, ‘Hey, this kid’s good. You ought to watch him. He’s a great wrestler.’ It was very kind of them to do that,” Aldis said. “Then Bret was the one who actually said to me, ‘Hey, we’ve got this Dungeon Wrestling that my son books and promotes. I think it would be a hell of a match to have you and Harry. Would you be interested in coming to Calgary and doing that?’ I said, ‘Yeah, of course. It would be a great opportunity.’
“This is right up there with the coolest things I’ve been involved with,” Aldis continued. “I am a diehard Bret Hart fan. Along with The Rock and Triple H, these are probably the guys who made me want to get into the business more than anybody else. Once I got into the business, Bret was someone who I particularly studied, particularly when I was NWA champion. Bret, I thought, was always really good at being a champion wrestler. There’s a difference between being an attraction, or being a babyface or a heel, or being a top wrestler. There’s a certain skill set involved with being a champion wrestler.”
Beyond the championship itself, Aldis pointed to the venue and the opponent as factors that increase the match’s specialty.
“To wrestle in Calgary at the Victoria Pavilion, the iconic stampede wrestling venue, against the son of Davey Boy Smith, who himself is a world class wrestler and has absolutely reinvented himself, and has made himself into the best version of himself he’s ever been in Harry Smith… The guy’s an absolute unit. He’s got all kinds of skills,” Aldis said. “He’s been doing all kinds of grappling and catch wrestling and jujitsu and God knows what else. He eats, sleeps and breathes it. He has a tremendous passion for the business like I do.”
Aldis faces Odinson at NWA Hard Times 3 on Saturday, November 12th.
