When he was a free agent, Nic Nemeth never came particularly close to joining AEW.
The former Dolph Ziggler was released from his WWE contract in September 2023 and is now a star for TNA Wrestling, where he’s had a World Championship and Tag Team title reign during his run. He also spent some time in Japan for NJPW after his WWE release but never made an AEW appearance.
Nemeth explained on a new episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet that, while he thinks AEW is great for the wrestling industry, he doesn’t know if it’s the right fit for him from an in-ring perspective.
“I wasn’t,” Nemeth responded when asked how close he was to signing with AEW after his WWE departure. “I love so many people there. I’ve had a couple conversations with Tony [Khan] in the past, and I root for those guys.
“Every step of the way, AEW being a thing helped a bunch of people out — worst case scenario — with negotiating and setting up their career for years down the line. And I go, if this ends in two or three years, it helped a bunch of people out and put some other people on TV. And they’re rocking and rolling and doing their thing. I watched every Wednesday because I have to talk about it on Thursday [on SiriusXM].
“I’ve come to learn all the people on the show and watch what they do. And I go, I don’t know if I could do all the stuff that everyone does. And their top circle of — the whole show, really — it has so many different moving parts and pieces to it that I don’t know that I could, from my old style, I can adapt to anything and I have been… But I don’t know that if in a 35, 45-minute match, if it wasn’t with me and [Bryan Danielson or Jon Moxley], like those guys [where] I know what they’ve done and I could move around and do some things. But if it’s remembering a sequence, like I’m getting 30 guys in contra every two minutes, I would be like — I would be more vacant in the match instead of feeling the emotion and just remembering it. And I go, I don’t know how they do it, but when it comes to those pay-per-views, they blow the roof off. And it’s incredible.â€
Nemeth knows he’ll never be Kurt Angle, but his goal in joining TNA was to help provide a spark like when Angle signed with TNA in 2006, even if his presence only makes the company one percent better. Nemeth has fallen in love with the TNA locker room and knows that it’s the right fit for him. But when he was first released by WWE, his original intention was to not sign a contract anywhere.
“I wasn’t going to go anywhere. I didn’t want to,” he said. “A couple of dates for somebody and a couple of dates at AEW? 100 percent, I would have done that. But I just go, I need to travel the world and be able to sleep at night knowing that I can go, because I talked this sh*t for 15 years. ‘No one’s better than me. No one can follow me. Sorry about the booking, but that’s not my call.’ And now, it’s like back it up or don’t. And I had to. I would have gone almost anywhere for a few dates just to check it out, but TNA was the fit.â€
Nemeth signed a contract extension with TNA in early 2025. He loves what he’s doing in the promotion and loves being able to team with his brother Ryan.
At the moment, Nemeth does not have a match for Bound for Glory announced, but he would figure to be an entrant in the Call Your Shot gauntlet at the pay-per-view. It’s taking place at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts this Sunday (October 12).
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