Trevor Murdoch was did an audio interview with Sean Radican from PWTorch. He was on to promote Hard Times 3 and he also commented on the situation between Nick Aldis and Billy Corgan.
Murdoch said, “Mine and Nick’s relationship hasn’t fallen apart, and I have all the respect in the world for Nick, as a pro wrestler. I also have respect for him for being one of the guys to help speak up for me to bring me into the NWA. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be in the position I am today. So I have a ton of gratitude for Nick in that aspect. I think where the heat is with Billy with Nick, is the fact that Nick wasn’t happy with — I’m only repeating what he said. He wasn’t happy with the company. He wasn’t happy with the relationship between what was going on between him and Billy.
My only issue was, I didn’t agree with Nick dragging the company and dragging the guys in it. When you start making comments, like the show’s too embarrassing for me to be a part of. First off, I think that’s a little bullsh*t. Secondly, you’re disrespecting all the men and women that you know, Nick’s not the only part of the show. And since we’ve started Powerrr, it hasn’t been Powerrr about Nick. It’s been NWA Powerrr. So there’s been a lot of talented wrestlers that have come through there that’s helped make NWA successful. And I just don’t think bringing all those men and women into the middle of your argument or your public squabble. I just don’t think that was the right thing to do. If Nick and Billy want to air out personal grievances, I also think that both sides of the story need to be told. It’s easy for someone to be in a position that’s leaving to just say what they feel they need to say to get the, I guess maybe, the public opinion to be swayed their way. There’s two sides to every story. It’s very easy for everybody to jump on the negative end and say that’s how it was because it’s a lot juicier. You know what I mean? It’s a lot more exciting. But there’s only half stories being told on some of this. And I think, the NWA and Billy have taken a stand on being a little bit more professional, and not interested in airing those grievances publicly.”
Murdoch continued, “There’s a way to go about doing it, in my opinion, and this is just my opinion, and I’m sure I’ll get heat. I’m sure I’ll piss some people off. But if you’re on your way out, and you have issues with the company, how big are those issues really if you bring them up publicly, not personally to the person you have the issue with. If I’m angry and upset with somebody, and I’m really angry and upset with them, I go to that individual first and air my grievances and at the very least tell them how I feel. I don’t go public about it first, and then expect to have a conversation or expect some sort of civil conversation after that.”
Murdoch was asked if the issues between Corgan and Aldis were accelerated by Aldis putting out a public statement about his resignation from the NWA. Murdoch said, “You also got to understand Billy’s position too. Okay, why is Billy any different than WWE in this aspect of the business? And why is it any different than AEW? If you have a talent that is on their way out and they know they’re leaving, and they decide to just publicly bury the company and the boss, would you be okay with having that guy on your next show and pretending as if none of that sh*t happened? Not to mention Billy has not only focused on this [but] he has a whole locker room. What does that say to the locker room when that kind of stuff happens? It’s it’s no different than any other job. We’ve all had regular jobs. If I go run my mouth, and my boss finds out that I’ve been publicly burying him in the company I worked for, I don’t intend to be employed much longer. I mean, where else in the f**king world does that sh*t work?”
“And, again, it’s no different than any other job you work for. Let’s be real. You publicly talk sh*t about your boss and the company you work for? I can’t honestly think you’re gonna continue to be employed. I mean, it’s just like everybody wants to blow this up like Billy is an a**hole. But it’s literally just basic business 401, you know. You work for a company, you do what’s asked of you. You know, if you have issues with the boss, you go to the boss about it. If you step outside of those boundaries, you’re most likely gonna get fired.”
Murdoch was asked about his relationship with Corgan: “Actually, you know, it seems like every show him and I get a little bit more and more on the same level. Billy gained a lot of respect for me from when I first started in the company. And what I mean by that is when I realized that they wanted to keep me on and have me on as a full-time talent, and put me under a deal, I sat down and had the conversation with them that I’ve had with every promoter that I’ve done a major business deal with. And that was, what do you want from me? What position? What role do you want me to fill? And how can I best benefit the company? And his answer was, ‘Trevor, I just want you. I want Trevor Murdoch, the wrestler.’ And I was a bit confused at first because every promoter I’ve worked for, they put me in these parameters. And they said, ‘well, Trevor, we’ll have you come in. And we want you to do this with this person. Because, you know, this is going this way. And don’t do this. Don’t do that. Try to get this over.’ You know what I mean? Like, they lay it out for me. And, you know, after a while, you become almost like a robot. You know what I mean? You have to have that direction…With Billy and NWA, there were no parameters. There were no, ‘don’t do this.’ There was no ‘don’t do that.’ It was ‘go out there and do what you’re hired to do. And that’s wrestle.’ And once I realized I was able be free and not get in trouble for trying different things, or doing things that I knew would work but in other companies, they would frown upon it. You know what I mean? Because it’s too wrestling. So for me, once I realized, like, he opened up the floodgates for me, I was like, okay, he respects me, not only as a man and a person, but as professional. And, I mean, that’s all I’ve been looking for my whole career. It’s all I’ve been wanting is somebody to go, ‘I believe in you and I trust you [and] go do you?’ And now that I’ve got it, look what I’ve been able to do with it. You know what I mean? Could you imagine if this would have been 20 years ago and Vince would be like, ‘just go out there and do you Trevor.’ We might be having a whole different conversation about business, right?… Once Billy gave me that opening and then he started to trust me, you know what I mean? He gave me the opportunity. But it took me to build that trust. And then once he realized that things that I was doing were getting the reaction he was wanting, he started trusting me more. And it’s again, given me more freedom and given me opportunities to express my opinions about angles and what I’m doing and the company. And he’s made me feel like I’m not only a wrestler, but I am a part of this company, I’m a part of this family, this atmosphere, this idea of, we’re going to bring Smash Mouth pro wrestling, back to pro wrestling. We’re going to that’s where we’re going to carve out our niche. That’s our piece of the pie is a Smash Mouth storytelling pro wrestling.”
Murdoch was asked if Corgan could have found a better way to explain to fans why there are no plans for a second EmPowerr and then say that it will happen when the time is right: “Okay, first off, number one, look at the first EmPowerrr. We had a quarter of our girls on that show, you know what I mean? We had girls from all over the globe, we had girls from other companies. We had different working relationships with other companies when we did that first EmPowerrr. Number two, if you look back at that first EmPowerrr, many talents we had on that card just for that show. There were a lot of wrestlers on that show. So a lot of people don’t understand someone’s got to pay that bill. Like someone’s got to pay those girls, and as much as Tony [Khan] wanted to chime in and say he paid for Leila [Grey], which was great. But Billy covered the rest of that sh*t. And that was a huge, it’s a huge bill…when we came down to do the second EmPowerrr, there isn’t a book out there that just has every great female pro wrestler out there that we can just look at it and go, Oh, we get this person, we get this person, we get that person. Now granted, I know that there’s a ton of fans out there, that can give me a list of 10 or 20 people that they know in their area that could fit on that show. But also in the same sense, like I understand you’re fans of those women, but maybe they haven’t done what they needed to do to stand out to get the attention that they need to. There are so many factors in there on to what was said in that statement. It’s easy. I go back to what I said earlier in this interview, like it’s easy for people to just jump on the negative and just say hey, you guys are a**holes. You know, there’s a whole lot of factors that were going into that decision and a whole lot of factors that went into EmPowerrr to make it successful. Also, some of the people that are publicly making comments that, you know, ‘oh, we should have did it,’ or that they’re upset that that was part of their decision. Privately, they were burying the whole thing. You know what I mean? That’s what makes me shake my head. Publicly, people want to say one thing, but privately, they were saying the complete opposite. I’m not gonna sit here and air someone’s dirty laundry out, but I just, I know better. I heard from the horse’s mouth. So it’s one of those things like, there’s way more factors going into it. Not to mention, like, some of those girls that we booked for the last EmPowerr. the dates didn’t match up. You know what I mean? They were already booked in other places, or they were already with another company, where they’re not allowed to wrestle anywhere else. But you know, Why think of all that sh*t, why put all that into consideration? It’s just easy to look at a rich guy, a rich musician, and bury him for one single f**king comment and not put any thought on it.”
Click here for Murdoch’s comments on NWA EmPowerrr. You can listen to the entire interview at PWTorch.com.
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