On February 24th, 2021, the wrestling world was devastated by the sudden passing of Joseph Hudson, known to wrestling fans as Josephus and The Question Mark.

Not only was The Question Mark beloved by fans, of the National Wrestling Alliance, but an integral part of pretty well every aspect of the organization.

World’s Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis was kind enough to give me his thoughts on Mr. Hudson and his meaning to the National Wrestling Alliance when we recently spoke for Love Wrestling.

“Joseph Hudson, as a human being was a really, you know, he was a special guy,” Aldis began. “Very unique, very eccentric, lovably odd guy. He lived very close to me. We’re both in the Nashville area. He’s been to the house. The last time I saw him before he passed away, we were hanging out in my kitchen, just sort of chatting it up about whatever.”

“He wore a lot of hats here,” continued the Real World’s Champion. “[Joseph] played a big part in getting us where we were, and he was one of those guys that – he would have always had a place here. He would have been – with Billy and their relationship, they had a long-established relationship long before I was in the picture. He’s one of those guys like I said, that would have had a job for life with the NWA. He would have been – because he did so many different things. He produced, he edited, he helped with logistics, merchandise, all sorts of stuff. [He’s missed] not just on a personal level, obviously, because he was just a really great human being and a very dedicated father, which to me, was obviously admirable and something I can relate to. He’s also missed greatly on a professional level.”

A Continued Influence

There’s no denying that professional wrestling can be a rather ruthless business. In an industry in which many are looking to push their way to the top, sometimes, friendships can fall by the wayside in an individual’s own self-interests.

That simply wasn’t the case when it came to The Question Mark, Aldis commented to me, and that unselfish mentality has been passed down through the entirety of the NWA locker room.

“There were a lot of us who have had opportunities to be involved in some special stuff, right? Like, for me, obviously [there’s] All In, and then my big marquee matches with guys like Sting, or AJ Styles, or my moments at Wembley Arena or places like that for TNA. And obviously, guys who have been in WWE have been able to wrestle Madison Square Garden, or hold a championship, or be in the ring with Shawn Michaels or, you know, something like that. Joseph, he loved the business, he was a student of the business, but he’d never had any moment where he really felt like ‘I’m special in this.’ The Question Mark was that thing! It was just a kind of ‘hey, what about this,’ sort of situation, and he just grabbed it and ran with it.”

“I remember once he walked out – I think they might have shared this clip on social media,” reminisced Aldis. “He came out for a match with Ricky Starks, and this place just exploded. This was like, I don’t know, four or five shows in and we start going. I remember standing there with Billy, and we looked at each other, and Billy just kind of – you could feel it meant a lot to Billy because it was like, he didn’t want to feel like it was nepotism.

He didn’t want to feel like ‘oh, I’m putting my guy [there] because he’s a good friend. I’m sure he was conscious of that.”

“But then, it was so rewarding for him also to see him get this massive reaction,” Aldis smiled. “We’re sort of look at each other going ‘what’s happening? I just said ‘this is unbelievable. This is so great.’ When something like that happens organically – and he was a big part of the culture that’s established in the NWA dressing room backstage. He plays a major part in that because there was no resentment or animosity or jealousy for any of the guys when that happened. We’re all going like ‘this guy is the most over guy on the show!

‘ We were all going ‘this is crazy, but it’s so great. We love it,’ because it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotes and transcriptions.

A few weeks ago, the wrestling world was shocked by the WWE release of a number of in-ring talents including Samoa Joe, The IIconics, Chelsea Green, and more. However, perhaps the most surprising was that of Mickie James, a former Women’s Champion and a bonafide pro wrestling legend.

Equally shocking to the releases themselves was the treatment of many of the talents following their departures. On April 22nd, James tweeted a tongue-in-cheek photo of the unceremonious manner in which her belongings were returned. The photo took to social media like wildfire, with WWE names past and present both apologizing and vouching for the legitimacy of the situation at hand.

In chatting with NWA World’s Champion Nick Aldis, I asked him about his feelings on the matter given his marriage to James.

“You touched on it earlier, and I don’t want to pry too much on it,” I commented to the Real World’s Champion. “But, just everything that did happen with Mickie over the last couple of weeks as far as the release with WWE, and then – I literally have the word hogwash here, because I can’t describe it any better as far as everything that went down afterwards.”

“Trashgate,” Aldis responded jokingly.

“Yeah, right,” I affirmed. “I don’t want to dig on it too much, and I know she spoke for herself on it on GAW TV yesterday, but maybe just your thoughts, or if there’s anything you’d like to share on that end of things.”

“Well, I hope this doesn’t destroy anyone’s delusion of it,” Aldis laughed to begin. “But, you know, the craziest thing about all that for us was that she really – it wasn’t like she was super offended. It wasn’t like she was really upset. She was kind of laughing at the symbolism. It wasn’t like this thing where she went ‘ah, I’m devastated, I’m heartbroken, how would they do this to me,’ and I’ve seen some people sort of refer to it like that, as if that was the sort of tone. If you go back and look at her post with the video and stuff, she was very tongue-in-cheek about it. She was very kind of, ‘well, that’s about fucking right!’ In other words, they chew you up and spit you out, and that’s just the way the business is.

“And, look,” Aldis continued, “she’s been through a hell of a lot worse. The reality is, is that symbolism and sort of tone-deaf gesture, I guess, is the best way to describe it, it’s not even in the top-10 of the most cold, heartless things that have happened to her or me in this business. So, it’s kind of like, hey, man, we’ve got thick skins. She just thought it was enlightening, I guess, to sort of share with the world like, ‘Hey, you think it’s all special and glamorous? It’s sometimes not so much.’ I was very amazed at the level of traction it got.

“And,” Aldis was sure to note, “I was amazed at the level of response on the corporate level from those guys. From Triple H, and Stephanie [to] Vince, they all – and, hey, I will say that Vince McMahon went out of his way to express to Mickie his respect for her and her contributions. That’s at least some consolation to take from it. Although, I would politely suggest that maybe a little more respect could have been shown to her while she was there.”

I nodded.

“I wouldn’t disagree with you there at all, my friend, but the nice thing – and it’s not as though it really needed to be reinforced – is she’s a damn legend in this business. And, it’s really, really nice to see that be the thing that takes up the Twitter feed.”

Aldis agreed.

“Within minutes the phone was lighting up, both of our phones [were] lighting up. She, again, very tongue in cheek. Very – wrestling fans have a hard time with humor, you know, especially self-deprecating humor is like they want to turn everything into this big drama show. But, she sort of, again, kind of lightheartedly used the phrase ‘golden handcuffs,’ because – and I promise, this is not me trying to sort of polish a turd. Right away, my mind didn’t go to like, ‘oh, man, that’s, you know, that’s so devastating.’ Obviously, I consoled her and said, like, ‘how do you feel? Are you’re okay? I’m sorry, babe.’ But, right away, my mind started going to, ‘well, hey, at least all of those massive contractual restrictions are off now. At least you have the freedom now to go after this, or to go after that, and talk to this person, and promote this, and endorse that.’ Again, I’m not criticizing the contracts. Hey, you sign it. I never understood – hey, my whole thing with this is yeah, maybe the contracts in wrestling, in general, are somewhat…”

“Shitty?” I interjected half-jokingly.

The Real World’s Champion grinned. “You said that, not me.”

“I’ll take it!” I laughed before Aldis finished his thought.

“The fact still remains that once you sign it, you agreed, and I live by that. I don’t have a contract like that. So it’s kind of like I’ve always sort of had that understanding. I’ve always been, you know, the people who have mentored me in the business have always said to me ‘once you sign it, you keep your word you honor it.’ You cannot expect, and you can’t get caught up in what someone else has got. You have to be happy with what you’ve got, and you have to look it over and you have to agree to it or not agree to it, and you have to be – but once you agree, you can’t then complain about it and keep sort of [going]. So again, when it comes to those restrictions, it was kind of like, okay, there’s a pro and a con to this. Obviously, the con is yes, she’s no longer with the WWE, and her last run didn’t work out the way she’d hoped. And, that guaranteed income is no longer part of our revenue streams. But, we have plenty of revenue streams.”

“The good news is, okay, now, the pro is that there are now a bunch of other potential revenue streams that were previously unavailable based on that contract. So, hey, it swings around about.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above quotes & transcriptions.