In a recent interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, WWE SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis shared his thoughts on stepping into his current role with WWE, his evolving views on his in-ring career, and whether he has any plans to return to the ring. Aldis discussed the transition from wrestler to General Manager and what that change means for his future in WWE. He also reflected on his past wrestling experiences and whether he sees himself competing again down the line. Below are some highlights from the interview, provided by Insight:
Nick Aldis on his GM style:
“I mean, look, my whole thing on this was I had to make it my own. This is also based on some early conversations with Hunter about it. He said ‘I want this to be different. Your General Manager schtick is not going to be the typical authority figure we’ve seen necessarily in the past. You’re not necessarily going to be this.’ Obviously, there’s been some major differences between some of the characters you’ve seen in those roles. But it wasn’t going to necessarily be this sort of insecure, power-hungry sort of guy right off the bat. He said, ‘I want you to be more you, kind of calm and collected and all business.’ I went, ‘I think I know what you want.’ Obviously, there’s a lot of coaching involved and stuff like that. But in the beginning, I was like I think I’ve got what you have in mind, we sort of went that way, and it seemed to work.”
Nick Aldis on if he retired from the ring by accepting a GM role in WWE:
“I guess. But I also don’t necessarily see it like that 100%. I see it more as a sort of maybe not a full-time wrestler, but I don’t know. Look, it gets asked all the time by everyone except me. I have never once said, ‘Hey what about me? Could I wrestle?’ Because I don’t need to. If and when the time comes, it’ll be what they want and it will hopefully be the right time. I just told them that if you want to do that, I’m ready.”
Nick Aldis on possibly wanting to wrestle again:
“In all honesty, no. I would like to lace them up. I don’t care if it’s on a regular basis but I’ve earned it, once. I don’t know. If it was one more time, so be it. Like I said, I feel like I meet the criteria to be on that canvas at least once. [My bicep is] 100%.”
Nick Aldis on his relationship with Adam Pearce:
“There is something there, it’s mutual respect. I love the dynamic between Adam and I. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s something that you can go to, then get away from for a bit and go back to. I think Hunter’s approach and look, I don’t like to speak on his behalf, obviously, but I think that a lot of the time he does like to have a sort of combination of long-term planning and some improvisation where it’s sort of like, to me, I’ve always felt like that’s the key is you need to know where you’re going. You need to have a destination in mind and I think you sort of have to have pit stops along the way that are sort of maybes, maybe we’ll go there, maybe this will lead to this, maybe we’ll get to that. Randy Orton RKO’d me out of the blue last time SmackDown was in Brooklyn. Then a week later it’s like he cuts me a check. He goes, ‘Oh, that’s for next time.’ But we haven’t gone back to it thankfully. But it’s like, I think Hunter likes having fun with little things like that, laying some breadcrumbs here and there, planting a seed, whatever. And that’s how I look at me and Adam is like there’s always potential there.”
Nick Aldis on taking an RKO from Randy Orton:
“I still feel funny. I know we’re in 2024 but I still feel funny about giving away [the secrets]. But it’s like, whatever I’ve done it now, I can’t not give it to you. It was called on the fly, audible. [How was it supposed to go?] It’s Roman, it’s Randy, who’s he [Orton] gonna sign with, and then he was gonna sign the SmackDown contract and stare down Roman, and I think that was it. Then it was like somebody told somebody told somebody while I was ringside. So I had to go in and call it. I’ve never gotten to the bottom of who was behind it. I still feel weird giving away the magic. It seems to have been one of these moments that connects. So it’s like, there seems to be a heightened level of interest on that particular moment, because it was quite out of the blue, even for me.”
