For long-time viewers of TNA Wrestling, Nick Aldis is best known for his in-ring performances. But more recently, Aldis has become known for his appearances outside of the ring on WWE programming.
Since last October, Aldis has been the general manager for Smackdown, making the matches and hard decisions surrounding WWE’s Friday night brand. The 39-year-old is also nearly approaching a year since he joined the promotion in a backstage producer role.
Due to his lengthy history as a wrestler with matches spanning as far back as 2004, it’s not surprising that some would ask Aldis if he will ever step into the ring again, particularly a WWE ring. When this question was posed to Aldis recently by Gorilla Position, he provided a diplomatic answer.
“It’s tough to answer this, just simply because I don’t ever want to give the impression that I’m trying to sort of angle for something, right?” he said. “I’m certainly not trying to go into business for myself or anything like that. But it’s unavoidable, I’ve seen a ton of sentiment from fans like ‘We want to see you wrestle this guy, we want to see you versus that guy.’ I appreciate all that, that’s not something that I have any control or influence over, right? It’s very much a case of like I said when Paul [Levesque] and I first started speaking, I made it very clear that I want to be part of the team, I want to contribute in whatever way you think is best. If at some point that way [wrestling] ends up being the best then great.”
Aldis went on to talk about how he tries to give his best effort in any role he takes. At the moment he is currently focused on being the best GM possible, much like the effort given when he was made the focal point of the NWA brand for many years.
“The GM conversation was the shortest conversation in my career,” he told Gorilla Position. “Bruce [Pritchard] called me and was like ‘General Manager of Smackdown?’ I said ‘Great, when do I start?’ They sort of laid out the terms and the money and all that kind of thing and I was like ‘Great, all sounds great. Let’s do it.’ I just immediately said to my wife ‘I’m gonna try to be the best GM of all time.’ That’s all you can do. When I was presented with the opportunity to be part of the NWA when no one was talking about it and it was a completely dead brand, I went ‘Ok, if I’m going to do it, I’m going to try to be the best NWA champ of all time.’ You’re not going to be, you’re not going to surpass [Ric] Flair, or Harley [Race] or Dusty [Rhodes]. But if you’re not intending to be the very best, it’s like you’re just not gonna succeed on any level.”
