Nick Aldis says that despite wanting to compete in WWE for years, he never once asked company officials for an in-ring opportunity.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight ahead of his SummerSlam match against Gunther, Aldis revealed that he deliberately chose not to lobby for a match, even when he believed the opportunity was there. “I can say with all sincerity, completely, 100% truthfully, I have never, never once gone to Hunter or Bruce or Michael or anyone like that and said, give me a shot, like let me have it.”
Aldis admitted there were plenty of moments when he was tempted to speak up. “Trust me, many times where I’ve wanted to, many times where I was in a certain situation, or I was witnessing a certain situation, and going like, I could fucking nail this. Or obviously, when it felt like it was heading that way with Randy or with Drew, there were times where there was part of me that was kind of maybe you should just go and ask for it. But I didn’t. I held my tongue.”
Aldis explained that his restraint stemmed from the promise he made when he first reached out to WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
“I tried to be a man of my word because when I reached out to Paul Levesque, I said I want to have the opportunity to contribute to WWE in any way you see fit. So I did not want to go back on my word, because I didn’t want to go, well, anyway you see fit, but really I want to do this.”
Aldis also credited WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page with encouraging him to bypass intermediaries and contact Levesque directly. “Thanks to DDP, bless him, who just said to me, just call Hunter directly. Stop trying to go through these gatekeepers and stuff. Just reach out to him directly, and I thought that this could really backfire. But what do I have to lose?”
Although the outcome wasn’t exactly what he originally envisioned, Aldis said the decision ultimately paid off. “Turns out, actually, it turns out it worked. Did it work exactly how I would have wanted? Of course not.”
That initial contact eventually led to a call from Bruce Prichard offering him a backstage role before he was later introduced as the on-screen SmackDown General Manager. “Then Bruce calls me and goes, you want to work behind the scenes? Hey, I’ll take what I can get.”
Aldis revealed that both his wife, Mickie James, and Randy Orton warned him that if WWE ever called on him to wrestle, he would receive very little notice. “Two people that said to me, you have to stay somewhat ready because they’re not gonna give you like three months’ notice. Like you’re gonna get like a couple weeks.”
He recalled Orton giving him similar advice during WrestleMania weekend. “I remember Randy talking to me at WrestleMania and kind of saying, like, you need to stay ready because it’s gonna happen, and they’re gonna do it like that. Like, it’s gonna come out of nowhere.”
As it turned out, both were right. Aldis admitted he was completely caught off guard when he learned he would be facing Gunther at SummerSlam. “That doesn’t mean that this one didn’t come as a like total shock because it did.”
