Nick Aldis Discusses Nearly Leaving TNA & Joining WWE, Opting To Stay in TNA

During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, WWE SmackDown GM Nick Aldis spoke about his upcoming matchup against Gunther at WWE SummerSlam. During the interview, Aldis discussed a past opportunity when his old TNA Wrestling contract was up, and he nearly joined WWE. Below are some highlights from Insight:

Nick Aldis on If He Ever Had a Past Opportunity To Join WWE

“There was one period where my first TNA contract was coming up. I was flying back and forth from England. They were flying me in and out from England every other week, and it was killing me. I mean, it was absolutely brutal because they were house shows, pay-per-views. I remember doing a loop that comprised of LA, Orlando, I think it was like Germany and Switzerland and something like that, some Europe, but not UK. Then back to the US, back to Orlando, back to the UK in the space of a week or whatever it was. I remember my then girlfriend. She picked me up, and I went back to her place. I was so tired, I fell asleep with my eyes open, and she freaked out. She thought I was dead for a split second. She walked in and, ‘Oh my God!’ I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa! I just fell asleep.’ She’s like, ‘Your eyes were open.’

I remember that was when I sort of went, I think I need to relocate. I can’t keep doing this. So I basically say that to color the next part of the story, which was so now I’m sort of using that as a bit of leverage, because again maybe some of this did contribute to you know some people in management having a less than favorable opinion of me when I was a young cocky man, but I basically went back over all my previous year’s travel because with TNA they used to send you your travel, but it would come in the form of a travel agent receipt. Bob Ryder, God rest his soul, he was the head of travel for TNA, but he was also a travel agent, so it was all coming through his own.

“So you were basically just getting the sort of receipt, the printout. So I went back through like a year of flights, and I totaled up the entire dollar amount they had spent on flying me back and forth from the UK, which came to like 70 grand or something. It was huge. So I basically took that number and then said, ‘You paid me this much in year one, but you spent this much. I’ll move to Florida, and I take that number and put it into a guarantee for me, and I’ll move to Florida, and you’ll never have to worry about getting last minute.’ Because that was the thing. A lot of those flights were last minute.”

On Getting a Better Offer From TNA

“It ended up working out. It went my way after Dixie got involved. I was going back and forth with Terry Taylor, and he was just doing his job. But he’s saying, we don’t do guarantee deals, and I’m going, yeah, you do. Anyway, so you can imagine as a 22-year-old kid, that was pretty ballsy to be kind of making that kind of request. But I stood pretty firm on it. I was like, this makes sense, and if I’m going to relocate, I’m going to pick up my whole life and leave my entire life behind. What difference does it make? I just want some kind of security. I just want some kind of guarantee. Ended up going my way. But there was a period there where he was doing his job, trying to make me think that it wasn’t going to go my way. So I reached out to WWE to Canyon Ceman, and I don’t remember. I’m sure he got emails like this all the time, but I just had my resume. I’d been on the I’d been on the TV show Gladiators.

“I think at that time, maybe Joe and I had been to Japan. I don’t recall. It’s a long time ago now, so your memories all sort of blur together. But I had a pretty good-looking sort of resume at that point. I remember distinctly getting an email back from him saying, ‘Wow, call me ASAP.’ So I call him and da da da, and then we’re talking a little bit more, and then he goes, ‘Wait, wait, wait, hold on, are you still under contract?’ I went, ‘Yeah, for like another like three weeks or something.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, we can’t talk. We have to end this conversation right now.’ He hung up on me. I was like, three weeks? But I was naive, you know. I didn’t think it was a big deal; evidently it was, and that was it. That was the only time where I thought, oh, there’s a bite here. Then because of that, in spite of the fact that obviously that conversation had ended quite abruptly, and I was a bit sort of, oh no, did I just kind of ruin my chances there? I still just went screw it, basically a penned an email to Dixie saying, ‘I appreciate what you’ve done for me, opportunity, but I think I’m going to move on.’ And within hours, TNA came back with the deal I wanted.”

If He Views His SummerSlam Match as the Return of Nick Aldis the Wrestler

“Yeah, but a lot of that is just in the perception, because it’s never been presented as I’m coming back. So if that’s something that people are perceiving, I would argue that that’s almost maybe just because that’s how they want to see it. Like I said, I’ve been very careful not to try to project my own expectations onto any of this. I think we talked about this the last time I did your show. When the GM opportunity was presented to me, it wasn’t be the GM for a little while, and then we’ll figure out a way.

“No, it was, ‘ Do you want to be the GM of SmackDown? I said yes, I’ll be the best GM you’ve ever seen. Because you play the hand you get dealt. Some of this stuff with Gunther is real, because he does represent the opportunities that I didn’t get; he did have people lobbying for him that I didn’t have. He didn’t have the TNA stink or different misconceptions about him that I had based on my relationship with this person or that person or anything like that. But I’m not presenting myself as a victim. I had those things come early, too early.

“I got signed at TNA was 21. I was not ready for that spot, and I just have to sort of look back and make peace with the fact that what 21-year-old is going to turn it down? No one at that age is going to go I don’t think I’m ready. No, you just do it, and I probably paid for it down the line because then when I’m starting to hit my stride and actually really starting to get this, then my TNA career comes to an end. Now I’m in the wilderness, and then this other thing comes along because WWE is not interested. Because again, unlike Walter, I didn’t have guys like Regal pulling for me and saying, ‘Oh, this guy is fantastic. You want to give this guy a look.’ I had the opposite, actually. So I had to make something out of nothing with the NWA and the Ten Pounds of Gold.

“Then All In comes along, and again, it’s just been to me a series of validations. It was almost exactly one year from when we started doing the Ten Pounds of Gold series that Cody and I were standing in a sold-out arena like that was shaking before we even touched. It was Cody’s moment at the end, but it was my moment at the beginning. I will argue that point with anybody. It was a validation of what I had done. I build something; that relationship comes to an end.

“Things come and go. I knock on the door again. I finally get to reach out, and I finally get, 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. I thought that this could really backfire. But what do I have to lose? Turns out, actually, it turns out it worked. Did it work exactly how I would have wanted? Of course not. It turns out nothing happens for a while. Then Bruce calls me and goes, ‘You want to work behind the scenes?’ Hey, I’ll take what I can get. Maybe there’s enough sort of consternation that I’m not being used on television. So then they go, you can be the GM. And now we’re here.”

Nick Aldis vs. Gunther takes place at WWE SummerSlam 2026: Night 1 on Saturday, August 1. The premium live event is being held at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It will air live on the ESPN App in the U.S. and on Netflix internationally.