Nick Aldis Says Kevin Owens Left Him No Choice But To Suspend Him

Nick Aldis has weighed in on suspending Kevin Owens, saying that Owens left him no choice. Aldis suspended Owens for attacking Grayson Waller and Austin Theory while on commentary on last week’s Smackdown, and he talked about the decision on WWE’s The Bump.

“It wasn’t a tough decision,” Aldis said (per Fightful). “I’m the man who facilitated KO coming to the blue brand. I think he’s one of the very top competitors in the WWE. But I have to stick to my word. As a leader and as an executive, my word is everything. In this business, your word is your bond. That is a mantra as old as the hills in our industry. I told KO earlier in the night, ‘Yes, you can sit in for Corey Graves. But please don’t get physical.’ Because it’s such an obvious outcome when you’re dealing with the type of personalities that we’re dealing with on Friday nights.

“So I said, ‘Look, you have to be a leader to the locker room. You have to rise above juvenile provocation, and you have to set an example for our young superstars, and not get physical, not get involved in matches, not influence the outcome of WWE contests, particularly at such a pivotal moment in the calendar leading into Survivor Series.’ He didn’t follow through with that, and I had no choice but to follow through with my word, which was, if you do, I have no choice but to suspend you. So he left me no choice. Certainly not a nefarious thing, certainly it a malicious thing. It’s just my word, and my word is my bond, and as a professional, I had no choice.”