Nick Aldis: SmackDown GM, One More Match, Adam Pearce, Randy Orton RKO, Mickie James

Chris Boon Bly!

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Nick Aldous is back on the show for the third time. And a lot has changed since those other interviews. The first one was in 2020 when he was in the middle of that historic run as the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion. He held that title, by the way.

for 1043 days. Then he was back on the show last summer when he was kind of auditioning to be a WWE backstage producer. Then at an hour, a few months later, October of 2023, he debuted as the general manager of SmackDown and has been crushing it ever since

And it's just so funny because just like Adam Pearce, who was a very accomplished wrestler inside the ring, there's a lot of fans who don't know about Nick Aldis and everything he did as a wrestler. They just know him as the suit wearing GM. But from the sounds of this interview, Nick says he still has a lot more wrestling left in him. So perhaps it's just a matter of time before we see him in a match again. But I loved being able to catch up with Nick.

And I hope that you enjoy this as much as I did. Snap a screenshot, tag us so we can share it out online. He's at real Nick Aldis on Twitter. He's at Nick Aldis on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Vliet and let's do it. Please welcome back to the show Nick Aldis.

It's very intense. It's almost like we're in an interrogation. Yes, it is. It is a very interrogation. I'm going to shine a light down. We need to stop watching. Give me all the answers. That's what this feels like. Big ashtray for all the cigarettes. Well, this is way better than the usual setup I have, which is two chairs in a hotel room.

Yeah, I have to say, I do like the non-handheld mics thing, like a... Me too. Handheld mics, but it's, you know, it's just, what I do with my hand, whatever. But come on, you've held a handheld mic your entire career. What are you talking about? The big difference between speaking extemporaneously in a conversation whilst holding a mic as opposed to... What a word that was. Oh yeah, like that. That was really good. A lot of your promos recently, you've been using a lot of like corporate speak. Yeah, well...

I mean, it needs to be on brand. It makes a lot of sense. My thought on it is, depending on the situation, I do deliberately.

sometimes try to sort of put in that annoying, you know, exec you speak, because I sort of think, okay, you know, because it's a fun character, because I don't really pick a lane, you know, I'm not a bad guy or a good guy necessarily. I'm strictly business. Yeah, and you just kind of lay down the law.

Naturally, sometimes, you know, I have to tell guys stuff they don't want to hear. Yeah. And that's when the executive speak comes out because it's like that's because in my mind, I think if I was in that situation, right, if I was the wrestler in the equation.

like hearing that, you know, annoying, like, you know, corporate babble would make me, you know, infuriated. So I think, okay, this is a good time to slip that in, you know. I'm dealing with guys like Randy or Cody, you know, it's like, or wait, like with Roman, you know, the, you know, very key sort of early interaction for my character was the thing with Roman, right? And it was like, I thought, you know, Andy, like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna,

I'm gonna walk the line here of sort of have some physical presence, but I'm gonna.

also lay on a bit of the corporate, you know, stuff to, you know, just to sort of establish the dynamic, you know, and I thought it worked. It's interesting because if you're delivering news that the person likes, you're great. Yeah. If you're delivering news that the person doesn't like, you're awful. I don't like you anymore. Yeah, it's fun. It's, I mean, it's a fun place to be. And I think that fans can relate to like a boss in that way too. Yeah, I would hope so. And that's kind of who you are.

Yeah, I mean, look, my whole thing on this was I had to make it my own. And I had to create to me in my mind anyway. And this was also based on some early conversations with Hunter about it, where I was like, I want to, he said, like, I want this to be different. I want your, you know, your general manager. Stick is going to be, it's not going to be the typical.

you know, authority figure we've seen necessarily in the past, right? It's not necessarily going to be this, you know, and obviously there's been some, you know, major differences between some of the characters have seen in those roles, but it wasn't going to necessarily be this sort of insecure, you know, power hungry, a sort of guy right off the bat. It was

He said, I want you to be more you, like more kind of calm and collected and, you know, all business. And I, when I think I know, I think I know what you want. I think, you know, that sort of, obviously there's a lot of

uh, coaching involved and stuff like that. But you know, in the beginning, I was like, I think of, I think, I think I've got, we have in mind, you know, and we sort of went that way and it seemed to work. How did this come together? Because when I saw you last summer, you were kind of auditioning in a producer role. Yeah, I didn't have any job then. Now I have to. Yeah.

Okay, so what are the two jobs? We see the one on TV. The producer and the talent. So I have two contracts, an employee contract is a producer and a talent contract for the general manager. So I assume you're getting double the day. Well, it was something like that. So you were auditioning as a producer kind of testing things out. How did that then go to, we have an on-screen role for you?

pretty short and sweet like that. Actually, we were in Hershey, Pennsylvania. And when would this be? This would have been, I guess, maybe around early autumn last year, like September-ish, maybe late August, early September. I remember because it was the first day that Cena came back for his run, like he had that run on SmackDown, right? Yeah. And it was because it was in Hershey,

And so we were, and because that I had just, I think maybe I just bumped into him or any, and so I remember that. And then I was in the meeting and Bruce Pritchard came and grabbed me and was like, Hey, you know, let's have a quick conversation. I was okay. And he just was, he was like, first of all, how are you doing physically? I don't know. Great. No problems. Okay. It's like, we've got a, we've got a role for you. You know, when I was, he's like, you know, just wanted to double check that you're okay, you know, with, with the possibility that I was like,

Yeah, of course. And it's, you know, a couple of weeks went by, carried on, you know, doing the thing. And then I was, I was at home. And I was walking out the door, I come and where I was going, made probably to the gym or something, I would pick up Donovan to school or something. And phone rang, it was Bruce again. And he was just like, general manager is back down. And I was like, works for me. That sounds pretty good. And then he says, I laid out the whole, laid out the, you know, the,

The terms as far as like the back ends, as far as like what it would look like in terms of my, you know, agreements and all that kind of thing. And I was just like, sounds good, whatever, you know, whatever works, let's just get going. Let's just get the work. Are you surprised that there's WWE fans now learning that you were a wrestler at one point in time?

It's just sort of humbling, yeah, a little bit of a humbling experience. It is funny because something, oh, the anniversary just passed a few days ago of me and Cody doing two out of three falls in Nashville, right? And so usually there was like all in, and that match are the ones that tend to get sort of annualized. Yeah.

and it came up again and all these comments, I was just like, what the way is this way? Because it's always gonna be that way, right? Because that's the difference between WWE and the rest of the wrestling world. And it's clear that there are WWE fans and there are wrestling fans as a whole. Yes. Well, you're a two-time NWA champion. And TNA champion too. And that's right, yeah. And when you think about- IWGP tech champion, GHC tech champion. Keep going. No, no, no, no. Rinka King champion.

Was that Magnus that did a lot of that stuff though? Yeah. Yeah. But it's amazing that you've had, you had this amazing career and now you're carving out this entirely new lane. Yeah. It's fun. I mean, like I said, when I, I've mentioned this before in other interviews, so I don't want to, you know, hop on too long. But when, when the,

The general manager thing was presented to me. I talked to Mickey about it. And I said, no, for me, the general manager is back down. And she was just like, 100% like it. And I was just like, you'll kill that. And I just, you know, I said, well, good, I did. And then I just, I already said yes. And I just was like, I'm going to

be the best fucking general manager you've ever seen, you know, and we'll go from there. Was there a part of you that in accepting that role, you're kind of saying goodbye to your in-ring career? I guess.

But I also don't, I don't, I don't necessarily see it like that. A hundred percent. I see it more as a sort of, you know, maybe not a full time wrestler, you know. Okay. But I don't know. Okay. But it gets asked all the time, of course, by everyone except me.

Right. I have never once said, Hey, you know, what about me? Could I wrestle? You know, like I, because I don't need to. Right. If, you know, if and when the time comes, it, you know, it, it'll be what they want and it'll be the, and it will hopefully be the right time. I just told them that if you want to do that, I'm, I'm ready.

So you've got an amazing amount of longevity in doing what you're doing now. Yes. You can do this till you're on. Yeah, I heard like Bischoff said, and it was, you know, and he was very, he was very kind to me. I heard him, you know, talk about me getting the role and everything. And, you know, he made a great point where he was like, you could do this for, you know, as long as you want. Yeah. Right. And I do understand that.

I'm also 37. It's not like I'm sitting here going, oh, thank God. To me, I just saw it as like, this is a great opportunity as a character.

You know, not to mention the fact that the other the other job is also, you know, provides a great opportunity for longevity. Also, you know, because it's like I'm getting to contribute behind the scenes and I've worked with, you know, who's who? I mean, you know, to be in the room, you know, in the lead up to WrestleMania, you know, I was in the room sometimes with like,

rock, Hunter, Heyman, Michael Hayes. And it's just like, I'm getting paid to take a PhD. So I'm very grateful. Are you producing matches? Is that what you're doing as a producer? Yeah, matches segments. So give us a little bit, like if we've watched over the last six months or so, what's a match you're really proud of or a segment you're really proud that you produced? The one that stands out,

So early on, I worked with Dom and Dragon Lee. They did a match in Ontario, California, I think. They had an awesome finish. The finish just came off so perfect.

It worked and worked and played around with it a lot and I love working with Dom and also shout out to Dom because he was so instrumental in my introduction as a character. I always make this point. I was introduced on WWE television in a Triple H in Ring segment. If you'd have told the

13-year-old Nick Otis that he would have fallen out of his chair, right? Like Hunter was my guy. Like I loved Brett when I was a kid, but I saw Brett like a superhero. When I first started sort of formulating this idea of like, I think I want to get into this business, actually get into it. It was because of Rock and Hunter. It was their feud in 2000.

Right? And, uh, but as much as the rock was, you know, the man who captivated my imagination, like so many of us who were in the business, probably half the roster, you know, if they were honest with themselves, it was like, okay, it was rock, right? But it was, for me, I was watching Hunter and I realized without, without, uh, articulating at the time, I was studying him, you know what I mean? Because I was sort of going, well, I,

So how self-awareness, I don't think I can be that guy, right? Talking about the rock, right? Because you just, you know, I'm not American, number one. You know, and I was like, I'm more cerebral, more, you know, I had a bit more of that. I could relate more to that approach. And I think, you know, people who are familiar with my in-ring work, they see a lot of

Nick Bockwinkle, who I studied a lot, Harley Race, you know, a little bit of flair. And I think if you look at Hunter, it's quite a similar combination. Anyway, so I'm in the, you know, I'm, my introduction to the character is by Triple H and a Triple H in Ring Segment. Fantastic, right? Sign me up. Yeah. But if Dirty Dawn Mysterio hadn't been in that segment,

would have been a much more difficult position for me to get that one thing, which was the big fan of your dad line. Because when I was going, when I was looking over it in the day, obviously I'm brand new. So it's not like I'm going to sit, but I'm also here as a producer. So I have a bit of freedom, a bit of leeway to make some suggestions and hey, what if we did like this? And I remember looking at the way it was laid out,

And I saw this sort of suggestion of like saying something about, you know, big fan. And I was like, what if I put a pause in there? Like in my mind, I was like, that's kind of my sense of humor. That's my sort of, you know, shit talker type of style, right? Where the big fan of your dad, you know, and it was, and I, and I said it and, and I, Hunter and whoever was, you know, around at the time all sort of laughs. Okay. So I went, okay, that's, that might work. You know, and I, in my mind, because when I was looking at it,

I knew that this segment isn't necessarily about me. I'm here to facilitate.

you know, and that's sort of what that character is a lot of the time. But at the same time, like, I'm getting, I've got 10 seconds here to fucking smash something, right? And I was like, that's, that's the, that's it. That's my bit. That's my moment there, you know, because, you know, then it's like, then here comes KO and it's da, da, da, da, and you know, and that's kind of the business of the segment.

but I looked at that and I just kind of went, that could be my, that's my kick the door down moment, because I knew I had to do that. I knew that the majority of people watching would

probably not know who I was. I mean, I would have loved to have debuted in like Chicago or New York or Philly or something where there would have been maybe a higher concentration of fans who were from, you know, Tulsa, Oklahoma, not, you know, not what I've necessarily have described as like my strongest market brother, but you know, I was like, Hey, I'll take it. But I thought that's my, that's my, and because Dom has so much heat and because that Dom character is

He's the guy you love to hate, which is, to me, that is the sweet spot of a, especially in the modern era. That's the sweet spot you want as a heel character. You can't even talk. Have to be a guy you love to hate, because it's hard now to have, because it's hard to have heat.

I mean, truly, like real heat, because real heat then becomes like, oh, well, is it real? You know, people have, it's like, you know, and obviously you presented them with this conundrum of like, well, we don't want to have to sort of disclaim to people. Well, it's not real, you know, because what's the point? That's running the whole thing. Yeah. So you have to be a guy they love to hate. And that's dirty Dom. Yeah. And now with Liv, I mean, she's, she's the, to me, Liv Morgan's the,

I don't know what you want to break out. I shouldn't really break out. She's been around a long time, but like she's the she's the MVP of 2024. She leveled up in a huge way immensely. That character and that that's, you know, I've told her a couple of times like you are crushing it. Like you have found

exactly like what your perfect heel, because a good heel has to have to have some self-awareness. Like you have to know what impression you give off to people when you walk in the room. Liv Morgan is a stunningly good looking girl, right? That can work against you. And she finally, I think, realized like, I can use that.

And I remember, I gave her a piece of advice and look, she doesn't need it, but I offer it anyway. Where I was like, your heat right now reminds me of Sean in 97. Wow. This like, I know that like Sean had that swagger, you know, because Sean was so good.

that you couldn't be like, you suck. Like, no, he did not suck. He was, it was, he was so demonstrably the best performer, you know, by such a long way, even in 97.

Like, yeah, Hogan was a huge star over at WCW. Sting was cooking with, you know, with Crow Sting. NWA was hot. Austin was coming up. Brett was Brett, but like Sean at that time was so on his game. You know, he was so like on it and you couldn't take it away. He was so good in the ring. But when he actually, then he started using that and being like, what are you going to do about it?

And he was good looking and he's got a good, you know, and he, and so then he's, and, you know, he's calling out like, yeah, like, you know, your girl, like your girl would leave you for me. That's heat. Yeah. And Liv has that same thing where it's like, we've got a lot more women in the audience these days. So now they're like, ah, she is really good looking, you know, like she did, you know, it's totally believable that she would steal someone's

Yeah. Where were you in that debut segment? Because Triple H says your name and then you just kind of appear. I was in the timekeepers. Just sitting there the whole segment? Yeah. Bloated, yeah. What were the fans saying? Because I'm sure you're getting recognized. Yeah, it was pretty hard to shut. It was, I had to sort of shut that out, you know, because obviously, yeah, there's, and typically obviously the ones who are closest to the front row are, you know, usually the ones who are much more sort of diehard fans too.

So yeah, of course they're going like, under call this, what are you doing here? Like, yeah. How come you didn't get the big entrance? Was there talk about this? Like it could have been like, here he is. And your name comes up on the screen. I think Hunter, I look, I think that he, I think that they were unsure about how many people will be familiar with me and that's fine.

Again, that's why to me I was like I don't really care about Whether I have music and entrance or whether I you know, however, it's like

I had that moment. In my mind, I looked at the whole thing and went, cool, I have that, that's fine. That's the part that's going to live forever, and it does. That's the part that's going to go viral, or whatever. No, it's a go viral, but you know what I'm saying? That's the part that's going to get clipped, and that's the part that's going to be remembered.

We've got an interesting situation here where the general manager of raw is a former NWA World's Heavyweight Champion. I've said this before in another interview. I can't remember who that was with. Then the general manager of SmackDown is a former NWA World's Heavyweight Champion. I was over a thousand days there.

Look, nobody's counting. I'm not trying to keep score. He might have more than you. I don't know who's counting. Yeah. But it feels like there's something there. There is something there. It's mutual respect. That sounds familiar as well. Yeah. Yeah. 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. And look, I think that 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,

And to me, I've always felt like that's the key. You need to know where you're going, you need to have a destination in mind, and you need to have, 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.

You know, Randy Orton, RKO'd me out of the blue last time, you know, SmackDown was in Brooklyn. Yeah. Was it last time or maybe time before? Anyway, you sold that so well. Hit it and bounced over. Oh, that's an RKO. It didn't even come off. Brilliant. It's a funny story with that. But the, you know, and then a week later, it's like he cuts me a check because, oh, that's the next time, you know, but we haven't gone back to it, you know, thankfully. But it's like, I think that, you know, I think,

I think having fun with little things like that, laying some breadcrumbs here and there and planting a seed, whatever. That's how I look at me and Adam. There's always potential there. There'll be a moment at some point in time where you guys will stand face to face and the crowd's going to go. Is this it? The jackets come off. Maybe you guys don't touch that moment. He doesn't want that.

Wow. He said that about me. I'm just returning the favor. It's even in my receipt. What's the story behind the RKO? It was... I still feel funny. I know we're in 2024, but I still feel funny about giving away, but it's like whatever. I've done it now. I can't not give it to you. It was called on the fly. Wow.

Yeah. It's really audible. Wow. How was the segment supposed to add? It's Roman. Right. It's Randy. Who's he going to sign with? And then he was going to sign the SmackDown contract and, you know, stare down Roman, I think. And I think that was it. Wow. And then it was like,

Somebody told somebody, told somebody, yeah. While you're in the ring? Yeah. Wow. While I was ringside. Wow. So I had to then go in and call it. Oh, that's amazing. Incidentally.

Well, anyway, I've never gotten to the bottom of who was behind it. I can tell your struggle with this. No, no, it's not because of anything like that. It's just, I just, you know, I still feel weird, like, you know, giving away the magic, right? But it was just, but again, it seems to have been one of these moments that connects, right? So it's like, uh,

there seems to be a heightened level of interest on that particular moment because it was quite out of the blue. But I just like to say, I was really out of the blue, keeping for me. And you haven't really gotten physical? No. Yeah. You've certainly been authoritative. Yeah. But not like that. Yeah. Yeah. And again, I think that that's by design. I think that

You know, like we've had little moments here and they're like, I remember one with theory and Waller where they sort of disrespected Hunter. Yeah, they didn't shake his hand. Yes. And that was, you know, and Hunter.

sort of, instead of Hunter being the one to put them in their place, it's like, you do it. And then from a character standpoint, now that makes you look at your boss. Yeah, yeah, and it was a way to, it was, I think it was, you know, a little way to, there's little things like that that just sort of allow me to use my physical presence without getting physical, you know, because there's a difference. Well, and anybody who has seen you in the ring, I mean,

There's a lot of men underneath this tube, right? Like you're jacked. Why is this choice of words? You use that, Chris, but you know, you're gonna have to live with it now. That's gonna reach that everywhere, isn't it? I don't call you a magnus for nothing, right? They don't call me that anymore, thankfully. Yeah. But like, you know, you can still go. Yeah. And you're obviously a big man, six, four, right? Yeah. 240? Yeah, two, 45. Two, 45, underselling. I'd be pushing you 250, I don't know. 250. No.

All right, so you're the size of Triple H, essentially, right? And I think that it's obvious that you have a real presence there. Your character almost reminds me of the teacher who's fun. But when they get serious, you're like, oh, we need to shut up. Yeah, and that's sort of why I go for a lot of the time. It's like,

Yeah, dad can be fun, but when you step over the line, dad takes off his belt. Is this what happens at home? I'm sure you have lots of fun with Donovan, but he knows when you put on your dad. Hey, that's enough. You have your dad voice, right? Yeah, absolutely. I'm starting to work on that myself. Not quite old enough yet.

But you'll start developing a little bank of phrases. Hey, that's enough. That's enough. I said no. It keeps building and escalating. What's the final like? Oh, gosh.

I won't tell you again. Once it's serious, they'll be like, hey, I won't tell you again. I'm making mental notes here. Those are some great dad phrases. They have to make eye contact, like significant eye contact. Like, hey, look at me. Hey, put that down. I won't tell you again. There's a real period at the end of these sentences. And a long pause. I won't tell you again.

Now what do you play for? Do you play good cop bad cop with Mickey? Well, not intent. I mean, it's not like we, you know, it's not like we approach. We, let me say this, you know, we're blessed with it. You know, for the most part, a very well behaved kid. So it's not like we don't have, you know, it's not like we're sitting here, you know, strategizing our disciplinary action, right? But, um,

I mean, it really depends on who usually whatever, you know, it's like if you're, you know, you'll probably find this too, like if your kids misbehaving.

whoever's sort of in close proximity is bad cop at that moment. So then it's sort of like, then it's the other one has to come and sort of, because, you know, the conflict has arisen over whatever. So it's like, now it's, because look, he's a, he's a, he's a boy. So he's, you know, he's sort of discovering his, you know, his place and everything. And it's becoming a young man. So it's like he's exactly.

So a lot of the time it's more of a case of like, not backing down. So then the other parent has to come in and sort of go, okay, what's going on? You know, tell me, like, right, tell me, right, tell me the situation. Okay, now listen, you know, so it really depends on who, who's the, who's the, who's the plaintiff, you know?

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We saw Mickey James and WWE recently. So she was in the crowd for Bad Blood. Was that the first time you guys had been together at a wrestling show in years, right?

She came to the Hall of Fame. Okay. Yeah. Like I said, I mean, technically a wrestling show. Yeah, right. I'd say so. Yeah. I mean, she's been, you know, present at WWE. Is she involved with WWE? As at this particular moment, no comment. No, no, no, no. I mean, look, I can't, I can't. Well, look, they called her much, but she showed up for bad blood. Yes, exactly. And there were a lot of legends in there. Yeah. And, um,

It was very much a sort of like, hey, we'd love to see you again. We'd love to do more. I'll ask you as her husband, how long until she's in the WWE Hall of Fame?

I think that she is, I don't think that there's any question that she's going in. So as far as when, I don't think there needs to be any rush, but at the same time, any time that it would happen would be the right time at this point.

And it's a matter of, like you said, it's not if. Yeah. This is when she's a first ballot. Of course. So is it, you know, it could be a year or two or whatever, but it's, it's happening. Yeah. And you'll be right there when it does happen. I would hope so. Although there might be some, there might be something more for her to do in the ring. They could be. Could be. With the relationship. Never say never. It's much, much, much like my situation, right? It's that there's there are endless possibilities.

And I think that with your situation, you've got this relationship with TNA, WWE and TNA have been working together. When you think about the lineage of TNA and that World Heavyweight Championship, I mean, your name is in there. There could be a situation where you show up in TNA. I guess, I hadn't really thought about that, but it might be fun as the GM, depending on the context. Yeah.

We just did the thing, you know, obviously the machine goes just debuted. It was cool for me to be involved in that, you know, because of our history and everything. But again, I think one of the one of the really exciting things about.

the pull of that era, for lack of a bit of, I tried to coin the Renaissance era, but that doesn't seem to have taken, but. I like it. Yeah. Because if Triple H is at the helm for the next 30 years, do we call this entire era? Right, right. The Triple H era? And I just felt like wrestling and WWE in particular was experiencing a Renaissance. It still is, yeah. And part of that, to that point, is there is this freedom of like last week in the meeting, it was brought up,

Well, we have a relationship with TNA, maybe we can get some footage and work some of it into the show. And I mean, think about how unheard of that would have been right, like just a few years ago. And I think it's, and again, look, I have to be careful about, I've been at WWE for one year, which in the grand scheme of things is like nothing. And I'm also aware that I came in in the Triple H era.

I, a lot of my observations and stuff are more sort of just that. They're observations that it's, I don't know. It's more just sort of, okay, it seems to me that this is the way that it is. But I get the feeling that a lot of the guys at the company are still

that fog is still lifting, they're still realizing like, oh, wait, I can make that suggestion. We could do that, we could do it like that. Leaf hitting, I mean, he's just done such an incredible job, right? And it's just these,

For a guy, his caliber, in his mind, he's already, he says such small, you know, simple kind of changes that he's made, but to us, we're like, whoa, you know, like some of the shots that he's been coming up with and, you know, developing is, I mean, just, I mean, absolutely incredible. Those continuous one shots can start in the back. Yeah, and like the stuff with Sammy or Jay and up in the, up in the, up in the arms, up in the concourses of the arena and coming down with them and all that sort of stuff. I mean, it's like when you, and you go,

How do we not do this before? It's one of those things. Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees, right? And it's like that. And it takes someone from fresh eyes, right? I love the arrival shots. Yes. Because it makes it feel like it's NFL or NBA, right? Major leagues. And we are the major leagues. This is it. Absolutely. So the show starts and it's like, well, this person's arriving. Oh, and there's the person they're feuding with also arriving.

They just sets the table for what you can expect later on. There is no ceiling for the WWE. That's it right there. Literally none. Yeah. And these are conversations that have happened internally. We don't have to be almost as big as the NFL. You know? Yeah.

Why not? Yeah, right? Like, we're about to be on Netflix. That's going to change everything. Right? Yeah. I don't, you know, about to go global, more global, right? Like, I think it's, I think when you, if you think about where, where the company was, you know, where it started and all the way through, it's almost like you say, like, I couldn't possibly get any bigger.

Not according to Nick Khan. With it continuing to get bigger and bigger and more global, do you think we'll ever see a WrestleMania in the UK? Yeah, absolutely. I don't think that you have the mayor of London.

campaigning, Chris, using it like he pledged to try to get WrestleMania at Wembley in his campaign for Mayor of London. I mean, what else is there that solidifies the status of that? He got reelected.

Right. Or elected. So like, so that's, I mean, when did you ever think, I mean, when did you ever think that, I mean, a mayor of London is not a small political position. Yeah. You know, in the UK, it's sort of like really in a lot of ways, it's kind of the second, you know, most sought after position after PM in a lot of ways. Because a lot of times it's the precursor to being PM. It's like,

when did you ever think that that you know someone running for mayor of london was a i'm gonna bring i'm it really like me i'm gonna i'm gonna do everything i can to bring wrestle mania to when we stadium you know like i mean i think about the the hoi puloi

you know, types who would have been like, uh, talking about rustling, ghastly. And now, and like he's campaigning with it. Yeah. That's where we're at. And John Cena came in the whole thing at Money Bank. Yes. Right. He doesn't, he doesn't say something like that without having some pretty serious intention and belief.

behind it and probably some intel that I'm not privy to. This feels, again, like this is when this happens, not if this happens. WrestleMania in London. I'm not the right person to ask. I'm only asking for a countryman. I've given, I've said as much as I can say, you know, without just making shit up. So yeah. Let's just speculate wildly. To me, it feels like it has to happen.

Did you think that with everything you were doing in your career, TNA, NWA, and the career you had built and the resume you had built, that WWE had kind of passed you by that that wasn't going to happen. You weren't going to work in WWE? Yeah, maybe a little bit. But not fully. I had made peace with it. I'd made peace with the idea that maybe it wouldn't happen. Because I felt like

I felt like I met all the criteria. You know, I still do. I felt like I'd sort of, I was, you know, and I'd knocked on the door quite a few times. And just, and I just never seemed to get much further than that. And honestly, this last time I contacted Paul directly.

because I was just like, what's the worst that can happen? He says no directly, at least I'll hear it from the horse's mouth. And obviously that didn't happen. So what do I have to lose? Yeah. I had a conversation with someone because, you know, in the business, it was without question, the most frequently asked question, you know, from my peers, like,

How the hell are you out there? How are you out there? The old time would be like, why aren't you in New York? And I would always just go, pfft. And it was some, I won't say who, because I don't want to throw them under the bus, but they were just like, do you want his number? Just contact him directly.

There's a lot of gatekeepers, you know? So sometimes you can't necessarily be sure that, you know, your message is getting all the way, right? Yeah. So you've got his number. They just went, just contact him directly.

and just tell him you're available and see if you want to have a conversation. So how much did you think through that text and rewrite it? Not too much. I'm not that kind of, I'm fairly confident in my communication skills, I'd say. And it was very, I said this and I've said this in interview, so I don't feel weird disclosing it, but I said I'd just love to talk about

contributing in any way that you think I can, right? And that's, I think that's how we ended up here, because it was this sort of, okay, he wants to contribute. Okay, let's see if he's, let's see if he's full of shit, you know, how'd you like to contribute here? Great. Okay, how about this? Great. That's the way I look at it.

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I feel like you are paid the best compliment when people say he is the best SmackDown general manager since Teddy Long. Because Teddy Long is synonymous with that role, right? Yes, and he's been so cool to me that I ended up in that spot because even before I was ever involved with WWE,

I would bump into Teddy, you know, all over the place at conventions and different events and stuff like that. And he was always so complimentary to me. And he was one of those guys that was like, you need to be up there, like you need to be in New York, you know. So it's cool for me to sort of get that spot and to be talked about with him because I love Teddy so much.

they're big shoes to fill, right? Because when people think of SmackDown, Joe and I. Well, I got to do the thing with him, you know, because I think, again, that's the beauty of social media, is that you become aware of all these conversations that are happening in real time. And so then it presents this idea of like, what's stopping us? Let's just do that. I think that might be to me,

is that the phrase that exemplifies where we're at, with WWE in the current era, was stopping us. Nothing. Yeah, right. Yeah. If you don't have another match, are you at peace with the career that you've had? I'll honestly know.

I would like to lace them up. I don't care if it's on a regular basis, but I've earned it. And it sounds like it's not just one more time. I don't know if it was one more time, so be it. But like I said, I feel like I meet the criteria to be on that.

beyond that canvas at least once. How's your bicep doing? Right. 100%. How did that happen? Oh, no. Oh, no. So I tore my left one in AAA in Mexico, you know, catching a dive as to how most people will tear a bicep, catching a dive.

Um, you know, I've, I've been relatively injury free, you know, but obviously like all wrestlers, like, you know, you've had a few gnarly, you know, things, all of us have to think this one. I was doing ninja warrior. My kid, my kid goes to ninja warrior every, every week. Uh, and then we went to, uh, we went to like a trampoline park place. Uh, I was coming off the road, not a lot of sleep, probably dehydrated.

Uh, and there's an injury course. So he's going through it and they had the rings and, you know, I was on gladiators back in the day. That was sort of my big break on television. And I was good at hang tough. That was like one of that was probably my best, one of my best events. Yeah. So I'm looking at it and I'm, and I'm like, Oh, I used to love this. You know, I wonder if I can still do it.

Not like not even thinking like you're a 36 You know, I'm not old but like you still have to like but you are a point we have to warm up and you do have to You know, you can't just dive in You know, and yeah, you're 240 pounds like and you'd be 45 245 yeah good day

And I just swing out, swing to the next one, transition, pop, bing. And I just dropped down and I went, son of a bitch. Are you new? Oh yeah. I mean, it, audible pop. Just like, and I just, I looked up, I'm standing in a ball pit. Yeah. My son's like, come on, dad, like let's go. You know, and I just, and I look at Mickey and she's just like, what's the matter? And I was like,

She's like, you what? Yeah. I'm just picturing all the other dads, like bicep injury aside. I'm just picturing all the other dads seeing this monster of a man. I'm sure. Yeah. Going through the ninja warrior, going, I gotta go to the gym. Look at this guy. I don't know about that, but they probably got a good that then they saw me go, bah, you know, they went fling ball. Ah, look at all those mirror muscles. Yeah. Ah, probably. And I just, yeah. So I just, I was like, well, that's me done.

went and sat down and, you know, I mean, I still let him finish, you know, carry on playing. I was like, what? And then to the hospital? Yeah, like in a day or two, I knew what I had done. I text, I text Hunter and said, I just told my bicep and he's like, Oh shit. But you're good to go now. Yeah, ring ready. We've got great treatment at Vanderbilt.

Um, in, you know, in Nashville, obviously, you know, the, obviously, but very, very good, very good surgeons there and stuff. And yeah, um, they took very good care of me. The same guy that fixes up all the preds and a lot of the, um, Titans and all those guys. So yeah, took very good care of me. Well, when was the last time you took a bump?

I guess that RKO from Randy. Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, it was a good one. It was a great one. Just telling you, especially with a little bit. In a three-piece suit, too. Again, no warm-up. Worried about ripping the suit? No. Because custom-made, Nick Alders collection, the zer suits, brother. Was there a monogram on the inside? On this one, yeah. Let's see. Yeah, of course there is. Especially tailored for Mr. Alders. Incredible. Well, what's your closet look like?

Well, you know, the suits are in their own place, but it's not, you know, it's not. I don't think it's excessive. It's not avish. Over under on suits. 30?

Yeah, probably like 40. No, no, no, no. No, under 30. Who has more suits? You were Cody. Oh, probably Cody. At this point, I mean, you know, we buy his, you know, I tend to, I tend to try to get the most out of mine, you know. I don't think he repeats suits. Yeah, maybe not. He probably doesn't. That's kind of the great thing about suits, right? And different color shirt, different tie. I did teach Cody how to tie a double Windsor knot though. Really? Yeah. What was he tying before? I guess a single Windsor.

I don't know. It was when we were getting ready for all in, and I forget, we were doing something, right? And obviously we're both wearing suits, whatever. And now when I'm doing the time, he's kind of like, Cody is hyper competitive, right? In the good way. He's crazy competitive. So he's like, I see him in the mirror. Like, you're doing a double wins or not?

Yeah. Now I've got to learn. I do double wins or not. I was like, oh, it's easy. Yeah. I think you're enough to teach me that. I got it. It's funny. You know, it's weird. Like I actually find that easier now than.

than a regular. Well, it's probably just like, it's just muscle memory. Yeah. Exactly. I did it in the car yesterday on the way to that wedding because we, because our flights got messed up and we had to host it from DC and we had to drive. So Mickey, I'm driving Mickey's in the back, putting on like, it was like a 1920s style thing. So she's got like the

the dress with the hair deal, and then I just did the whole thing in the car, and then I switched and put on the three piece pinstripe, and the double wins or not, in the back of the car. One of the true testaments too, can you tie a grid ties? Can you do it without a mirror? Yeah. I cannot. Yeah, you get there. Well...

I've been wearing suits for 20 years when I was on TV, I was wearing them every day. Yes. If you have to do it, here's the thing, if you have to do it under pressure, even when we were doing NWA power, because we would tape six or seven episodes in one day sometimes, or you came to those early tapings at GPB, I would have

all the different outfits lined up, so that I could just come in, try to sort of cool down so I wasn't sweating profusely into my next one, because then I'd have to, because then 10 minutes later I'm going back out and it's a next week show, but I would just have the whole thing laid out. So that was when I think started to develop that skill of being able to do it quickly.

I think one of the best things about being a general manager is the amount of screen time that you get. Yeah. Like think about this. If you were a wrestler, you might get one segment in a match here. How many segments do you get on a, any gift? Well, I don't, well, I don't ever get a full segment. That's the thing. I mean, so I guess sometimes I do. If I'm in, if I'm in a segment with.

Roman or, you know, Cody or something, I guess, something like that. But as far as, yeah, as far as like, yeah. How many times do we see you on camera? It depends. Sometimes several, sometimes once, sometimes none. You know, it's almost every show. Yeah, yeah. And that's it. It is valuable. And that that's the thing. There's a lot of FaceTime there.

My approach, like I said, when I'm very, very grateful for every opportunity that I've gotten with the company, my thought on it was, if you want to be the general manager, I'll be the best general manager you've ever seen. And I'll maximize my minutes. That's an old phrase and it's true. You got to maximize your minutes. I heard Cody saying that was the best advice he ever got from his dad. 100%. Maximize your minutes. Even if it's just on camera for 10 seconds.

What's the stuff that resonates with most? If you went out on the street in Brooklyn now, when you surveyed, you said, hey, give me a catchphrase from wrestling, right? Most of they're going to go suck it. Yeah, that's the bottom line. Do you smell what the rock is? Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. What are you going to do, brother? These are all things that were five seconds at one point. These were all things that were mentioned once. Austin 3.16 says, I'm going to whip your ass.

It was a throwaway, you know, he threw it out there. Yeah. Right. Yeah, that.

Can you tell me anything about the match he had before that promo? I think there's a lot of people casual fans that won't even know who the match was with. They won't even know it was King of the Ring. They won't know it was Jake the Snake. They don't even know why he was saying 2016 is tied into everything with Jake. Yeah, Jake. It was a receipt for Jake's promo. Have you thought about a catchphrase for what you're doing? No, I don't.

No, I mean, first of all, it's not something that I think that you want to force ever. But I also think that I think once you get into catchphrase, to me, I still feel like I'm establishing the...

character. Yeah. It takes a long time. But if you think about the people who've come before you, we've got you are going one on one. Everybody knows the end of that one. Excuse me. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely, I think it's going to happen organically if there is something there. Yeah. That's my thought on it. I don't try to force it. But I think just the overall

feel of your character's not backing down. Yeah. I see comments all the time of like SmackDown finally has a general manager just like doesn't take it crap. You know, I mean, Michael Cole might be the biggest proponent. I mean, you know, Michael Cole's had some very strong words, you know, as far as the comparison to me and my raw counterpart. I'm grateful that I'm on the right side of that. Yeah. Michael Cole may be biting when he doesn't like you.

Boy. Like the things he said about Dom? Yes. Geez. Yeah. You don't want to be on the wrong side of Michael Cole. He's got three hours to bury you. How do you feel about working with Chelsea Green?

I mean, it's a night off. It's great. You don't have to think very hard because she's just going to give you endless material. She's hilarious. What a great example of maximizing a minute. What a great example of taking something that a lot of people would have seen that

particular opportunity. And I think, and I think Chelsea, we've had conversations that, you know, that kind of tipped her around this actually with each other. Chelsea and I've known each other a long time. We're around the same age, like we've been, we've sort of been in a lot of the same places, right? Like we've had a quite a similar career path in some, in some respects. And I think for her, you know, there was this thing of like, will I ever, will I ever get the shot on the main show? Yeah. You know,

And then it comes and I'm sure that it this probably isn't what she first had in mind. I don't want to speak for her, but I would I would venture to say that what she's doing. It probably isn't like what she envisioned a long time ago. But man, has she taken this and run with it?

Yeah. Every time she's on camera, it's so memorable. Even when she got eliminated from the Royal Rumble in however many seconds. She's one of the producers' favorite talents to work with, I'll say that. Because it's just easy. She had business. That's amazing. She has business. It's so good to be able to catch up with you here. What a different... When we talked, I think it was last July, what a different phase of your life you're in right now.

Yeah, I think when you came to the house, I was definitely in a good place. I definitely was excited about, I had no doubt that I was going to get the producer gig. But you didn't know what that was going to turn into. No, and look what it's turned into. I think, if I remember this rightly, I think at the end of our conversation at my house, I said, open mind and open heart.

Right? Yeah. Here we are. And is that still what you have moving forward? Yeah. Gratitude, faith. Come with me. And you've led right into my gratitude question. There we go. This is so good. Well, congrats on everything. Thank you. And you've been absolutely crushing it, and you're only a year into this job right now on camera. Yeah. What are three things, Nick? Maybe they're the same as last time, but what are three things you're grateful for?

the opportunity from Paul Vek, the support of my wife and faith. That's probably the main difference is that I've got much more in touch with my faith this year. Like since we last spoke, that's probably the biggest change is I don't talk about it very much because I feel like it's quite a private thing, but I have definitely

you know, embraced my faith more. Was there something in your life that happened that made you? No. No, not really. We found a great church near us and it just, it's something that I noticed that my son had had a more significant interest and it sort of got me thinking like, yeah, well, you know, I went to Sunday school as a kid. I'll say, you know, school,

Churches in England are, while I certainly appreciate that I got, you know, there are some immaculate, beautiful, old medieval churches like the one I went to in docking where I grew up. But as far as the actual service, a bit dry, you know, a little bit on the dry side. So as a kid, you're sort of like,

This is boring, you know, and then for me, like football, you played football on a Sunday. So Sunday league football was the sort of thing that got, you know, I didn't do it to get out of church, but it was the sort of thing that, you know, separated me from that.

Um, and then, uh, you know, it just, like I said, because my son, you know, started to sort of express, you know, some curiosity to like, he goes to a Christian school and, um, Mickey has always had, you know, pretty strong faith and, and we just said, well, maybe there's a, maybe there's something, maybe there's something there, maybe, you know, maybe it's, maybe that's the thing that's missing, you know, maybe we're sort of maybe we want to,

Because there is a, look, I don't want to, I don't push it on anyone and I don't, and I, you know, everyone's to me, everyone's faith is different. And it's totally private and I couldn't care less where you are on the spectrum. Yeah. But I will say that the community that we've been able to, you know, develop, you know, and meet, you know, it's, it's,

No matter where, like I said, no matter where you are, it's like to be able to go into a place. And, you know, everybody there is shaking your hand and say, welcome, you know, like I'm so and so, oh, this is my wife. So I was like, you know, and it's my, my, my kids made a bunch of new friends and, you know, it's like there's just, there's a lot of community there and it's, um, that's something that has, you know,

Move me forward. Yeah, well those are three great things to be grateful for absolutely good to see my friend. Thank you

All right, my friends, I just love chatting with Nick. So good to be able to catch up with him and the huge congrats on all of the success that he's having. Like, when you think of a SmackDown general manager, yeah, of course you think about Teddy Long, who was a great guest on the show. Go back and listen to that from a few months ago if you haven't already listened to it.

But man, Nick Aldis is really carving out his own thing here, and I love to see it. I also appreciate his honesty about his in-ring career saying that he's not that dare. He still wants to lace him up again, not just for one more match from the sounds of it. He wants to lace him up again. Feels like he still has a lot more to give.

Snap a screenshot and tag us online to let us know you were listening to this episode and so that we can share it out as well. He's at Real Nick Aldis on Twitter. He's at Nick Aldis on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Fleet and I will wrap this up with a quote from Howard Thurman. Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Mm. I love that. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Ricardo Rodriguez joins us on Thursday. That was a fun one. We will see you on Thursday for that.