Why Nick Aldis Makes SummerSlam Matter More to Me
Nick Aldis is wrestling Gunther at SummerSlam, and that makes me care a lot more about the show.
I was already going to follow SummerSlam. It is one of WWE’s biggest events, and there are matches and storylines that interest me. Danhausen has also been one of the few bright spots in a WWE product that has bored me too often lately.
Aldis gives me a more personal reason to care.
My interest in him goes back to 2019, when I watched NWA Powerrr for the first time. I had followed wrestling closely in the past, but my interest had faded. Billy Corgan’s version of the National Wrestling Alliance caught my attention in a way other wrestling had not.
Nick Aldis was a major reason why.
Aldis was the NWA world heavyweight champion and came across as an old-school heel champion. He wore the suits, carried himself with confidence and acted as though he was better than every wrestler trying to take the title from him.
He was polished, arrogant and believable. The championship felt like an important part of who he was, not something he happened to carry to the ring.
The Corgan-era NWA drew heavily from wrestling history, but Aldis helped keep it from feeling like a nostalgia act. He carried himself like the man everyone else had to chase. He made the NWA world title feel important because he treated it that way.
Aldis was not the only wrestler I enjoyed during that period, and I am not arguing that he alone brought me back. He was simply the wrestler who stood out at the right time. His version of the NWA champion gave me something familiar enough to recognize and strong enough to care about.
As I have written before, Corgan’s NWA reignited my love of professional wrestling. Watching Powerrr pulled me deeper into the promotion and eventually helped put me on the path that led to DMV Wrestling News.
Aldis was at the center of that experience.
That renewed interest soon brought me back to a live wrestling show.
On February 9, 2020, I attended Ring of Honor’s Free Enterprise at the UMBC Event Center in Baltimore. It was the first modern professional wrestling show I attended.
I went because Nick Aldis was appearing.
Aldis teamed with Rush against Ring of Honor world champion PCO and Marty Scurll in the main event. There were other parts of the show I enjoyed, but Aldis was the reason I bought a ticket. His work in the NWA had made me interested enough to see him wrestle in person.
Free Enterprise took place only weeks before COVID-19 shut down live wrestling. The pandemic changed the wrestling business and interrupted plans involving Aldis, the NWA and Ring of Honor.
After live events returned, I began attending independent wrestling shows around the region. That eventually led me to start DMV Wrestling News and later receive media credentials from promotions including the NWA, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Major League Wrestling.
I trace much of that back to watching Aldis in the NWA. He was one of the wrestlers who made professional wrestling matter to me again and helped turn renewed interest into something lasting.
Aldis left the NWA at the end of 2022. He returned to Impact Wrestling, now TNA Wrestling, at Rebellion in April 2023 and soon challenged Alex Shelley for the Impact world championship at Slammiversary.
It was a return to a company where he had spent an important part of his career. Wrestling as Magnus, Aldis became the TNA world heavyweight champion before his later run at the top of the NWA. He is also married to Mickie James, whose career includes major runs in WWE and TNA.
Aldis began working with WWE as a backstage producer in August 2023. At the time, he made it clear that he still considered himself an active wrestler.
When WWE named him general manager of SmackDown that October, I hoped the on-screen role would eventually lead to him getting in the ring.
He has done well as general manager. Aldis has the presence and credibility to stand across from WWE’s biggest stars without looking out of place. He sounds like someone in charge and carries himself like someone the wrestlers should take seriously.
I still wanted to see him wrestle.
For many WWE fans, Nick Aldis is the well-dressed authority figure who announces matches, handles disputes and occasionally confronts a wrestler who has gone too far.
They have not seen the version of Aldis that first caught my attention.
They did not see him at the center of the revived NWA, carrying its world championship as an old-school heel and making a small studio wrestling program feel important. Some may not remember his time as Magnus in TNA or his brief return to Impact before joining WWE.
They may not understand why some of us already saw him as a legitimate world champion before WWE put him behind a desk.
That is one reason his match with Gunther has my attention.
Gunther has been presented as one of WWE’s most dangerous wrestlers. Aldis is not getting an easy opponent for his first WWE match. He is stepping into the ring with someone who can immediately test whether he can still perform at that level.
Gunther has built his reputation through physical matches and a serious approach to wrestling. Aldis built much of his reputation by carrying himself like a world champion and understanding the psychology of that role.
Neither man needs a complicated story to make the match interesting.
There have been reports that WWE will pay close attention to how fans respond to Aldis. Even without that report, it is reasonable to believe that his performance and the audience reaction could influence whether WWE gives him more matches or returns him to the general manager role.
That gives the match added stakes. Aldis may be getting the opportunity to show WWE that fans want to see him as more than the SmackDown general manager.
I have wanted to see Aldis wrestle in WWE since he arrived in 2023. At SummerSlam, he finally gets that opportunity against one of the company’s best opponents.
If WWE is watching to see how fans respond, I hope they notice that some of us have been waiting for this match for years.