Nick Aldis reveals when he learned he’d be wrestling at WWE SummerSlam
Nick Aldis did not have a lot of time to get into ring shape before his first match since 2023.
Aldis wrestled Gunther at WWE SummerSlam on Saturday, August 1. Following the match, he appeared on WWE Now with Sam Roberts and said that he only learned he’d be wrestling on the show a month ago.
Aldis said:
“That’s the first thing I told Ed Koskey when I first found out about this. Look, to find out quite out of the blue, you can have a match with one of the top guys in the world, right? Top guy in the company, SummerSlam, in a stadium. Amazing, right?’
“But then, when he told me this, that was in Saudi Arabia, and I went, ‘When is SummerSlam?’ He said August 1st. Today’s June the 30th or June the 29th, and I was, ‘That’s a month.’
“And I go, ‘Ed, there’s a big difference between physique shape and ring shape.’ And I go, ‘I am not in ring shape. You have an awful lot of faith in me to…’
“Because obviously, without having too many conversations, I had a pretty good idea of what it was gonna be. And I was, ‘Yeah, that’s great and everything.’ But I talked about this on Chris Van Vliet this week, where I said I think the most sort of surprising part of all this was how casual Triple H and upper management seemed to be about this. No one’s kind of gone, ‘Are you ready? Can you do this? Are you good with this?’ They were just kind of, ‘Ah, have a match with Gunther.’ I haven’t worked in three years. And of all people, with Gunther. Right?”
Aldis then joked that he believed he got blown up during his entrance.
Nick Aldis vs. Gunther at WWE SummerSlam
Aldis was defeated by Gunther in a match that went 11 minutes and 40 seconds. He was joined in the ring afterward by his family, including his wife, Mickie James.
Triple H revealed during the post-show press conference that Aldis has now been reinstated as the general manager of SmackDown.
The full edition of WWE Now featuring Aldis’ appearance is available below.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has appeared in award-winning publications such as NOW Magazine and The Huffington Post. He joined the F4WOnline team in 2019 and was named managing editor in the summer of 2026. Born in Calgary, Alberta, Ian has covered professional wrestling for more than 15 years.