Nick Aldis addresses injury rumor that seemingly forced WWE change
Nick Aldis already had a 20-year wrestling career when signed by WWE in 2023. Although it was a managerial role, an in-ring debut was anticipated by many fans and veterans who were familiar with his work. However, there were rumors that the position was to deflect a back injury which the WWE manager has clarified details behind the position appointment and his physical condition.
Aldis dismissed the rumor during his interaction with Chris Van Vliet on the Insight Podcast. While he had issues with his lower back that forced him to be omitted from a few matches on the indies, it was not a subject exclusively considered for his WWE designation.
“Yeah, it’s funny because some of that was just some interesting timing. Because no, I was not put in that role because I was hurt,” stated Aldis. “It wasn’t a case of being not cleared or needing time to heal up or anything like that.”
“Having said that, it’s been wonderful to have some time to heal up, and actually the truth is, I probably did have some issues that I was not fully aware of until I actually had time for my body to heal properly. One being my back.”
“Some of this was magnified by the fact that right around the time that, I don’t know if I had signed yet, but I was shadowing and I was coming to TVs and getting to know everybody. I had a few dates left, and one of them was going to be a return match with Alex Shelley at an independent show. I believe it was in Chicago, may have been Detroit. And for probably the first time in my career outside of being legitimately injured and having surgery was the first time where I had to call and pull out because my back was really bad.”
Aldis explained the condition and pain he felt in his back and immediately got it checked by the medical team. He was worried it might be a herniated disc but it ended up being huge inflammation causing the discomfort.
“I’d had this sort of constant nagging pain in my back where it would really vary. Some days it would be fine, and then other days it would just completely ruin my whole day. And eventually, I remember being a couple of days out from the show and just calling the guy and saying, ‘I’m so sorry, but I’m just having trouble moving around. I’m gonna have to pull out; my back is shot.’ I went to Vanderbilt in Nashville and saw a specialist because it felt like I had a bulging disc or herniated disc. Turns out I actually just had huge inflammation. There’s like a thin sheet of muscle that sits behind your spinal erectus, I believe.”
“Finally, this specialist at Vanderbilt was able to find it, and he goes, ‘Yeah, that’s why it feels like a bulging disc or a herniated disc. You actually just have massive inflammation in this muscle.’ He said, ‘You’re fine. Actually, your spine’s in pretty good order.’ I just got checked out at the Orlando Magic Facility in Orlando a couple weeks ago, and they said the same thing. The guy said, ‘Look, you know, you’ve got the spine of a 39-year-old wrestler, but actually in the scheme of things it’s pretty good.’ It just turned out that I just needed these specific anti-inflammatories. Cleared it up instantly.”
“That was the thing that had been bugging me for like two years. So it was really just a case of just me being a stubborn idiot, and just sort of almost not wanting to know, thinking I’ll just figure it out, or I’ll just wear a back brace, or I’ll just do this, whatever. And all I needed was some anti-inflammatories, and it was just like something had just aggravated this specific stabilizer muscle, and it was just super inflamed.”
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.