Nick Aldis on Being Named SmackDown GM – Kevin Owens Trade – Nick Aldis made his WWE TV debut on the October 13 episode of WWE SmackDown, as he was named as the new General Manager of SmackDown. Aldis then announced that Kevin Owens had been traded to SmackDown to complete Raw’s trade for Jey Uso.
In a SmackDown Exclusive, Aldis commented on being named the General Manager of WWE SmackDown.
“I’m feeling wonderful. Like I said out there, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime to be the general manager of SmackDown, the number one brand in all of sports entertainment. Wow. It’s a testament to the many hats that I’ve worn in the industry outside of the ring. To be bestowed that trust by Triple H and the rest of the management team at WWE is a huge thrill,” Aldis said.
Nick Aldis continued by detailing his mindset surrounding the trade for former Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion Kevin Owens. He stated that SmackDown had to get a star who was a top-tier talent like Jey Uso. Aldis also explained that he felt like it was time for Owens to return to singles competition. He noted that he negotiated with Adam Pearce and Triple H to get the deal done.
“My first order of business was to select and to negotiate for a trade in kind. Now, Jey Uso is a top-tier talent, so that kind of narrows the field as to who would be eligible. For me, as a GM, the most important responsibility I have is to the SmackDown audience. I knew that SmackDown fans would only tolerate a very small number of talent to be eligible to replace a talent of Jey Uso’s caliber. So when I got to thinking about it, there’s a lot of different moving parts, a lot of nuances. I won’t bore you with all those right now. But I felt like Kevin Owens met the criteria for a number of reasons, one obviously being that he is a very top-tier talent. But also, we’re in a new season, and I feel like Kevin is entering a new season of his career, meaning that he has just come off a incredible run with Sami as the tag team champions. So I feel like the time is right for him to look at singles completion again. With that in mind, I felt like all of those different parts were in the right place, so I made a call to Kevin. We discussed things. I talked to Adam, I talked to Triple H. We made some negotiations, and we got the deal done,” Aldis said.
Nick Aldis on Being Named SmackDown GM – Kevin Owens Trade
