News

Nick Aldis Addresses Return To IMPACT Wrestling

nick aldis impact wrestling steve maclin

A familiar face returned to IMPACT Wrestling when Nick Aldis appeared at Rebellion and also got into the ring with the company’s new World Champion.

This past Sunday at the Impact Wrestling Rebellion pay-per-view, Nick Aldis announced to the world that he was back in Impact. Aldis was an announcer during the Steve Maclin-Kushida match for the vacant Impact World Title. Maclin won the title in a competitive match and then attacked Impact’s President Scott D’Amore with the title after the match. That led to Aldis getting into the ring with Maclin, who backed away with his title.

During his original run in Impact Wrestling from 2008 to 2015, Nick Aldis was known as Magnus. He started out as a guy in his early 20s with a lot of potential and eventually became Impact Wrestling World Champion. Aldis was also a two-time Tag Team Champion in Impact.

From 2017 until his departure at the end of 2022, Aldis was the face of the NWA as a two-time Worlds Heavyweight Champion that chose to leave when his deal expired.

In an interview with PWMania, Nick Aldis talked about signing with Impact Wrestling while mentioning injuries to former Impact World Champion Josh Alexander as well as Nick’s wife Mickie James also relinquishing the Knockouts Title due to injury.

“We had been chatting back and forth for a little while now, Impact and I, and then the opportunity presented itself, and we were all very much on the same page, and we were all excited about it. So then we shook hands, and we made an agreement, and I was set to start at Rebellion.”

“Obviously, people know that Josh Alexander got hurt, and obviously Mickie [James] got hurt, so there was a lot of sort of speculation and extenuating circumstances anyway, but it sort of tied in quite well because it was agreed upon that I would come back and immediately state my intention to be in the mix for the World Title. So it was a very fun way to get stuck in. I’m tremendously grateful to Impact for showing that sort of level of respect. So now the responsibility is mine to prove them right.”

It is not known how long Aldis signed for. Some Impact Wrestling deals are as short as six months long while others could last several years.

Nick Aldis also spoke about being impressed by Impact’s production values.

“I was really, really impressed with the level of production at Rebellion. I thought that venue was fantastic. The production level Impact has just steadily improved, incrementally. You can really feel it hitting their stride now with packages and their entrances. It’s been really cool to sort of see that.”

“And Eric Tompkins, who I’ve known since I was in Impact the first go, he’s one of the guys who was there before in the previous administration. Getting to work with him again right out of the chute is really fun because we already know each other and we sort of understand each other and how I want to be presented and how they want to sort of tell their stories.”

There was a recent report that WWE’s Paul “Triple H” Levesque has wanted to sign Nick Aldis to a deal since he’s been a free agent this year, but it hasn’t happened yet due to a reported “hiring freeze” since WWE was recently acquired by Endeavor. Depending on how long Aldis is signed to Impact for, he could end up in WWE at some point in the future.

Impact Wrestling is promoting a Nick Aldis promo for tonight’s episode of Impact.