Nick Aldis Comments After Costing GUNTHER & Sami Zayn WWE SummerSlam Title Shot, Mickie James & More React

WWE

SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis has commented after costing GUNTHER and Sami Zayn a shot at the Undisputed WWE Championship at SummerSlam 2026.

The closing match of the July 18 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event at Madison Square Garden saw Undisputed WWE Champion CM Punk and Cody Rhodes take on the team of GUNTHER and Sami Zayn.

As was confirmed by Adam Pearce on the July 10 episode of SmackDown, if successful in beating Punk and Rhodes, GUNTHER and Zayn would have been added to the Undisputed WWE Title match between the ‘Best in the World’ and ‘American Nightmare’ at SummerSlam, but that is not what ending up happening in New York City last night.

During the latter stages of the match, GUNTHER capitalized on referee Charles Robinson being down by both hitting Rhodes with the Undisputed WWE Title and delivering a Powerbomb. However, when a new referee (Danilo Anfibio) rushed to the ring to count the three, SmackDown GM Nick Aldis emerged and yanked him out the ring, before hitting GUNTHER with the WWE Championship.

Aldis would then add insult to injury by throwing Robinson back into the ring, leading to Punk and Rhodes picking up the win.

Following Saturday Night’s Main Event, Aldis took to Twitter to comment, reacting to WWE’s post of the clip of the incident which asked ‘DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?!?’ by writing:

Damn right it did.

Aldis wasn’t the only one satisfied with getting some payback, as his wife Mickie James also commented on her husband’s actions, posting:

Revenge is so sweet.

While Aldis’ actions were in retaliation to GUNTHER’s unprovoked attack on the July 10 episode of SmackDown, perhaps not everyone was in agreement that him getting involved in last night’s match was the right thing to do.

Aldis’ WWE Raw counterpart Adam Pearce reacted to what happened by writing: “No words”, while Stephanie McMahon made clear that she wasn’t a fan of Aldis’ involvement during the Saturday Night’s Main Event broadcast.

NXT GM Robert Stone, who is quite familiar with Aldis through their shared time in TNA, also reacted on Twitter to the incident, only writing “Unreal.”

At Long Last, Nick Aldis Gets The Chance To Show His Skills Inside The Ring In WWE

Ever since Nick Aldis first debuted on WWE TV in October 2023, fans have been hoping that the company will, one day, allow the former TNA and NWA World Champion to show what he’s capable of between the ropes, rather than exclusively keep him in his SmackDown General Manager’s office.

While it remains to be seen whether Aldis will be ditching the suit for good, it now appears almost certain that it will be he versus GUNTHER one-on-one at SummerSlam.

At 39 years old, Aldis is still younger than many of the top stars on the current roster, and if he and ‘The Ring General’ tear the house down in Minneapolis, there’s surely a good chance that we see more from the former Magnus inside a WWE ring.

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• GUNTHER
• wwe
• SummerSlam
• Sami Zayn
• mickie james
• Robert stone
• nick aldis
• Adam Pearce
• saturday night's main event

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