{"id":164940,"date":"2026-07-25T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=164940"},"modified":"2026-07-25T09:07:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:07:03","slug":"nick-aldis-5-matches-you-must-watch-before-wwe-summerslam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/07\/25\/nick-aldis-5-matches-you-must-watch-before-wwe-summerslam\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Aldis: 5 Matches to Watch Before WWE SummerSlam 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Aldis will make his WWE in-ring debut at the tender age of 39. His WWE SummerSlam 2026 match comes three years after he joined WWE<\/a> as General Manager of WWE SmackDown, following a 20-year career inside the ropes. Aldis has always said he\u2019d like to return to the ring. Now, he gets that chance in WWE in a showdown with “Career Killer” Gunther at WWE SummerSlam, which is hotly anticipated.<\/p>\n

Aldis quit as GM<\/a> so he could face Gunther next weekend. But what, oh what, can we expect from the British grappler<\/a>? Chuck on these five matches and you\u2019ll get a good overview of Nick Aldis between the ropes – and probably become a big fan along the way.<\/p>\n

Top 5 “Must-Watch” Nick Aldis Matches Before SummerSlam 2026<\/h2>\n

Nick Aldis vs. Cody Rhodes – NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship (All In, 9\/1\/2018)<\/h2>\n

Nick Aldis was presented as the most important NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion of the modern age on the biggest independent wrestling show of all time. Aldis was 266 days into a reign that got people talking about the iconic title once again.<\/p>\n

Harley Race, Ric Flair, Lou Thesz and Jeff Jarrett are just some of the names that made the belt famous. The latter stood in Aldis\u2019s corner as he defended the title against a wildly popular Cody Rhodes. Rhodes was looking to win the title his father Dusty had held three times.<\/p>\n

It was both men\u2019s most important match in their careers at that point, and they delivered on the hype. The two-out-of-three falls rematch at the NWA 70th Anniversary show is also worth watching to complete the mini-feud between Aldis and Rhodes.<\/p>\n

Jeff Hardy vs Nick Aldis (Magnus) – TNA World Heavyweight Championship (IMPACT Wrestling: Final Resolution, 12\/3\/13)<\/h2>\n

Spoiler alert: this match makes the list for the outcome alone. Aldis, under his previous ring name as Magnus, becomes the first British wrestler to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also worth watching for the unique stipulation. The winner would be the first man to escape a cage, make their way to the top of the entrance ramp, climb a ladder and retrieve the TNA World Heavyweight Championship under the watchful eye of Dixie Carter.<\/p>\n

Five years into his TNA career, Magnus would have his breakout moment in a tournament to fill the vacant title. He defeated longtime rival (more on that in a minute) Samoa Joe and then Kurt Angle to advance to the final.<\/p>\n

Magnus faced Hardy and proved he would do anything to ensure this opportunity wouldn\u2019t pass him by. The match was a decent back-and-forth cage bout with ‘this is awesome’ chants largely off the back of Hardy’s Whisper in the Wind off the top of the cage.<\/p>\n

But added intrigue was added by the presence of Carter and her nephew EC3 and Rockstar Spud. Magnus would take advantage of Spud’s assault on Hardy to climb the ladder and gain the historic victory.<\/p>\n

\"A
A photo of Nick Aldis, AKA Magnus, with Desmond Wolfe in TNA Wrestling. (Photo Credit: By daysofthundr46 – https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/10542402@N06\/4868256164\/in\/set-72157624669940058\/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=11117356)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Magnus vs. Sting TNA World Heavyweight Championship vs. Sting’s Career (IMPACT Wrestling: Genesis, 1\/16\/14)<\/h2>\n

A month into his title reign, Magnus had already defeated Samoa Joe and AJ Styles in TNA World Championship matches. But many speculated his run would be short when he put the title up against Sting’s<\/a> TNA career.<\/p>\n

This no-DQ match is a bit of a farce due to a five-on-one beatdown on Sting midway through the match. But help is on hand from Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle to even things back to one-on-one. The many interferences do give a good backstory on Magnus and Sting’s TNA careers up to that point. Ultimately, it is a match that represents Magnus as the chosen champion by TNA Owner Dixie Carter.<\/p>\n

Magnus vs. Samoa Joe – TNA World Heavyweight Championship Cage Match (TNA Lockdown, 3\/9\/14)<\/h2>\n

Magnus’s best story throughout his TNA run was undoubtedly with Samoa Jo<\/a>e. In 2011, the two were thrown together in a Wild Card tag team tournament. Although they failed to win the initial tournament, they remained as a tag team in TNA. Magnus and Joe would go on to enjoy two tag team title reigns in TNA and hold the GHC Tag Team Championship in the Japanese promotion NOAH.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

The tag team ended similarly to how it began when they were thrown against each other in the Bound For Glory gauntlet match. Magnus turned on Joe when he beat him. He would fail to take Joe’s TNA TV title during this first feud in 2013.<\/p>\n

But it is their match from TNA Lockdown 2014 inside a steel cage that needs a watch. It perfectly sums up the bitter rivalry between the two men. So far in his title reign, Magnus had benefitted from interference and the office allowing him favorable rules.<\/p>\n

But things changed when he was forced to face Joe in a cage under the challenger’s rules of pin, tap out or knockout. With the odds no longer in Magnus’s favor, could he finally step out of the shadow of his former tag team partner?<\/p>\n

Jacob Fatu vs. Nick Aldis – HOG Heavyweight Championship (House of Glory: Revelations, 12\/17\/22)<\/h2>\n

After a controversial departure from NWA, Aldis showed up in various independent promotions before he settled in WWE. One such surprise appearance was at House of Glory when he challenged for the HOG Heavyweight Championship against Jacob Fatu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A
A photo of WWE star Nick Aldis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a fun match to watch. If Aldis goes on to have multiple bouts in WWE, this is one we could see on the big stage. Aldis cuts a superb heel promo before the contest that shows a side to him we haven’t seen in WWE. Taking place just before Christmas, I’m pretty sure this is also the only Nick Aldis match you can watch that has two giant Santas hanging from the rafters.<\/p>\n

It is a match full of big moves and near falls, well worth a watch to see Aldis on the Indy scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Aldis will make his WWE in-ring debut at the tender age of 39. His WWE SummerSlam 2026 match comes three years after he joined WWE as General Manager of WWE SmackDown, following a 20-year career inside the ropes. Aldis has always said he\u2019d like to return to the ring. Now, he gets that chance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3852,"featured_media":164958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,7205,6,6504,2192,8959,3],"tags":[98,8238,3006,520,1765,214],"class_list":["post-164940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-featured","category-history","category-north-america","category-nwa","category-wrestling","category-tna-wrestling","category-wwe-universe","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-gunther","tag-jacob-fatu","tag-magnus","tag-nick-aldis","tag-samoa-joe"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3852"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164940"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164959,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164940\/revisions\/164959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}