WWE is renewing the rivalry between Raw and SmackDown thanks to Nick Aldis

Raw General Manager Adam Pearce made an appearance on WWE’s weekly show The Bump to address recent events in WWE, specifically, his sole job now as Raw’s GM after Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque named veteran sports entertainer Nick Aldis as the new General Manager of Smackdown.

With his workload cut in half, Pearce talked about what it means to him not having to prepare for two worldwide broadcasts in the same week for the first time since January 2020.

“Yeah, I’ve been pretty busy for the last four years preparing for Raw and Smackdown, and to be honest with you, what went through my head was trying to figure out what I’m going to do with the extra time. I’m not used to having time to breathe, think, or do anything else. And now I have half a week to devote to something other than SmackDown, which I graciously hand over to my compatriot Nick Aldis.”

Speaking of Aldis, Pearce said he has no doubts that his new counterpart is eager and prepared to prove himself, saying of the blue brand’s new GM, “I can’t think of anybody better for the role.”

During the show, it was noted how Pearce and Aldis have had a similar experience in the wrestling business outside of WWE (both are former NWA World Champions). Pearce was asked about how that experience might help Aldis in his new position, to which Pearce responded:

“The thing that jumps out to me about Nick, and a lot of people may or may not be aware of this, our career paths are pretty parallel. He’s the same age coming into WWE that I was when I joined WWE in 2015. And I made a post on what used to be called Twitter about Nick and I and how we’ve achieved what we’ve achieved and gotten to where we are today.

“And the thing that has always stood out to me about Nick Aldis is his respect for legacy. And Smackdown, now we share that legacy like we have in the past. We’ve shared former legacies and honors, and that respect made it very easy for me to kind of relinquish and turn the plate over, a very full plate, by the way, to Nick, and we’ll see what happens. Friday’s a big, big day for him. It’s probably the biggest day for him in his career, and we’ll see if he’s ready.”

With more time to devote exclusively to Monday Nights, Pearce said he’s excited about the renewed rivalry between Raw and SmackDown now that there are two GMs at the helm of each program while expressing confidence in which side will come out on top:

“Let’s face facts. The last three and a half, four years, it’s very hard to plan two broadcasts and try to make them as good as possible, realizing that they’re direct competition with each other. So now, I’m not competing with myself anymore. I have somebody else to look at, we can play that chess game. We can see who, in fact, will make their broadcast the number one sports entertainment broadcast on the planet. I’m betting on me and I got a head start.”

What do you make of Nick Aldis as the new SmackDown GM, Cagesiders? Between him and Adam Pearce, who are you betting on to deliver a better show?