Suspending Kevin Owens was not a difficult decision for Nick Aldis.
On the November 10 episode of WWE SmackDown, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis allowed Kevin Owens to fill in on commentary but warned him that he would get suspended if he got physical. Later in the show, Austin Theory and Grayson Waller goaded Owens into attacking them, and Aldis subsequently suspended Owens.
Speaking on the November 15 episode of WWE's The Bump, Aldis commented on his decision to suspend Kevin Owens.
“It wasn’t a tough decision. I’m the man who facilitated KO coming to the blue brand. I think he’s one of the very top competitors in the WWE. But I have to stick to my word. As a leader and as an executive, my word is everything. In this business, your word is your bond. That is a mantra as old as the hills in our industry. I told KO earlier in the night, ‘Yes, you can sit in for Corey Graves. But please don’t get physical.' Because it’s such an obvious outcome when you’re dealing with the type of personalities that we’re dealing with on Friday nights. So I said, ‘Look, you have to be a leader to the locker room. You have to rise above juvenile provocation, and you have to set an example for our young superstars, and not get physical, not get involved in matches, not influence the outcome of WWE contests, particularly at such a pivotal moment in the calendar leading into Survivor Series.’ He didn’t follow through with that, and I had no choice but to follow through with my word, which was, if you do, I have no choice but to suspend you. So he left me no choice. Certainly not a nefarious thing, certainly it a malicious thing. It’s just my word, and my word is my bond, and as a professional, I had no choice," Aldis said.
As of this writing, there is no word on when Kevin Owens will return to WWE programming.
Fightful will provide more information as it becomes available.
Click here to see what Nick Aldis had to say about his journey to WWE and his role as the General Manager of WWE SmackDown.
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