When Rusev Day split in the summer of 2018 and the feud ended in the fall, Aiden English became lost in the shuffle. Rarely appearing on television following the feud, English joined the 205 Live commentary team in January 2019, carving out a new role from himself in the company.
Speaking to Inside The Ropes, English discussed the transition from wrestler to announcer.
"Rusev Day came to an end, much to the chagrin of many in the WWE Universe. We wish we could have ringed it out a little bit more, but it is what it is. Wrestling is a rollercoaster. At the time, I wasn't involved in anything major, so I was always looking for something to do and pitching ideas. Tom Phillips was like, 'Hey, you wanna give this a try? I think you'd be good at it.' I went to the Performance Center, got in the booth, called some matches, and literally the next week we were at television and Michael Cole said, 'We're going to put you on 205 Live and see how it goes. You let me know what you think and if you want to keep going, we'll keep going.' I fell in love with it more than I thought I would. It was a challenge and it gave me something to sink my teeth into every week instead of throwing a pitch out there hoping someone would hear it. I love telling stories so to be able to put those guys (on 205 Live) over, it was a big honor for me. It was an unexpected transition, but one I ended up loving more than I expected," he said.
English served on the commentary team up to the ongoing pandemic, last working as an announcer on the April 3 episode of the show. Unfortunately, on April 15, English was part of the company-wide cutbacks made by WWE.
Elsewhere during the interview, English discussed his chemistry with Rusev in Rusev Day. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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