Former Champion addresses retirement speculation after lengthy WWE in-ring absence

Aiden English has taken to Twitter to confirm that he has not retired from in-ring competition, despite his last televised WWE match taking place almost one year ago.

The former NXT Tag Team Champion featured prominently on WWE programming as a member of the SmackDown roster in 2017-18, but he stopped appearing on the show after his storyline with Rusev came to an end in October 2018.

Since then, the 32-year-old has only competed in one match – a defeat against Kassius Ohno at the Worlds Collide event in April 2019 – while he has transitioned into a commentary role on 205 Live over the last year.

Responding to a Twitter user who asked whether he has retired, English simply said, “Nope.”

Nope https://t.co/9EFf5l3oQo

— CommentaryKingWWE (@WWEDramaKing) February 23, 2020

Aiden English’s WWE career

After signing with WWE in early 2012, Aiden English made his first major impression on television in June 2014 when he joined forces with Simon Gotch to form The Vaudevillains in NXT.

The two men won the NXT Tag Team titles in August 2015, defeating Blake & Murphy at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, but their reign only lasted 61 days before they lost to The Revival.

In April 2017, following one year on the main roster as a tag team, The Vaudevillains were forced to separate when Simon Gotch was released from his WWE contract.

English then became a singles competitor before he formed the Rusev Day tag team with Rusev between September 2017 and September 2018.