AEW Executive Vice-President and reigning TNT Champion, Cody spoke to The Rich Eisen Show and declared what he felt set AEW apart from other wrestling companies.
Cody stated:
“Authenticity. That’s really — when I get around individuals, sometimes like the WarnerMedia marketing team or new people to wrestling, they want to know what makes us different. That’s the No. 1 thing I’ll say. What I’ll say to extrapolate authenticity for a wrestler, it’s these characters.”
‘The American Nightmare’ explained:
“Back in the 80s and 70s, when wrestling fans were rabid for wrestling, you’ll hear people say all the time, ‘Well, it’s because they thought it was real. It was suspension of disbelief.’ And I disagree with that notion, especially if you look at some of the silly stuff that Ric Flair, and Dusty [Rhodes], and Hulk [Hogan] were doing. I actually think it was the connection made to the characters, and the only way you can reach across the barricade and actually connect in a way that they want to see you win or they root for you to lose is being authentic; in your interview, authentic in your ring work. And that’s what we have that separates us from everybody.”
AEW Dynamite was recently renewed until 2023 on TNT. There will be plenty of opportunities for fans to see more of AEW’s characters in future.
You can watch Cody’s interview in full, below, and you can catch Cody in action every week on TNT on AEW Dynamite.