Cody Rhodes has discussed his AEW exit and says there was a “personal matter” between himself and Tony Khan but he still has love for his fellow EVPs.
After months of speculation, the worst kept secret in wrestling in 2022 was revealed when The American Nightmare Cody Rhodes re-debuted for WWE at WrestleMania 38. It had been speculated that Rhodes was on a collision course with Seth Rollins for the event and that’s what came to pass as the former AEW EVP was announced as Rollins’ mystery opponent on WrestleMania Saturday.
In conversation with Ariel Helwani, Rhodes revealed that his stunning AEW exit came down to a personal matter between himself and AEW President Tony Khan:
“Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the personal matter itself. Tony Khan, who I have genuine respect for and I hope history is really kind to because he bankrolled this entire grassroots movement starting in ROH, then All In happened, AEW happened, then he was able to buy that footage back.”
“I felt like we were drifting apart. Had I asked him for ‘this,’ he’s the type of man that would have given it to me. It just genuinely felt like it was time, I can’t comment on the personal nature, it was nothing nefarious or scandalous, just we couldn’t agree. Nothing but respect for him, his family, and the infrastructure there.”
“I have a watch collection that I just started. The first nice watch I ever got was from him. I gave him one last year as a return gift and I thought, ‘do I not pack this? Is this chapter over?’ I packed it because it’s never over. Part of who I am is from those ten years and part of who I am is from the last six as well.”
“It’s something that I don’t know if he’ll ever share ultimately what went down, but it was nothing crazy, it was a rather easy decision.”
Cody Rhodes then explained why he might have thought returning to WWE was the easiest decision in the world, there was still a level of difficulty to leaving a company he helped build from the ground up:
“Hard, and hard to explain, hard to explain to the fans, which we didn’t, and hard to explain to the talent. One week I was there, next week, Ricky Starks and QT (Marshall), bringing in bags and getting all my stuff out of the box and making the biggest scene they possibly could instead of being discreet as I asked them to and I was gone.”
“My own brother, you think he’s going to text me, ‘I love you, I’m so proud of you.’ The thing he texted me that day was, ‘Can I use your locker room?’ True older brother fashion. Yeah, I guess, it’s not mine anymore. I had a wonderful experience there, and I feel the experience had maxed out, you never want to get into a situation where the love goes away. I wanted to keep the love.”
“I know Matt, Nick, and Kenny…I don’t know if they sit in circles and hate on me or talk poorly about me, I hope they wouldn’t, but if they don’t know, I try to tell them on a regular basis, I absolutely love those guys. Instrumental. We did it together. I helped them, they helped me. I have nothing but love and it’ll always be that way.”
Cody Rhodes also recently discussed when he got the urge to return to WWE and admits he’s back partly to try and protect his Royal Rumble record.