Cody Rhodes will never wish for the downfall of AEW.
Following a successful run following his WWE exit, The American Nightmare and The Elite partnered with Tony Khan to establish All Elite Wrestling in 2019. Serving as an Executive Vice President and an onscreen talent, Rhodes helped to establish AEW as a viable promotion that quickly became the second biggest in the United States.
In February 2022, Cody Rhodes shocked the world when he announced that he would be leaving AEW, which would lead to his eventual WWE return at WrestleMania 38. It was cited as a personal reason why Rodes left the promotion.
Despite no longer being All Elite, The American Nightmare stated that there is no ill will towards the promotion. Appearing on the Cheap Heat podcast, the Undisputed Champion stated that although reports may have said otherwise, he will always have a fondness for AEW:
“These questions, I always now — I’m very careful about because they’re the number one question that will be cited when this interview hits. I’ll say: the narrative changed a lot about my contributions to AEW, and that was very disappointing. There were some people, I’m not going to say their names, they know who they were, who kind of tried to put some propaganda out when I left.
There’s a quote in The Young Bucks’ book about how I was last to the signing. And me and Matt & Nick [Jackson] are as close as ever, so glad that I’ve had them in my career and my life. But if we are being honest, AEW does not happen without me. It doesn’t. And with that in mind, I could never root against it. It’s like having a kid and they go off to college and they get a DUI or they get in trouble… I’ll always have that in my heart for them.
It certainly was a wound that was more gaping and painful than people realize, because now they look at the situation and they’re like, ‘Oh man, you’re on top of the world, you have everything.’ Maybe they don’t understand that I really gave everything I could. I did. And, yeah, I could never see a day where I was rooting against them.”
Continuing, Rhodes explained how important it is for AEW to keep operating and explaining the multiple issues that would occur if they were to close.
Additionally, he appeared to respond to Toni Storm’s apparent jab at him during the AEW Dynasty post-show press conference, stating that AEW talent should never bring up himself or his wife.
“And then from a completely outside of me perspective, my relationship to AEW or anything, my friends, the kids I signed, the people from my school, all that stuff. But from outside of that, it’s very important that they hang in there. Because if that was to go away, I don’t think anybody in the locker room has any clue the financial repercussions that that would have on the wrestling business.
The trickle-down effect it would then have on independent wrestling. We’ve created a really comfortable environment in sports entertainment for men and women to feed their families and to do well and to be treated on the level that their global penetration ask for. And I would hate to see that bubble burst.
So that’s another random fear I have of, you know, when they’re down or if they’re up or whatever it may be. But, yeah, I would never root against them — in any case. That’s not always easy because random things said about you at press conferences, and that’s a big no-no, you should never say me or my wife’s name, Tony should have told you that. So, yeah, I’ll never root against them. I really won’t.”
Also in the interview, Cody Rhodes admitted he has considered a major change.
Cody Rhodes Reveals Ultimate WWE Goal
Following on from his victory over Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, Rhodes is the top star in the company and shows no sign of slowing down. Looking to establish himself as one of the all-time greats when all is said and done, Cody Rhodes also revealed what his number one goal is in WWE.
In recent news it was reported that WWE has no real plans for Cody Rhodes until The Rock and Roman Reigns return to the company.
H/t to F4WOnline.