Cody Rhodes Talks Smashing Triple H’s Throne

Cody Rhodes has reflected on his infamous sledgehammer shot at Double Or Nothing when he smashed the throne that belonged to The King Of Kings, Triple H.

The American Nightmare has been the talk of the wrestling world after news broke that both he and his wife Brandi were leaving AEW. As one of the cornerstones of the company, Cody Rhodes was an Executive Vice President for the company as well as becoming a three-time TNT Champion during his time there.

Speaking exclusively to Inside The Ropes’ own Kenny McIntosh back in 2021, Cody Rhodes reminisced about some of his biggest moments in AEW. Rhodes discussed the statement he made when he symbolically smashed a throne bearing Triple H’s insignia with The Games weapon of choice, a sledgehammer at Double Or Nothing in 2019:

“I think I wanted to make a statement on what we were doing, and I think what we did was clearly the biggest statement we could make. Afterwards, you know, I get really long-winded. Sometimes I say the wrong thing and, in this executive role, I’ve put my foot in my mouth so many times, whereas when I was a talent I could get away with it.”

“Talents can lie. Talents can exaggerate. When you’re any type of management, you’re held accountable, which is a lesson for me to learn.”

According to Rhodes, that moment was a shot across the bow of the burgeoning battle between the two companies with the ultimately short-lived Wednesday Night Wars on the horizon:

“But, yeah, I wanted to be clear what we were doing. You mentioned the barbs back and forth—that’s part of what we do. Trash talk is part of what we do, but also when they counter-programmed us for no reason other than to split our audience, I didn’t want to meet that in a cowardly fashion.”

“I wanted to flat out say, “OK, well, great. Our show is still going to be better and as crazy as this is, we’re going to win. So if you want to have this moment in time on Wednesday nights where we put all eyes on wrestling, we’re going to win.”

“I don’t want to go into any battle with the idea that we’re going to lose. I’m face-forward in the company on so many things, so I wanted to go in and let them know I am willing to fight. I am willing to openly smash this iconic symbol, and what it stood for and stands for to some fans. Yeah, there’s so much to that moment.”

For Cody Rhodes, the moment is one he says he’ll never regret as he knew his statement had been heard loud and clear by the AEW fans:

“That may be my favourite moment. The match was one thing, but that was something that . . . I hear this a lot in wrestling school and it blows my mind. People will be like, “Well, the match . . .” They talk about matches with the sound off. ‘Like, well, it’s different with the sound off.’ That’s ridiculous. Wrestling never has the sound off.”

“So I never, ever will regret that moment because when I turned to head back up the ramp, everybody in the building knew what we were about to do and everybody wanted us to do it, and we did it, and we wanted to make a statement. So that was a statement.”

With Cody Rhodes now a free agent, reports suggest that he could very well be on his way back to WWE with Vince McMahon seemingly having big plans for the prodigal star.

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