Pro wrestler and pro eater Megabyte Ronnie has told the tale of how he went from eating chicken wings with Cody Rhodes to facing off against Brian Cage on AEW TV.
Back in 2020 when Cody Rhodes was still an EVP for AEW, the star was apparently so impressed with top-ranked competitive pro eater Megabyte Ronnie that he arranged for him to compete on AEW Dark.
Speaking to Jeremy Lambert and Stephen Jensen on The Spotlight, The Glizzy Goat explained how he came to be paired with Cody during a celebrity edition of “The Hot Ones: The Game Show”, a show where competitors have to eat chicken wings of increasing intensity.
“We did Hot Ones, me and my wife got on Hot Ones The Game Show. I was cool with Sean Evans, the host of it, from that.
“He reached out to me and said, ‘During the pandemic we’re going to do a redemption thing for people who didn’t win. You’re going to be teamed up with somebody famous.’ Hot Ones producers got with me and were like, ‘Do you know actors and celebrities? ‘Not really.’ I don’t know pop culture. ‘What do you know?’ ‘Wrestling.’ ‘Alright, we’ll find something.’
“They emailed me back later and were like, ‘You’re probably going to be doing something with Impractical Jokers, start watching them.’ I started watching Impractical Jokers for like two weeks to get ready for this thing.”
However, when he got there, he had actually been paired with Cody Rhodes, who seemed bemused by Ronnie’s appearance and kept complimenting him. This led to Rhodes saying he would be in touch about getting him down to AEW.
“I’m coming in there and I start the show, and there is Cody Rhodes. We go through and do the Hot Ones thing, but I don’t think he was expecting me to be sort of what I was because he kept complimenting me on my body and presentation. At the end of it, he was like, ‘We have to get you down here sometime, we’ll be in touch and we’ll get you down here [to AEW].’
The next he knew he was wrestling Brian Cage for an episode of Dark, something he says was a great experience.
“When they invited me out there, they never told me I was wrestling or anything, I just brought my gear because you always bring your gear. I got there, I was on the card, the very last match, me and Brian Cage, we wrestled at like 4 AM and it was great.”
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.