Cody Rhodes was one of the key figures who helped launch All Elite Wrestling back in 2019, but The American Nightmare parted ways with the company a few years then made his WWE return at WrestleMania 38. So far it seems that Cody’s WWE return is going very well as he recently defeated Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 to become the new Undisputed WWE Champion.
During an appearance on the Cheap Heat Podcast, Cody was asked if he’s still pulling for AEW to do well and he made it clear that he will never root against the company.
“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.”
Rhodes also talked about the importance of AEW carrying on when he added, “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.”
H/T F4Wonline.com