Cody Rhodes has been one of the faces at the forefront of All Elite Wrestling since the inception of the company, but in recent months The American Nightmare has been receiving a mixed reaction from AEW crowds.
The current TNT Champion recently spoke with Mike Johnson of PWInsider, and he admitted that the mixed reaction can be a bit jarring at times, but he also indicated that he’s not interested in trying to control how the crowd treats him.
“Wrestling is at its best when we lead them, but the truth is, it’s when we lead them to what they want. It’s very much a chicken and the egg scenario. In that case, the number one thing that is most apparent is to let it breathe. Let it happen. We don’t have to turn down the boos or turn up the cheers. We have to let it be. It can be jarring, I’ll be frank. It can be jarring to go from this wrestling Messiah in the first year and doing no wrong to now three years in and people want to see you lose. I grew up on wrestlers that I wanted to see win and wanted to see lose.”
Rhodes went on to say that he considers himself lucky when he gets dueling chants from a crowd because it makes him feel like the center of attention.
“As long as they are doing what they’re doing, I genuinely consider myself the luckiest wrestler on the planet. If you have a dueling chant going on, do I feel like the center of attention and feel lucky, but it is jarring, and it’s jarring for a lot of people backstage as well because it’s undiscovered country, especially if we don’t knee jerk and do what has already been done in wrestling, if we do follow this road less traveled and that’s what we intend to do. I couldn’t ask for a better season in wrestling than what is happening. It’s nuts and I’m lucky to be in this spot.”
Cody Rhodes recently became a three time TNT Champion when he defeated Sammy Guevara during the Holiday Bash edition of AEW Rampage, and it was recently announced that he will defend his title against Guevara at Battle of the Belts on January 8.
H/T Fightful
