Cody Rhodes Says He Uses A Focus Group For His AEW Promos

Since the inception of All Elite Wrestling Cody Rhodes has been receiving praise for his promo work on AEW Dynamite, and his recent promo where he took on The American Dream name got a lot of people talking. During his American Dream promo Cody hyped up his match with Anthony Ogogo at Double or Nothing, but the promo received mixed reviews from fans on social media.

During an appearance on Gamespot’s Wrestle Buddies podcast Cody Rhodes talked about how he workshops his promos for weeks, and he also noted that AEW has a full focus group for promos.

“This is probably gonna sound not cool, because a lot of wrestlers–especially wrestlers from my dad’s era–will lie to you and say, ‘Oh, I just came up with that promo right there on the spot,’ which is bulls***. But whatever. I workshop my promos heavily for weeks on end. We have a full focus group for them, as crazy as that sounds. This is a data-based company, so I workshop everything I do. And because my promos have been held to a really high standard–people pick at them and find things in them and they put a microscope on them, which I love. With that in mind, when I was doing the promo I couldn’t come up with a finish.”

Cody also went on to explain why he decided to incorporate the American Dream theme into his promo.

“When I was just thinking about what the story really is, Anthony [Ogogo] is living the American dream for real. All the wrestlers, like Bruno Sammartino, who I referenced in my interview, who have come over, have lived the American dream here. [With] what [that] stands for and [it being] Memorial Day weekend and fans coming back and just all that beautiful synergy and kismet, I ended up saying it once. ‘He won’t be wrestling the American Nightmare. He’ll be wrestling the American Dream.’ And when I said it, I just couldn’t move past it. I thought, ‘That’s it. That’s the ticket.'”

Anthony Ogogo and Cody Rhodes will face off live on pay-per-view when Double or Nothing airs on Sunday, May 30. Stay tuned for updates.

H/T Fightful