Brandi Rhodes Says She Pulled The Plug On The Nightmare Collective
Brandi Rhodes says it was a case of too many cooks when it came to The Nightmare Collective in AEW.
The early days of AEW were a journey of discovery for many in the company but one group that did not stand the test of time was The Nightmare Collective. Originally a partnership between Brandi Rhodes and Awesome Kong, the group grew to include Mel – who hasn’t appeared in AEW since August 2020 – and even more bizarrely, Luther.
The group came in for some criticism at the time and much of it was directed at Brandi Rhodes who many felt was the driving creative force behind The Collective. However, that’s not exactly accurate according to Rhodes herself.
“Everybody and their mother had something to add” – Brandi Rhodes
Speaking on Ring The Belle, Brandi Rhodes discussed why The Nightmare Collective came to a somewhat premature end and revealed that she was the one who decided to pull the plug on the group:
“The Nightmare Collective was never supposed to be The Nightmare Collective, it was supposed to be me and Awesome Kong. Awesome Kong the wrestler, me the manager. Awesome Kong had this wonderful idea, she had this artwork sketch of what she wanted her character to be and look like. It was a badass warrior woman who collected these trophies at the end of matches, cutting the hair [of her opponents].
“Trying to bring that to life was probably the injuries because she was suffering some injuries during that moment. People I think panicked and hit the button of add more, add more, add more. So the Nightmare Collective was not a me and Awesome Kong collaboration, it was a full creative collaboration, everybody and their mother had something to add.
“Including the moment that I think really, really ticked people off when we were interfering with one of the championship matches, we didn’t wanna do that. There was input like this is needed, let’s do this, this is the way to go and I knew, I was like this is not the way.
“Part of the reason why I was like ‘Okay it’s time for this to stop’ is because it’s too many people who have good intentions, too many cooks are in the pot though. We’re adding spice, we’re adding sugar, we’re adding salt, the next day we’re putting ice in it, we’re killing ourselves so just too many cooks in the pot. It was never just one or two people, it was everybody, everybody had an idea every single week and we were trying every single one and it just didn’t work out.”
Brandi Rhodes transitioned to being part of her husband Cody Rhodes’ Nightmare Family once again on AEW TV when the group came to an end and resumed her own in-ring career as well.
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