Cody Rhodes Made Huge Creative Mistake In AEW
Cody Rhodes believes that one of the creative decisions he made in AEW wasn’t so elite after all.
As the Undisputed WWE Champion and the man who won the Crown Jewel Championship over Gunther at Crown Jewel, Cody Rhodes is having the best run of his pro wrestling career.
After spending three years in AEW as an Executive Vice President and wrestler, Cody decided it was time to go back “home” to WWE, which is where he spent the first decade of his career as a wrestler.
While it likely wasn’t an easy decision for Cody, he can look back on it nearly three years later and say it was the right move.
During his AEW career, Cody Rhodes was a three-time TNT Champion, which was essentially the company’s second-biggest title while he was there. Cody never won the AEW World Title because he lost a match to former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho (thanks to MJF costing Cody) and the stipulation was that Cody was unable to challenge for the AEW World Title ever again.
In an interview with The Flagrant podcast, Cody talked about how he had it in his mind in AEW that he didn’t want to be World Champion.
“I had done two full storylines that I would say I completely oversaw. One was with Chris Jericho for the championship. Chris collaborated with that, offered hugely to it, Tony (Khan) as well, but that was my ‘Week one, week two, week three, week four.’
I was terrified of winning the championship. There is this revisionist history; the last year, I was a bad guy, and they were booing me left and right. Those first two years, and especially those first two months, I was the hottest thing they had, and that was a great spot to be in, but my fear was, ‘If I win the title, I’m abusing this. I’m the Executive Vice President.’
My dad, who was the Executive Vice President and Producer of Jim Crockett Promotions, he had won the championship and the people loved it. Later, the industry journalists, that’s something they looked at and would judge.”
Cody Rhodes Admits Not Being Able To Win AEW World Title Was A “Huge Mistake”
The WWE Champion Cody Rhodes looked back on those AEW days while admitting it was a mistake to take himself out of the AEW World Title picture.
“I would say it was a huge mistake that I went that route. I was hot and the fans were happy. In my mind, I didn’t want to do it, and we put ourselves in a situation where I could never challenge for it again.
It’s wrestling, you can go back on it, but I told them, ‘Nope. This is a never go back on. I want to make it clear.’ I wanted to make my stories as big as the world title, which is a problem in itself. You might as well be World Champion.
That story was one I had good control on. I look back and said, ‘Perhaps that decision was a mistake,’ but my heart was in the place of where I didn’t want fans thinking I was going to abuse this position. From a creative standpoint, it probably would have been fine.
Once I was there, I didn’t realize how much of a ceiling it would be for fans. ‘I’ll do these really great stories that just don’t revolve around the title.’ Wrestling, at the end of the day, sometimes it’s not rocket science. It might just be about the title.”
In the same interview, Cody Rhodes also admitted he wasn’t sure what he would do after choosing to leave AEW, but something was pointing him in another direction.