Paul Heyman Speculates On Cody Rhodes’ Decision to Leave AEW

Paul Heyman has weighed in on Cody Rhodes’ departure from AEW, saying he believes it was likely due to the promotion not becoming what ‘The American Nightmare’ originally envisioned.

On February 15th, Cody Rhodes and his wife Brandi made the shocking announcement that they were leaving AEW. Rhodes had his final match in the company on the Beach Break edition of Dynamite, where he lost a Ladder match for the Undisputed TNT Championship to Sammy Guevara. ‘The American Nightmare’ had been working without a contract for several weeks after his deal expired at the beginning of January.

Since then, there has been mounting speculation that Cody Rhodes will be rejoining WWE, with the most recent rumours pointing to him being Vince McMahon’s handpicked opponent for WrestleMania 38.

Now, Paul Heyman, currently WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns’ Special Counsel, has discussed the situation.

In an interview with Ariel Helwani on his MMA Hour podcast, Heyman speculated on what could have led to Cody Rhodes deciding to depart from AEW, noting that he wasn’t as surprised as others.

“He’s one of the founders of the company, a lot of it is his concept, a lot of the initial phase was on him, and Cody always had a vision to fill the boots of his father, not just in the ring but behind the scenes.

“And the fact that he didn’t have the level of participation in decision making that he initially probably thought – this is speculation on my end, I never heard this from Cody, but just seeing the manner in which the creative end of that company grew – it doesn’t surprise me that at some point he was going to say, ‘Not what I originally envisioned and I want to see what life is like elsewhere.’

“So when a founder of a company whose initial vision it was, or part of it was, leaves – that’s always surprising. Knowing what I know, and that’s admittedly very little of the circumstances, not so surprised.”

H/T to Cageside Seats for the above transcription.