All Elite Wrestling Executive Vice President “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes recently spoke with Sports Illustrated on a number of topics, including his huge victory over Lance Archer to become the inaugural AEW TNT Champion, his thoughts on Lance Archer, “Iron” Mike Tyson possibly returning to the company, reaching out to WWE Hall Of Famer Sting and being in in-ring action for about 16 months without a title run.
Below are the highlights from the interview:
On his huge victory over Lance Archer to become the inaugural AEW TNT Champion:
“It was a privilege to have that moment in the ring. Look at this from the perspective of what is happening in the world. People are losing their lives. There needs to be happiness, wrestling needs to endure, so that was a great moment to share.”
On his thoughts on Lance Archer:
“Lance is a really special athlete. He has size and speed and he’s a drug-free athlete you can count on. To peel the curtain back a little bit, it was QT Marshall that scouted Lance for this company and took him to Tony Khan. Lance is the hybrid athlete that all wrestling organizations should crave to have. When I was laying on the mat after the match, I could smell the money in a rematch. From a management standpoint, we’re proud to have Lance with us.”
On “Iron” Mike Tyson possibly returning to the company:
Mike is an incredibly big fan of what we do in AEW, and there are a lot of big fans of Mike here, too.I hope Mike has it in his bones and blood, we’d love to have him back.”
On reaching out to WWE Hall Of Famer Sting:
“You can read into every step I take, every breath I breathe, and every glance of my eye. Look all the way back to All In. This is something that was willed into existence. My life is willing sh– into existence. If I was a little boy and got to do a Stinger Splash and that’s where it ends, great. I don’t know what his schedule is like or where he’s at in this world, but nothing would please me more than to stand in a ring across from Sting. There has been no contact, but that’s my way of reaching out.”
On being in in-ring action for about 16 months without a title run:
“I went into Full Gear with Chris Jericho and I was unsuccessful. I went into Revolution with MJF and I was unsuccessful. But to be great, you have to win the big ones. I have all these really beautiful stats to my name, but it’s nothing like being the first-ever TNT Champion.”
