“The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, who was a former All Elite Wrestling EVP and three-time AEW TNT Champion, made the decision to depart from the promotion when his contract expired and return to WWE. AEW President and CEO Tony Khan recently spoke with News 12 on how Cody Rhodes has been great for All Elite Wrestling from the start and how he was a top star in the company, which is how they turned out to be as successful as they are, but despite Cody not being in AEW, they have done huge PPVs and they have sustained their success with stars like CM Punk and AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“Cody was a great person from the start of AEW.” “He’s a great wrestler and somebody I really like and respect very much and we’ll always wish him the best. The timing of it with a lot of big stars coming in around the same time, of course, CM Punk, Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson coming in and there was a period of time where some of the top stars like Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley were both out and now both have come back better than ever.”
“Cody was a top star for us at the beginning and we’ve sustained, I think, and come out stronger than ever this year on TBS with Dynamite and in particular, pay-per-view, we just did one of our biggest pay-per-views ever with Revolution and set a record there. So, it was kind of a pay-per-view without him and we had done a pay-per-view not long ago without him and so we’ve, ya know, done All Out and Revolution, which are the two biggest shows we’ve ever done on pay-per-view and he wasn’t on those shows. So, I think we’ve sustained with big stars coming in, ya know, CM Punk among them and now the emergence of ‘Hangman’ Page is the top champion and big stars have come along in the meantime, it’s helped a lot. He’s [Cody Rhodes] a huge star now too, not just here in AEW, he’d been all over the world and it’s come full circle for him in a lot of ways and again, I wish him the best.”
Tony Khan also talked about how there have been so many huge moments for AEW such as CM Punk’s return on The First Dance episode of AEW Rampage, starting the promotion with wrestling legend Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley making his debut on their very first show, but the biggest moment for him is when they were able to bring back Sting.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“Yeah, I mean I’m a huge wrestling fan and I think when we brought Sting back to pro wrestling, that was incredible and I never would have believed that a moment like The First Dance would be possible or CM Punk returning to the ring at All Out. It was so huge, that was huge for me and really when we started with the Chris Jericho and then when we launched AEW, didn’t even know Jon Moxley would become available and he debuted then on our first show, even though when we announced the company, it wasn’t really something we anticipated or could have anticipated.”
“So, there’s been so many great moments, I think, it’s hard to beat Sting, he’s one of my childhood heroes and one of the greatest wrestlers ever, so that would be, I think, at the top of big moments for me. Sting, who I’d already met in life, his son played College Football at Kentucky and I met him through College Football and even through workouts and tryouts with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He was a Tight End and they didn’t use the Tight End in the passing game as a catching player as much as he did blocking and was involved in the wrong game [laughs]. But he was a great athlete, he certainly had the great genetics of the Borden family of Stinger. Getting to know him, he’s such a class person, and then for him to say he wanted to return to the ring in AEW, he wasn’t happy with the last chapter of his career and wanted to have his career continue on his own terms and he’s come to AEW and been a huge presence for us. So, that was a great thing and like I said, The First Dance with CM Punk, launching with Jericho, Chris Jericho, who’s now better than ever, and Mox, Jon Moxley who’s also now back and better than ever. So many cool things.”
You can check out Tony Khan’s comments in the video below:
