Over the years, there have been several cases of bullying in pro wrestling, which is something that the pro wrestling community and fans alike have been against and wanting to get rid of and they have done so by creating organizations or foundations to fight these types of heinous and nasty acts.
AEW has been one promotion that is bully-free and that has had the sense of family and togetherness which all wrestling promotions should, until recently.
AEW and Executive Vice President “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes were accused by former Comeback Studios Video Editor Louie Benson of “bullying and gaslighting.” Benson took to Twitter and shed some light on these accusations.
According to Benson, things were very off from the time he started in AEW as he was told shortly after he was hired that Cody didn’t like him and thought of him as a “stalker fan” based on an interaction they had at All In. Benson was also told that “If Cody asks, we’ll fire you” and that is when he became terrified of Cody Rhodes because he left home and moved 8 hours away from his family and friends for the job and now his job is in the hands of someone who already didn’t like him.
Benson also said that Cody apparently requested that he not be present when Cody was in the building they work in, which led him to either being told to leave or stay hidden in a room until he was told to come out. Benson also said that he was told to not talk to any talent or any friends he made there and that led to really awkward interactions. Benson then said that he didn’t receive credit for work he has done as Cody only wanted certain people to receive the credit. Benson also said that after him being told by Cody for months that Cody didn’t want him in the same building, Cody randomly showed up during a weekend while he was working and greeted him like nothing was wrong then complimented him in an aggressive manner on his All In shirt.
Benson would also say that when he finally got credited for his work and posted it on social media he thanked everyone, but he found out that Cody took a screenshot of his tweets and sent it to his boss with a thumbs down emoji. During a meeting, he was then told in a shouting manner to not talk to Cody like that and that would lead to his 6’5″ Hall of Famer boss getting in his face and intimidating him into deleting his social media posts or he would be fired and constantly reminding him that AEW never wanted him.
Benson would then say that he finally got a positive remark from Cody Rhodes after going through all that hell even though it was only 45 seconds of interaction over the past 8 months he had worked in AEW.
Finally, Benson said he will not sit there and pretend that he was the best employee because he definitely had flaws and he is not going to act like he only had negative experiences as he met some amazing people along the way and this isn’t an attempt to bury anyone and turn people against AEW as he still watches the show, but he just wanted his story out there and he would still be dealing with this if they didn’t push him, however he hopes that people involved read his statement and adjust how they deal with people moving forward.
After posting his statement on Twitter, Benson would once again take to Twitter and thank people who have read it and say that this isn’t anti-AEW at all, this is just a log of what he went through at the time. Benson then said that he was told that he will never work in the wrestling business again if he tweeted this, but he is prepared for it and he wouldn’t want to work there anyway.
You can check out Louie Benson’s tweets below:
