Former All Elite Wrestling Star and top WWE Star “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, who was a huge part in the creation of All Elite Wrestling, left the company early last year after his contract with them expired. Cody Rhodes would then make his return to the WWE at last April’s WrestleMania 38, when he faced Seth Rollins in a Singles Match. Cody Rhodes would then suffer a torn pectoral injury before his Hell In A Cell Match against Seth “Freakin” Rollins.
Rhodes would then undergo surgery for his torn pectoral injury and after several months of rehab, The American Nightmare would finally make his highly-anticipated in-ring return at the company’s 2023 WWE Royal Rumble Premium Live Event last January, where he would win the Men’s Royal Rumble Match to earn an opportunity to challenge Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39.
Dave Meltzer stated on a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio Program that Cody Rhodes is a huge draw for WWE based on boosting ticket sales for house shows as it is usually said that no single star is a draw, but Cody Rhodes is definitely a draw as they normally sell 2000 – 2500 tickets, which is still lower than usual, though once it was announced that Cody Rhodes will be working Columbus and Pensacola, both cities did all-time record gates and WWE house shows usually don’t draw 6,000 fans so he is definitely a mover and WrestleMania is going to be big.
This is what Dave Meltzer said:
“He got that great reaction at Mania. It’s all been successful. You know we talk about nobody being a draw, blah, blah. It’s the brand that draws. Well, he’s a draw. I mean Sami [Zayn] is a draw, obviously these SmackDown ratings, but Cody is a draw. The weekend at house shows in Columbus and Pensacola. The advances were the same, 2000 – 2500 that they do everywhere else. It was lower than usual. They weren’t bad….they were normal advances. Cody wins the Rumble, and then they announce that Cody is working those two shows, and they did the all-time record gates in both cities – Columbus and Pensacola.”
“WWE house shows don’t usually draw like that, so he’s a mover, at least right now and WrestleMania is going to be big. Remember, he was the number merch seller in San Antonio [Royal Rumble].”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the quotes.
