Cody Rhodes recently appeared as a guest on "The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani" at MMAFighting.com to promote the two-night WrestleMania XL premium live event this Saturday and Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA.
During the discussion, "The American Nightmare" spoke about CM Punk's comments from this past Monday's appearance on "The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani" regarding AEW and ROH President Tony Khan as a boss, the issues he had with The Elite during his time in AEW and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On his thoughts regarding what CM Punk said about Tony Khan as a boss and the atmosphere in AEW: "That’s his assessment. It’s not my assessment. It’s important for me to remind people that I am so proud of what me, Matt, Nick, Kenny, Tony, Bernie, Brandi, Dana, and Chris. I name all these people because I was in those meetings. As much as the internet will try to spin a narrative one way. If one of those people had not been at that start-up level, the company would not have happened. I am so proud of what was created. I am so insanely proud of what it does for the industry overall, for wrestlers and their well-being, and their ability to feed their families. I have an unbelievable love for so many people in that locker room, including the Bucks and Kenny. We’re bonded forever over this thing that we did. It’s not my assessment. In my time there, the infrastructure was just being built up. We were trying new things and doing new things. It was a start-up company. A big-time start-up company, but a start-up company. I wish them nothing but the best."
On the CM Punk disagreements and issues with The Elite and how he never foresaw anything like Brawl Out or Brawl In happening: "I don’t think I foresaw any of those issues. I did kind of predict, it was unrelated to those guys, but I do remember predicting that there were going to be certain guys who had been there, who wanted to wave the banner, ‘Hey, you’ve not been here,’ and then brand new guys, you always need fresh blood, like Punk coming back to WWE is a great call. I think those always would mesh. I just think what happened there is a ton of misunderstanding, a ton of miscommunication. You will see on indies and wrestlers that aren’t properly trained. I’m not talking about bullying etiquette, but you do need to have a little old school in you to know the collaborative-ness of what this is. I think they were ships in the night. I love Matt, Nick, and Kenny, and I love CM Punk. I don’t know how, but I do. I’m happy for everyone involved. I think it was a ships in the night thing. I wasn’t there though."
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
