Former All Elite Wrestling Star and recently returned top WWE Superstar "The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes appeared on an episode of WWE's After the Bell with Corey Graves podcast, where he spoke about how he was spoiled during his previous stint with the WWE and how he took things for granted, but the time he spent away from the WWE has changed his perspective in how he looks at the business and there are things that brought him to the dance that he now wants to do every chance he gets.
Cody Rhodes said:
“At WWE I was spoiled, I started right in front of thousands and thousands of people.” “The lights are down, the spotlight is on the ring, it’s WWE, the place is going nuts and I felt like I was taking it for granted. Go to the independents and even with the large crowd, independents at the time were booming and they’re doing good again right now, but you did get the opportunity to do these meet and greets, that’s a big part of independent wrestling. To me, the match was almost secondary, I wanted to meet every fan.”
“That’s why I started wearing a suit and tie everywhere I went, it became second nature to me. I wanted to meet them and I never felt like I really crossed the isle, I never felt like I really met all these fans over the years because you see the power of television when you travel around and do that loop like I did. That’s also where I developed what I would call a bad habit and a habit that a lot of people disagree with. I will stay out there until I meet every single fan, until I take every single picture, until I sign every type of autograph. It’s because that’s what brought me to the dance.”
Cody Rhodes also talked about how he has received a lot of negativity from the AEW fans and how he is partially to be blamed for the divide of the AEW and WWE fanbase because the fans tend to take things seriously such as him poking fun and talking smack at the WWE when he was still with AEW, but that is what wrestlers do. Cody Rhodes also talked about how AEW wouldn't exist without him .
Cody Rhodes said:
“It initially was unanimously positive.” “I feel like that fanbase, that divide that exists amongst all the different bubbles, if there was any negativity, well I can put some of the blame on my shoulders. Again, the last shows I had done before taking this WWE return, I’m taking little fun and pod-shots talking smack which is what wrestlers do. I think sometimes the fans attach themselves to those statements and forget that we are in the realm of entertainment. I added to the tribalism myself so I can’t necessarily get mad at it when I see it.”
“It was unique to see a lot of people burning like my old AEW shirts which was a trend for a few days on social so it felt like you were kind of leaving a sports team. It didn’t break my heart but I thought it was odd because the place doesn’t exist without me. There’s other people that needed to be there for it to exist for sure but I am one of the people that that place exists because of. AEW exists partially because of me. I saw a few times the term ‘sold out’ and I thought like you have this, it’s great.”
You can check out Cody Rhodes' full comments at this link. H/T to Wrestling Inc. for transcribing the above quotes.
