Prior to the formation of AEW in 2019, professional wrestling veteran Cody Rhodes would leave the WWE and join ROH with the Young Bucks and Hangman Page. Shortly after Cody, Young Bucks and Hangman would leave ROH, the entire core and foundation of professional wrestling was changed as AEW was born. Teil Rhodes, Cody Rhodes' sister, recently appeared on Busted Open Radio and said she believes Cody Rhodes leaving the WWE is the main reason AEW exist today.
Teil Rhodes said:
“Absolutely.” “People can have their own opinions, but AEW doesn’t happen if Cody didn’t leave on his own accord, make his little list, and throw himself into the fire. There are a lot of other pieces that had to come together too, and obviously Tony Khan being the kingpin of all that momentum that these guys had built together and separate. But none of this happens without Cody leaving. I cried when he told me he was done done. We had talked about it a lot. I sat in the car and I cried because I thought ‘he wanted to be a world champion. That was always his goal and it’s over.'”
Teil Rhodes also talked about how Cody, Young Bucks and Hangman had the capital to really make it big in pro wrestling at the time they were in ROH, but she thinks that they were just happy with being in ROH at the time and they weren’t looking to elevate to the next level of wrestling competition wise.
Teil Rhodes said:
“They had the capital and Cody really talked fondly about that period because they gave them all a lot of creative freedom that had been missing.” “But they were just kind of, I mean, I don’t know. My guess is they were kind of happy with where they were at in like that niche in the business, and they weren’t looking to elevate to that next level competition wise. But yeah, that was a surprise that they didn’t want to just take all those guys.”
