It looks like Tony Khan may think less of Cody Rhodes then we thought.
Earlier this year Cody Rhodes left AEW and signed with WWE, debuting at WrestleMania 38 vs Seth Rollins. Rhodes is currently still in a storyline with Seth Rollins. Since his departure from AEW, he has been credited by many AEW stars with no one really having a bad thing to say about Rhodes.
While speaking matter to News 12, AEW President Tony Khan talked about Cody Rhodes leaving AEW and how it has affected the company.
“Cody was a great person from the start of AEW. He’s a great wrestler and somebody I really like and respect very much and we’ll always wish him the best. The timing of it with a lot of big stars coming in around the same time, of course, CM Punk, Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson coming in and there was a period of time where some of the top stars like Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley were both out and now both have come back better than ever.”
“Cody was a top star for us at the beginning and we’ve sustained, I think, and come out stronger than ever this year on TBS with Dynamite and in particular, pay-per-view, we just did one of our biggest pay-per-views ever with Revolution and set a record there. So, it was kind of a pay-per-view without him and we had done a pay-per-view not long ago without him and so we’ve, ya know, done All Out and Revolution, which are the two biggest shows we’ve ever done on pay-per-view and he wasn’t on those shows. So, I think we’ve sustained with big stars coming in, ya know, CM Punk among them and now the emergence of ‘Hangman’ Page is the top champion and big stars have come along in the meantime, it’s helped a lot. He’s [Cody Rhodes] a huge star now too, not just here in AEW, he’d been all over the world and it’s come full circle for him in a lot of ways and again, I wish him the best.”
Tony Khan to News 12
While Khan clearly respects Rhodes and is grateful for what he did for AEW, Khan clearly feels Rhodes was not as influential in AEW’s success then most believe.
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