Cody Rhodes says he disagrees with CM Punk’s assessment of Tony Khan, AEW
Cody Rhodes doesn’t agree with CM Punk’s recent assessment of Tony Khan and AEW.
Punk appeared on The MMA Hour on Monday and stated that the AEW president is “not a real boss” and that AEW is “not a real business.” However, when Rhodes was asked about Punk’s comments during Wednesday’s episode of The MMA Hour, he responded that he doesn’t agree with them.
“That’s his assessment, it is not my assessment,” Rhodes said to Ariel Helwani. “It’s always important for me to remind people that I am so proud of what me, Matt, Nick, Kenny, Tony, Bernie, Brandi, Dana, and Chris – and I name all these people because I was in those meetings. As much as the internet will spin a narrative one way, if one of those people had not been at that startup level, the company would not have happened.”
“It’s not my assessment. In my time there, the infrastructure was just being built up. We were trying new things, and doing things. It was a startup company, a big-time startup company but a startup company and I wish them nothing but the best,” he continued.
When asked specifically about Punk’s comments about The Elite, Rhodes responded:
“I just think what happened there was a ton of misunderstanding, a ton of miscommunication,” Rhodes said of the conflict between Punk and The Elite.
“I love Matt, Nick, and Kenny and I love CM Punk. I don’t know how, but I do. I’m just happy for everyone involved. I just think it was a ships in the night thing. I wasn’t there, though,” he continued.
Rhodes was also asked about Vince McMahon and the allegations facing WWE’s former chairman. Rhodes said he wants to see how everything plays out from a legal perspective and is just focused on putting on the best show possible.
“I like to just kind of see how it play(s) out from a legal court situation. Did someone break the law? Is there guilt? Is there punishment? All that,” Rhodes said.
“I don’t want to be naive to it but I put my focus solely on how do we make the show the best show possible? The excitement over Netflix, the excitement over WrestleMania 40, The Rock returning, so I don’t have a lot of time to focus on that but I am looking at it like everybody else in the sense of, hopefully, there is a resolution that justice is brought for whomever, if that makes any sense.”
When asked about Ronda Rousey’s comments that if certain people were still at WWE McMahon would still have a hand in running things, Rhodes stressed that he’s only been dealing with Paul Levesque and Nick Khan of late.
“I’m not disputing anything she said or anything of that nature but in my experience, I’ve dealt with just Nick and Hunter for a really long time and the company is clearly changing,” Rhodes responded.
Rhodes was the first guest on today’s show. The full interview can be viewed in the player below:
