Cody Rhodes will always love AEW but how his time there ended was ‘terrible’

Cody Rhodes says the end of his run in AEW was “terrible.”

Rhodes was asked about his time in the company during a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet. While he was very hesitant to say anything negative about AEW, he admitted that his time there did not end well and there were “petty squabbles” that went on behind the scenes.

“How AEW ended was terrible, really, and people are going to write books later on and these stories are going to get out there and then it’s going to be a whole new ballgame,” Rhodes said.

He then compared his situation in AEW to the end of the film, The Dark Knight.

“I’m not comparing myself to Batman but there is a piece of it that’s really important. To certain fans from the AEW fandom, they need the story to be they didn’t want me, they pushed me out. They need ‘he was bad,’ they need that story. They need me to be the villain. I was always fine with accepting that because of the respect I have for (AEW) in the first place, how difficult it was to do the original All In, how unbelievable the feeling was to do Double or Nothing, how fortunate we were that Tony (Khan) wanted to invest in this vision and he had a vision as well.”

“Regardless of any petty squabbles, I will always have a love for it. I got to wrestle Brodie Lee’s final match. I got to lead people, young people behind the scenes. I will always have a love for it.”

Still, Rhodes says that he always knew his time in AEW was temporary and that there was something else out there for him.

“I just remember (AEW) lovingly, and I also knew I was leaving. I knew it was a season. I knew this wasn’t going to last and I knew there was something greater for me out there. And I know that might sound negative to people, but it’s not. That’s the biggest prize in the wrestling game.”

“I had nothing but respect for my time there. I got to sharpen my skills, you know, like Hulkamania in the AWA right before it came to WWE, it’s the same. The energy was there, the renaissance was happening, it wasn’t just company-based. It was all there and I just have a love for it because I got to sharpen my skills and by the time I got to WrestleMania and WWE, I felt like okay I’ve come back a complete package.”

After some convincing, Rhodes agreed to say something negative and “juicy” for the interview. Rhodes noted that he did not like a section of The Young Bucks’ memoir “Killing The Business” that stated he was the last one to sign with AEW.

“I hated that in The Young Bucks’ book they said I was last to the signing. Because that’s a big thing. Some of the AEW defenders who don’t realize they’re turning people off to their product more than they’re turning people on. That’s one of the things that people always cite, Oh, he was last, he wasn’t that big a deal to the origin. No. This guy here who’s off camera was the first person to ever meet Tony. And he met him in a vetting process for all of us. So yes, I guess I was the last and yes, I had different thoughts and it’s not incorrect at all what they said. Yeah, it’s not incorrect but I was just in on it as well as anybody else.”

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