Cody Rhodes met up with Tony Schiavone center-ring last night during AEW Dynamite and “The American Nightmare” delivered one impassioned promo regarding his upcoming AEW World Title match against champion Chris Jericho at Full Gear this Saturday in Baltimore. Cody stated that he’d never challenge for the title again if he loses, but wanted Jericho to know that such an occurrence is not in the mind of the AEW Executive Vice President.
Schiavone went on Twitter to state that it was one of the greatest interviews he’s been a part of:
This was one of the greatest interviews I’ve ever had the honor of holding the mic for. And that, my friends, is a shoot. https://t.co/Xdxj7HmQkj
— Tony Schiavone (@tonyschiavone24) November 7, 2019
AEW posted the full video of Cody’s speech and you can read the entire promo word-for-word below (transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone):
“I’m not surprised. We’re not surprised the arrival of Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle, it’s been blunt or to use a more apropos term, it’s been strategic. They have taken a scalpel to The Elite, but it’s a short victory lap, men and here is why: we were already looking for you. We looked within our own club at one point. We have searched all over the world for a card that we can put our names on that and match up with Matt & Nick Jackson, with Kenny Omega, with Hangman Adam Page, hell, with my brother…
“So we were looking and you found us. November 9 this Saturday I find myself on the marquee with AEW World Champion Chris Jericho.
“Tony and I have talked about it, he knows what I’m about to announce but before I do, humor me I’m gonna go on a bit of a detour and rattle off a few names: Eddie Graham, Cowboy Bill Watts, The American Dream Dusty Rhodes. All of them were titans in our business
‘Dusty’ chants.
“All of them were titans in our business they were the best bell-to-bell and they were the best at the box office and for those who saw them with their own eyes those memories reverberate in their heart. It is a good feeling, it is positive, but for the cold and sterile historians of our business, there’s an air of controversy that surrounds it. It’s the simple fact that those men were also in addition to being competitors they were management. Not unlike myself and for the last year I’ve told everybody, every podcast, every radio, every correspondent, I’ve shouted it off the rooftops how proud I am of AEW, how proud I am of the all-inclusive nature, of the schedule, of the pay, of the fact that we will listen. This, this is Ellis Island for a professional wrestler, this is freedom!
‘AEW’ chants
“So when I hear, when I hear the same criticism attached to my name for being management and being in a title match, I can’t not hear it. And with that said, I am announcing that if I do not defeat….
‘You deserve it” chants
“If I do not defeat Chris Jericho at Full Gear, I will never challenge for the AEW World Championship again.
Chris Jericho, that is a very big ‘if.’ It’s not an encumbrance, it’s not an albatross that is going to sit on your chest and weigh you down, it is going to vanish. You’ve taken to calling my lot ‘entitled millennials.’ You’ve called me an ‘entitled millennial bitch.’ I’ve neglected to read in your best-selling book A Lion’s Tale, which you can get on Amazon for three dollars or at any flea market, I neglected to read about the upbringing you had that was so hard. You talked about my silver spoon, gosh, it must have been so difficult being the upper-class son of a famous hockey player. It is almost like we shared the exact same silver spoon, you stupid dick!
“You dismissed every accomplishment I’ve made. You’ve talked about my father. Well you call me an ‘entitled millennial’ I call you a carny succubus because the dirty secret about you – the dirty secret is that you need this generation the more than it needs you and you surrounded yourself with impressionable youth. This isn’t about my dad. This isn’t about the dead, it’s about the living. It’s about my mother, it’s about my sister, it’s about my wife, it’s about the 14 years it took me to go from undesirable to un-goddamn-deniable!
“At Full Gear, at Full Gear…I beat you. I become the World Champion and you fall back into your circle, your Inner Circle and you let ’em know that the ground should be rumbling between their feet because The Elite are coming and when The Elite and The Inner Circle square off it’ll be a match beyond and we are going to eat you alive!”
