Kenny Omega first-hand saw Cody Rhodes‘ passion for revolutionizing wrestling with AEW, but notes several factors that could’ve led to the star’s exit from the company. Omega had an extensive conversation with Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzalez of the Wrestling Observer and was asked about his co-EVP’s leave from All Elite Wrestling.
“I heard everyone was shocked,” Omega said. “Wrestling is — we all know when our deals are up, like especially the EVPs, we know when our deals are up. In the case of The Bucks, when their options kick in. For myself, I don’t have a deal like that. I’m up next year, just straight up done. So I’d have to re-sign a new one, there’s no option.”
“We knew Cody, much like The Bucks, it was that time. We would hear that there’s possibly some difficulty with the renegotiation or whatever, it was almost like — you just never think it’s gonna go in that direction where the talent is going to opt for leaving. Especially since when this thing started, I would say the most passionate person about our revolution, the most passionate person about kind of creating an ‘us vs. them’ mentality — that was Cody. So it was strange for him just to choose to up and walk away.
“However, that being said, feelings change. The environment around you is ever-changing, it’s constantly changing. And maybe the mission statement or the goal or the revolution, whatever it is that you were searching for [and] trying to create, maybe that isn’t what it is anymore to you. Maybe that isn’t your inspiration — that isn’t what gets you out of bed every day.
“So I would always encourage everyone in wrestling, in life, whatever — if your work isn’t fulfilling, if it doesn’t make you happy, you really should look for opportunities elsewhere in a place where you can feel creatively free. In a place where you feel that your work is being creatively appreciated and fulfilled.”
Omega speaks to Cody’s fervor of wanting to execute a successful mainstream promotion, but Kenny notes the different outlook Rhodes had for AEW in comparison to him and The Young Bucks, stating that the latter three’s goals were never to go to war with WWE.
“I’m guessing that knowing Cody as well as I know him, I don’t really think it was an issue of money. I don’t think it was Tony [Khan] not showing him enough cash to keep him invested with the company. Cody, he really believed in the vision, in the original vision that he brought to the table for AEW. And I think the original vision that the team brought to the table when AEW was first becoming a promotion — we didn’t know where this would go. We had been optimistic about it, we had thought we would be where we are today where we’d be considered a major promotion and we would have our fanbase and we would have hopefully a lot of satisfied customers watching our product. But I guess we never really sat down and talked to each other about, ‘Okay, we have this opportunity to now change wrestling. How do you see it? How do you see it? How do you see it? How do we make this work?’ And maybe in the end we had The Bucks and their vision, we had my vision, and then we had Cody’s vision. And all of our visions were different from one another. And I would say mine was more similar to what The Bucks had envisioned. And Cody’s was out there, it was much different.”
Kenny did provide some speculation for Meltzer and Gonzalez as to Cody’s reasoning for leaving, stating that his professional relationship with Rhodes was great, but “he’s not a guy that I go and get a Diet Pepsi with in my off time.” Omega said Cody was a part of the core group that brought AEW to life and will always be a valuable commodity.
“For me, I feel like he was one of the original four, there’s always gonna be a place for him. And there’s always, you saw it in his ladder match with Sammy [Guevara], he’s got incredible utility and he’s able to help our younger talent. So, nothing from an in-ring perspective, there’s no issues there. If I had a clear-cut answer for you guys I would love to tell you. But I don’t know it.”
Transcription credit should go to Joseph Currier of Wrestling Observer.
RELATED: Steve Austin’s In-Ring Future, Cody Rhodes To WWE? (WZ’s The Hot Tag)
