Before he won the Undisputed WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes was a top star in AEW. There were some questionable moves during his time in the company. Perhaps more than any other, his loss at AEW Full Gear 2019 stands above the rest. Per the stipulation, the loss prevented Rhodes from challenging for the AEW World Championship ever again.
Speaking on Flagrant, Cody Rhodes looks back on taking himself out of the world title picture in AEW.
“I had done two full storylines that I would say I completely oversaw,” Cody Rhodes said. “One was with Chris Jericho for the Championship, and Chris collaborated on that, offered hugely to it, Tony as well, but that was like ‘Here was my week one, week two, week three, week four.’ I was terrified of winning the championship even though…there’s kind of this revisionist history. The last year, I was a bad guy. They were booing me left and right. But those first two years, and especially those first few months, I was the hottest thing they had, and that was a great spot to be in.
“But my fear was, if I win the title, I’m abusing this. I’m the executive vice president. And my dad, who was the executive vice president and executive producer of Jim Crockett Promotions, he had won the championship and the people loved it. But… later the Meltzer’s, the different, and I’m not knocking Dave by any means, but the industry journalists, that’s something they looked at and they would judge.”
Cody Rhodes Told AEW Not To Go Back On It
Rhodes continued by saying that going this route was a mistake, but he told AEW not to go back on it at the time. He explained that he did not want the fans to think that he was going to abuse his position.
“I would say it’s a huge mistake that I went that route because I was hot and the fans were happy,” Cody Rhodes said. “So in my mind, I didn’t wanna do it and we put ourselves in a situation where I can never challenge for it again. Now remember, it’s wrestling, clearly you can go back on it. But I told them like, ‘Nope, this is a never go back on.’ I wanna make it clear. I want to make my stories just as big as the world title, which was a problem in itself. You might as well be world champion. But that story was the one I had a good control on.
“I’d look back at it and say, perhaps that decision was a mistake, but my heart was in the place of, I didn’t want fans to think I’m going to abuse this position. Clearly, I’m juiced into the office and helping lead this forward. I didn’t want them to think I was that, even though probably from a creative standpoint, it would have been just fine.”
The video can be seen here:
Cody Rhodes will face Gunther for the WWE Crown Jewel Championship at WWE Crown Jewel.
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