In a clip from an upcoming episode of the Bill Simmons podcast, Cody Rhodes talks candidly about his time in AEW and being one of the founders there.
“There’s clearly bad blood but there’s also clearly respect and love. In the end, the way I kind of see it is if I felt disrespected ever at WWE that’s one thing…That’s the Yankees. That’s the flagship of it all. If I ever felt there, I was a number on a sheet, maybe…but feeling disrespected at something I built with my friends, that we built, feeling disrespected there? I wouldn’t stand for it,” he said.
Rhodes then spoke about the best revenge was moving on to even greater success elsewhere.
“Brandi and I both, I’m so blessed to have her, it was one of those where it was “F–k it!”. I did way more here than you think and you’re going to find out the moment I’m out the door. I don’t believe in, like the cold-hearted backstabby type of revenge. The greatest revenge on Earth is success. I felt like we were sitting on something wonderful, something great, a huge potentially, with what I was doing with the American nightmare as a bad guy, as a good guy, as something in-between, we’re sitting on something magic. If I’m not going to do it in the house that I literally built with Matt, Nick and Kenny, then, buddy, I’m going elsewhere,” he said.
Rhodes left AEW in 2022 and re-joined WWE as the mystery opponent for Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 38.
