Cody Rhodes and Tony Khan are excited to see how fans react to Ricky Starks on "Rhodes to the Top."
While "Rhodes to the Top" is primarily focused on Cody and Brandi Rhodes and their struggles while juggling life on the road and life at home as they begin to grow their family, many AEW wrestlers will be appearing on the series as well. One of those wrestlers is Ricky Starks.
The series’ first season was taped while Ricky was nursing a neck injury and he made several Cameo appearances on the show including, according to Cody, building most of the furniture for Liberty, the firstborn daughter of Brandi and Cody Rhodes.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Koalition, Cody Rhodes and Tony Khan discuss how much they enjoyed seeing Ricky Starks jump into the project and how important they feel it was for him to have something else to focus on while nursing his neck injury.
“I think somebody who really dove in, they tried to play cool, but they really dove in, in a positive way, was Ricky Starks. Ricky, He knew what this was, you know, they put the cameras up and we just go. It wasn't a scene. It wasn't framed up in an artificial way. He helped build a majority of Liberty's furniture one day and it's all documented. He also broke what I would consider probably the number one rule of reality TV. We were having a party and I think he pre-partied, maybe had a few too many drinks prior to filming. It's just a golden episode, because you can see me trying so hard to bring him back to Earth. But Ricky dove in.
“[I’m excited] for people to see the newly crowned FTW Champion, how motivated he is, how passionate he is, what he went through with his actual neck and the friendly side of him. He really shines on-screen. Him and 10 of The Dark Order have a really fun buddy element to them that I think is just cute. I thought they did really great,” said Cody.
Tony Khan added, “Those guys did extremely well. I also thought, as you alluded to, that it was really nice to be able to have Starks sink his teeth into something while he was out injured and it really gave him more than a sense of purpose, it gave him really, I think, a good feeling at a time when he was probably pretty antsy and nervous about his injury. He got to have some fun, and you know, not only stay occupied [but] to really do something that will live on and show another side of his personality. I think a silver lining of the injury was that he was able to really focus on Rhodes to the Top and during a period where he was out for a few months.”
In a previous interview, Brandi Rhodes revealed that the reality show was initially Tony Khan's idea. Learn more here.
Rhodes to the Top premieres on September 29 on TNT following AEW Dynamite.
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