When Cody Rhodes entered the independent scene in 2016, he had a newfound freedom that he didn't have when he was in WWE.
Cody was free to take various independent bookings, work on his own act, and come up with various skits on Being The Elite after he linked up with The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson). In AEW, Cody was one of four Executive Vice Presidents and though Tony Khan made the final decisions, Cody still had a large amount of creative freedom.
"Whether right, wrong or indifferent, I was doing it my way," Cody told Dale Earnhardt Jr on Dale Jr Download. "There are a lot of incidents in that run that are not right. 'This is what we're doing here folks, this is it.' I tell people all the time, if you want to to look at what letting someone...Sometimes I get in my own way when it comes to my own creative. There is a prime example; when I was in Ring of Honor, they just let me do whatever. 'WWE guy, people are coming to see him, they were smaller crowds, big autograph line.' One of the things I did was, I had two mascots, they were people in bear suits. It didn't make a lick of sense and they'd be at the signing, standing with me, one was a business bear, one was a drug free bear. It was all this non-sensical, it stemmed off a YouTube series [Being The Elite], it had roots, but if I look at the photos and you see me with these two bears, that's what creative freedom gone too far looks like. I loved it, but very much, even my time at AEW as the Executive Vice President, also in my way a little bit. Someone else make a decision for me here because at that point, I made all these decisions and was doing it my way. You need guidance and you need those people who have been there and done it. I had some big home runs and some big misses."
Shots fired at Burnard The Business Bear.
Elsewhere during the interview, Cody discussed the art of the promo and how he tries to differentiate himself from his father Dusty Rhodes. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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