Cody Rhodes was one of the founding fathers of AEW as one of the four Executive Vice Presidents alongside The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) and Kenny Omega. Those four, and AEW President Tony Khan, put together a viable competitor to WWE for the first time since WWE went out of business.
Cody would surprisingly leave AEW at the start of the year as he and Tony Khan couldn't agree to terms on a new deal. Speaking to Variety, Cody mentioned that it was a "personal matter."
Speaking to Ariel Helwani, Cody was asked about his AEW exit and the personal matter.
"Unfortunately, I can't comment on the personal matter itself. Tony Khan, who I have genuine respect for and I hope history is really kind to because he bankrolled this entire grassroots movement starting in ROH, then All In happened, AEW happened, then he was able to buy that footage back. I felt like we were drifting apart. Had I asked him for 'this,' he's the type of man that would have given it to me. It just genuinely felt like it was time, I can't comment on the personal nature, it was nothing nefarious or scandalous, just we couldn't agree. Nothing but respect for him, his family, and the infrastructure there. I have a watch collection that I just started. The first nice watch I ever got was from him. I gave him one last year as a return gift and I thought, 'do I not pack this? Is this chapter over?' I packed it because it's never over. Part of who I am is from those ten years and part of who I am is from the last six as well. It's something that I don't know if he'll ever share ultimately what went down, but it was nothing crazy, it was a rather easy decision," said Cody.
He continued by saying that while his decision may have been easy, there was a difficult part to it.
"Hard, and hard to explain, hard to explain to the fans, which we didn't, and hard to explain to the talent. One week I was there, next week, Ricky Starks and QT (Marshall) and bringing in bags and getting all my stuff out of the box and making the biggest scene they possibly could instead of being discreet as I asked them to and I was gone. My own brother, you think he's going to text me, 'I love you, I'm so proud of you.' The thing he texted me that day was, 'Can I use your locker room?' True older brother fashion. Yeah, I guess, it's not mine anymore. I had a wonderful experience there, and I feel the experience had maxed out. you never want to get into a situation where the love goes away. I wanted to keep the love. I know Matt, Nick, and Kenny...I don't know if they sit in circles and hate on me or talk poorly about me, I hope they wouldn't, but if they don't know, I try to tell them on a regular basis, I absolutely love those guys. Instrumental. We did it together. I helped them, they helped me. I have nothing but love and it'll always be that way," he said.
Following Cody's return to WWE, the Young Bucks changed their bio, joking that they thought All In 2 was happening.
Cody has been making the media rounds since he returned and you can find his comments on a variety of subjects by using Fightful's search engine.
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