Cody Rhodes addresses rumors about Tony Khan and Brandi Rhodes being the reason for his AEW exit
There was a long-standing rumor that Tony Khan and Brandi Rhodes were the reason for Cody Rhodes' exit from AEW. The American Nightmare has now addressed these rumors.
Cody Rhodes was an instrumental part of AEW's launch in 2019. He served as an Executive Vice President as well as an onscreen talent. During his time with the company, Cody won the TNT Championship and was one of the most beloved stars on the roster.
However, he chose to leave the company and return back to WWE which shocked many fans since he was one of the founding fathers of the company. Since then, there has been speculation that Tony Khan didn't re-sign Brandi Rhodes which was why Cody left the company.
Speaking on The Flagrant podcast, Cody addressed these rumors clarifying that Tony did re-sign Brandi and they also renewed Rhodes to the Top for a second season:
"When I start talking about this, people try to cite, 'Oh, it was this. It was this.' Here's what I can tell you it wasn't. It wasn't anything to do with Tony (Khan) and Brandi. That's a big one you hear all the time that 'Tony didn't sign Brandi.' No, Brandi had been re-signed. Rhodes To The Top, we had a nice show on TBS, that had been renewed for a second season. Go Big Show."
Cody Rhodes revealed the biggest mistake he made in AEW
Despite being one of the biggest stars in the company, Cody Rhdoes never won the AEW World Championship. This is because he added a stipulation that he would never challenge for the World Title if he lost to Chris Jericho during their title bout. Rhodes lost the match and he stayed true to his word.
During the same podcast episode, Cody Rhodes revealed that he may have made a big mistake by adding this stipulation to his match:
"I was terrified of winning the championship even though there's kind of these 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 the Executive Producer of Jim Crockett promotions, he had won the championship and the people loved it. But later, the Meltzer and not knocking Dave by any means, but the industry journalists that's something they looked at and they would judge and I would say it's a huge mistake that I went that route because I was hot and the fans were happy."
Everything turned out well for Cody Rhodes in the end as he is the current Undisputed WWE Champion.