Former WWE Intercontinental Champion allegedly turned down Cody Rhodes' offer to join AEW
A former WWE Superstar revealed that Cody Rhodes approached him in the past to join AEW and that he turned this down at the time. The former Intercontinental Champion is Ryback.
The Big Guy has not wrestled since 2018, when he was booking across the independent circuit. His last match with WWE took place in 2016 against Kalisto. The 42-year-old has not been signed with any major promotion since.
On The Ryback Show, the former WWE Superstar claimed that he was supportive of AEW and that Cody Rhodes, who was an EVP of the company at the time, reached out in 2019.
Ryback talked about Cody coming in and mentioning doing a Sting-style segment, but he turned this down as he was not ready for anything of the sort at the time.
"We'll have to see you know again I'm very pro-AEW, and I have been 'cause they're good for the business with everything. And they reached out when Cody (Rhodes) was there in 2019, and I've talked about that openly about coming in and I told them I can't. I can't go, I can't do anything. And they wanted me to come in and Cody's just mentioning for me to do like a Sting-type, like a spot to look really good and I just don't want to be seen 'cause that's when I was really bad. Even though I was in good shape still, I go 'I can't, there's no point in coming back, I can't come back and do anything long-term.'" [54:00-54:41]
The former WWE star talked about his current condition five years after talks with Cody Rhodes
During the same episode of The Ryback Show, the former Intercontinental Champion talked about his status, as it has been five years since his talk with Cody Rhodes. He mentioned how now things were different and that he was doing much better regarding his health.
However, Ryback did not confirm that he was in peak condition but left the door open for a chance to do something with AEW somewhere along the road.
"Now we're getting closer and closer. I continue to get my health up but it's not even you know I gotta know that I'm gonna be okay, and we'll see what happens. I'll have an agent and we'll see if anything can be done. Stories are the biggest thing to me and I definitely think they'll be an opportunity if I can get my shoulder and get cleared and owning anything that good business can be done. But we'll have to see, I'm not even there yet so." [54:41-55:09]
At this point, it remains to be seen whether we'll get to see Ryback back in the industry and whether this will end up being in AEW. Despite Cody Rhodes now being with WWE, he may still have a chance to negotiate with Tony Khan and management.
If you use quotes from this article, please credit The Ryback Show and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.