WWE veteran on why Cody Rhodes refused to pursue the AEW World Championship
Cody Rhodes might be on his way to possibly someday reigning with the WWE Championship, but he never held AEW's World Title. Jim Cornette recently addressed this and explained why he thinks this never happened.
The American Nightmare might have been one of the biggest names in AEW, but notably never went after the promotion's World Championship. Many believed this was a misstep in his booking ideas, but could there have been more to it?
During a recent episode of Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru, the veteran speculated that Cody Rhodes likely always wanted the WWE Championship to be his first major title:
"It makes perfect sense why he took himself out of the AEW title picture at the start of the company. A lot of people were always saying ‘he’s not going to book himself on top.’ He didn’t want to win any kind of world title on any kind of mainstream television so as not to blunt the angle that he’s obviously had in his mind for the WWE: ‘To win the belt they stole from my daddy in the [Madison Square] Garden’ before AEW even started."
Cody Rhodes' creative freedom in AEW led to many criticisms online, especially his storyline with Anthony Ogogo. Recently, Cody addressed the freedoms he had in the promotion as well as during his ROH run and admitted that it wasn't the best idea.
Missed out on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite? Catch up with the results here.
Cody Rhodes recently reflected on forming the first All In Pay-Per-View
All In 2019 broke records in the pro wrestling career and became the predecessor to what would become AEW. The success of the event was unfounded at the time, especially due to how much talent it drew in from all over the industry.
During an appearance on the Dale Download podcast, Cody Rhodes recalled the struggles he and The Elite faced to make the pay-per-view a reality:
"People think Ring of Honor footed the whole bill or we footed the whole bill. The truth is somewhere in the middle. We, literally, did have to go All In. We were going All In on our name alone in the sense that we had to get over 10,000 people," he said. [H/T: Fightful]
Additionally, Rhodes noted how the initial idea was to make All In become the Woodstock of pro wrestling. While All In didn't become an annual event, AEW has gone on to become the official rival of the WWE today.