Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Cody Rhodes On His Relationship With WWE - Interview From May 2019

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

Cody Rhodes is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he was the inaugural and record 3-time AEW TNT Champion and also served as an Executive Vice President. He serves as a judge on the competition series Go-Big Show and stars with his wife Brandi Rhodes on the reality show Rhodes to the Top. Cody Rhodes sits down with Chris Van Vliet for this interview that was recorded on May 22, 2019 just three days before AEW's inaugural event, Double or Nothing. It's interesting to see how much has changed and perhaps what hasn't changed in the nearly 3 years since this interview first happened. During this conversation, Cody talks about a lot of topics for the first time like the fact that Dynamite would be a 2-hour show, how wins and losses will matter in AEW, whether or not they will have pyro, what the AEW World Championship would look like (because at this point it had not been revealed), his relationship with WWE, his opinion on being a heel and face and much more. It is fascinating to listen to this knowing what we know now. Let me know what you think of this! Quote to think about: "The greatest risk to man is not that he aims too high and misses, but that he aims too low and hits." - Michaelangelo. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens, which is a super important part of my morning routine. With one scoop of athletic greens, you get 75 high-quality vitamins, whole food source superfoods, and probiotics to help you start your day right. This special blend of ingredients supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, aging, all the things. And best of all, it tastes amazing. And it's really helped with better sleep quality and recovery for me. Whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, whatever it is, it fits right into your diet. Look, lots of people take some kind of multivitamin, and I think it's important to choose one with high-quality ingredients that your

body will actually absorb. That's why I drink athletic greens every morning, and that's why it's recommended by professional athletes in all kinds of different sports. Right now, it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially since it's cold and flu season right now. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. And to make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash insight. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash insight to take ownership over your health

and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Athletic Greens. All systems are good. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van. All right, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV Chris VanV. Thank you so much for being with us as we revisit this interview with Cody Rhodes from May of 2019. We sat down for this interview in Miami. It was three days before AEW's first ever event, double or nothing in Las Vegas.

And with all the news and all the rumors surrounding Cody over the last few weeks, I thought it'd be really interesting for us to take a look back at how much has changed over the last three years since this conversation. And also, perhaps, how much has stayed the same. I mean, I asked him straight up in this. interview, what his relationship with WWE was like. So let me know what you think of this one.

And share this with someone who you know will enjoy this. Take a screenshot, share it online, tag us so we can reshare it. I'm at Chris Van Vleap. Cody is at Cody Rhodes on Twitter. He's at American Nightmare Cody on Instagram. And by the way, if you're going to be in Dallas next week

for WrestleMania, I would love to meet you. I'd love to shake your hand, love to snap a photo. I'm going to be at RussellCon. on Friday morning and Saturday all day. I'll be at the Fandu Beltz booth. So stop by, say hi, give me a high five. Give me a hug. It'd be so great to be able to hang out with you.

So I'll see you there. Our fan of the week is Lou Lion, who says, Great interviewer. Chris has a great ability to connect with his guests. They trust him, and this leads to incredibly deep answers to his questions. I love his ability to lower their defenses and communicate with them like two friends naturally talk. I look forward to his podcast every week.

He is a master. Well, thank you for the very kind words, Lou. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I hope you enjoy this one if you haven't heard it yet because there's a moment where we hear Cody's phone like beeping, but we can't find it. So we left this in the interview too. And you can watch this on YouTube.

We like search around the room for his phone. Is it behind us? Is it in his bag? Is it in the couch? You'll see. I hope you enjoy it. If you have an iPhone, please take a few seconds today to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We read one out on every episode as our way to say, thank you for being on this journey with us.

And if you're listening on Spotify, they have ratings now. So go in there, go to where the show homepage is, and click on the five stars. And that's it. That's all it takes. Okay, here we go. Let's dive into this one. Ladies and gentlemen, Cody Rhodes. All right, just hanging out.

in Cody Rhodes Hotel Room. Yeah. Thank you for making this happen. No, thank you. And we, if you can't tell, there's a great view. Yeah. But we had to turn the couch around, but it's magnificent. Miami.

You're living the gimmick, though. You are in the best hotel in Miami. With the center view, too. Yeah. You do. You have the best view that maybe we'll show you after, but yeah, you do have the best view here. Good view. Roger Goodell is next door, I think.

Like in the room next door? Yeah, I think so. Wow. I mean, I kind of created that, you know, I heard a voice on the balcony and it sounded a lot like him. And I saw him last night. So I'm going to say it was him. Was he yelling about some teams? No, a friendly guy. Oh, yeah.

I kept saying, I'm a big fan. I don't think he meant, I understood what I was saying. Like, I'm an NFL huge fan and freaking Roger Goodell. It's cool. It's obviously very timely that we're talking, not just because double or nothing is on Saturday. But yesterday was three years to the day that you were asked for your. release from WWA. Oh, wow. Yeah. Did you ever imagine when you asked for that release that any of the stuff that you've done in the last three years would have happened? No. And you know

how like you have like an idea so like what your goals are and things you want, places you want to go? Yeah. I probably had 10 different things in mine and none of them included this situation we're in now. And that's how unprecedented this situation is now. And it really is like the more people, you know, like yourself who know about wrestling, this is crazy. It's only going to happen here and now. So trying to kind of soak it in and enjoy it and just be in the zone from the Turner up front. And that T&T announcement, ITV and the freaking UK, like, man, it's good.

It's good time, man. Are you able to step back from it and kind of realize the magnitude of what this is? So it's not missed on me in terms of how big this is, but I just want to ride the high until obviously, like, there's an epic. I'm due for an epic crash. I don't know what it is, some sort of scandal, something. Who knows? But it keeps going. And me and a DDP has been a real good mentor to me.

And he is that every day is like, I cannot believe this is happening. And he was on TNT and millions of viewers with WCW and seeing it happen. Because I told him, you know, like, hey, it's a real thing. Just stay tuned. Yeah. I don't think anyone believed us until actually TNT put out that first tweet with the fire. The very nitro-esque fire. So we're all in the van and we're like getting like pumped up to go to this.

media and I was tying Matt Jackson's tie. And then Brandy just randomly goes, oh, TNT tweeted. Like, we never had, we never got to control it. They just did it. And it was such a good, cool thing to see that they supported it. I was excited. Yeah. Well, they should. This is going to be the biggest show on their network, I think, this fall. I hope so. I hope so. I'm, uh, I'm really looking forward to, to, you know, because one of the things sitting there at the, the Warner media up fronts, it's actually really educational. Because They're talking about the multi-platform use of not only your viewers directly on the network, but your viewers on the streaming service, your viewers with Bleacher Report,

and driving them to kind of keep the wheel going was really exciting. And up our, like, in line with what we already do, like, as disruptors. We went from disruptors to kind of being in the system ourselves, and it's perfect. I'm excited about it. How long do you think until we find out the date of your launch, how long your show is, if you guys are going to be live, all that good stuff? It's really likely the show is going to be two hours. Okay.

Yeah, that's the sweet spot. In terms of the schedule, we'll find out probably in the next few months for sure. And it'll be in a great spot to be in primetime on TNT. Man, they've really set us up. Yeah. And now you've got to go. And the big thing we want to deliver is the bell to bell and the sports-centric. Is that my phone?

It's okay. Sorry about that. Who is it? Tony, Tony, come on, he's texting me in the middle of the center. Freaking out. Don't do the interview. Why did you do? You said, oh, my God.

He can hear it all, man. He can. No, yeah, we should find out in the next few, probably the next few months. Another thing that's really cool is you'll be able to find out, you know, per market, where we're going to be. because we're going to go all around. This isn't going to be something that's just stationed. So you won't have a home base like Impact Had the Impact Zone.

Oh, no, man. This is a touring. This is a touring brand. Wow. I mean, we're really no pun intended going all in on the concept of it. And each, it's so special because we're not doing a live event system. So when we come, we're bringing our absolute best from match quality to star quality. Boom.

And is it going to be live on those when when you're those people are giving away a lot of information? There is a lot of them. Did Tony already say two hours live? There we go. And are we going to see a belt maybe on Saturday? They're not belts, a championship? So in a weird way, I always understood what Vince meant when he was like, oh, they're not, belts hold your pants up.

Like, I got it. But I've said title. I've said championship a few times in our little circle now. And everyone's really adamant that we say belt. So it's like now we're pushing back. against it okay cool um yeah i think uh on saturday there is the chance uh there is the chance that you might see the greatest world championship title that's ever been created and uh there's also a chance i might have showed him a picture of it before this interview he might have got a sneak peek i saw it

who knows how much can i say about how awesome it is just how awesome it is yeah just how it's it's it's really great i uh every day they kind of you know the progress shots have been cool and I'll be able to see it. I'm not guaranteeing it will be there Saturday. That was a wink. I saw that. But I'm excited about it. And we're actually the Battle Royal, the stakes of the Battle Royal,

getting that opportunity to potentially wrestle for the World Championship, to wrestle for the World Championship. It's just every match has high stakes placed on it. Good stuff. This seems like kind of coincidentally, the perfect week for you guys to be launching. Wrestling fans are very upset with it. Let's find out who's texting.

Okay, let's find out who's texting. Okay, it just keeps dinging. Who is so disrespectful. Yeah. Where is that, sucker? It's over here somewhere. Let's find out who did it. And then read them out loud.

Let's see what, let's see who this is. Well, that could be important. Now we don't know where your phone is. Now we don't know where the phone is, gang. Wow. Hang in there, guys. Okay. Stay tuned.

Stay tuned. Bed sheets. We're going to show all this, too. It's over here. It's over here. It's over here. Is it in the trash? No way. That would be a clear sign I've lost my mind. It is over here, though. It's over here. Or is it outside? Guys, we're so close. Jeez, wow. We're close. Is it behind the curtains, maybe? Is it in this couch? Yes. Oh, we found it, guys. We found it. We found it. Oh, wow. All right. That's a lot of text. Yeah, we're going to read them all. Okay. Let's see who we got here. We're going to read them all. Okay.

All right. Wow. That's a lot. A guy who makes my boots. They've been delivered. They've been delivered, which means pay me. Great. Mandy said that you got about 20 minutes.

Okay. That's me, yeah. Nick Jackson. I've heard of him. Can you film just like five seconds of you traveling to Vegas? I'm going to get everyone to do it and it'll be cold open for Monday's BT. Now you know. Nick's furious.

Okay, yeah. And then Jeff, the team to road to double or nothing. Are we doing noon Eastern or noon? Oh, man. You know what I'm going to tell all these people? What? Just go with your heart.

You know, let's the answer. Let me ask questions. That's my new answer to questions that seem like is just what does your heart tell you? The best thing about that is you just read those texts and didn't respond to any of them. Well, I'm going to get back to him.

I rudely had to interrupt the interview. you know. I haven't got back to Zach Ryder sent me a text like three months ago. I still haven't got back to watch this. Yeah. I love him. I just, yeah. Doesn't have a question mark. Like, if it's not really pertinent, we're good. And I'm going to film that stuff for Nick. Yeah, for sure. Of course you will. Yeah. But it is like the, coincidentally, the best week. Because the wrestling fans are like, they're fed up. And with what happened at Money in the Bank with Brock and this 24-7 title, it's like you have the best timing for this. I only saw a picture of the 24-7 title. And then this isn't meant to be facetious anyway.

I'm curious because I didn't watch. Did Brock climb the ladder? Yeah. He was not officially in the match. But he did climb it. He climbed it. And then he could tell he was kind of nervous. And he thought he was on the rung he needed to be on.

It was like, oh, he had to climb up one more rung. Eight foot, 10 or 12, do you know? I don't know. Probably an eight. But, yeah. You've wrestled before. I have, yeah. I've never had a ladder match.

An eight foot ladder in an arena looks great. In a stadium, it's got to be 10 or 12. Otherwise, it looks super small. Wow. Which means the bump is just terrible, yeah. Well, you saw the belt. What did you think of it? The 24-7 belt?

Yeah. You know? Yep. We're talking about such a nice one. Sometimes, what is it? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is. Yeah.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There it is. Well, Mick looked great. Yeah. He does. look great. He's been doing that DDP yoga. Who hasn't been doing it? So his lifelong friend,

mentor helped me considerably. Him and Dusty were tight. I was in the original DDP, or yoga for regular guys' book. I've never done the current program. Really? Yeah, I'm just the whole, I'm the last holdout. He just sent me a link so I can do it.

I'm actually, I'm actually going to do in the future when I have some more time because I've been doing a lot with the actual TV show I host and these interviews. I'm going to 90 days doing DDP yoga every single day for 90 days to see the transformation. What's your goal there? The goal is to get ripped. That's a very fair.

That's a pretty fair goal because you can touch my toes? Yeah. But I think I've really be able to touch my toes. Has Dallas ever done the thing where he grabs his foot and holds it? Yeah. Not impressive. He used to do to a lot of meetings and stuff. And I thought, you know, not every crowd is for this.

Some crowds are for it. He's the best. Love him. When we talked last time, we talked a lot about how you were just co. and Ring of Honor, and you're like, but I actually do own the last name. Yeah. Rhodes. And you're like, but I have a good relationship with WWE and I don't want to mess things up.

You still have a good relationship with that. I would think I do, but it's dawning on me. I likely don't. If that makes any sense. I would think we were still, you know, I learned a lot there. I had a great time. You know, I met my wife. I also, I got to wrestle some of the best.

Taker was still pretty active. I got to be in there with Takers. Sean was active. Got to be in there with Sean and Hunter himself. But yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'm not too well received. Well, you're the enemy now. Oh, wow.

What a statement. You made me the first person who said it like that. Damn. Is it ringing true now? We were kind of always the enemy, me and my family. We were like the kind of like bastard family of wrestling and dusty. You know, he always was an individual. He never really fit into the.

corporate structure. He did great there and they really took care of them. But I think we were always kind of the enemy. I just maybe rattled the saver a little bit more and caused a bit more disruption. But hey, that's all good. Well, now it all comes full circle at double or nothing. Yeah. With Dustin. There's been some talk. Is this a retirement match? I would think this is his last match. I would think it is. Nah, it's not been stated. it's not we're not putting some sort of like element like that on it

because that's his decision and his world and one of the big things about this match though is really now or never people wanted this match at the time they wanted it three years ago I think three four years ago at WrestleMania. Yeah they wanted this match actually a lot more than I wanted it

Oh wow. Mainly because it was time for us to go our separate ways. We're solo acts and we had a really great run as a team. And I love all that, but it was time for us to go our separate ways. And now as we got to this event and this kind of fell in the place the way it did, there's so many elements of it that are real. And that's a really great thing to bring to the screen.

And it beams across. But I would think this is his last match. But by no means he has that pressure on him. You know, he is getting older. And he's actually said himself he'd like to. slow down. So we'll see. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens, which is a super important part of my morning routine. With one scoop of athletic greens, you get 75 high-quality vitamins, whole food source superfoods, and probiotics to help you start your day right. This

special blend of ingredients supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, aging, all the things. And best, First of all, it tastes amazing, and it's really helped with better sleep quality and recovery for me. Whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, whatever it is, it fits right into your diet. Look, lots of people take some kind of multivitamin, and I think it's important to choose one with high-quality ingredients that your body will actually absorb. That's why I drink athletic greens every morning, and that's why it's recommended by professional athletes in all kinds of different sports. right now it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition,

especially since it's cold and flu season right now. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. And to make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D

and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash insight. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash insight to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Athletic Greens. When I tweeted out that I was going to be interviewing you, you retweet it, so thank you for that.

Hell yeah, man. You retweet your friends. Appreciate that. All right. That's it. Yeah, that's the truth, though, man. I like that. Man, I checked. You go to that verified followers, who's following you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You got to get your friends.

A lot of people were asking about Hangman. Is he still going to be part of Double or Nothing in some way? So he's still full gear ready, for sure. He had it in him all along, you know. It was in there. He's still full gear ready. He won't be weighing in at Starcast. Instead, at Starcast, we're going to have Sammy Guevara and Kip Sabian weigh in.

But I think Hangman's, I know for a fact he'll be in Vegas. He is doing Starcast and he'll be at Double or Nothing. What he does there is mystery. Well, as we look ahead, how much TV have you guys planned out, written out? Like, are we talking six months, a year? None. No, no. No, no.

Actually, we got a pretty good bearing on, I'd say, six months to a year, exactly that, because long-form storytelling is good in every medium, whether it be the film TV, whatever it may be, it's to know and to, and to, work backwards. We've got a good, what would I call it, like a syllabus? Outline. I want to say syllabus though. You're like a college professor. Yeah, there's like a syllabus to what we're going to do. But one thing that Matt Jackson is really good about pointing out is some stuff just catches fire. And one thing we want to do differently than any other wrestling that's out there is you can't deny something when it catches. So if something catches, we're going to push that. We're going to promote that. If an individual catches,

We're going to push that. We're going to promote that. And that all starts at double or nothing. So, I mean, there's a, this is a, there's a lot of guys on this show who are so, so talented. And if you cover the indie scene, you've been around it. You've probably seen some of them. But for people who are just jumping on board, maybe they heard Jim Ross is going to be part of the show or Chris Jericho and they're just jumping on board. I think they're going to really take away some new favorites, men and women.

I think a lot of people are really hanging on to when you said there's no heels or faces anymore. What a dumb thing to tweet. Wow. What a dumb thing to tweet. I like I like fixed it like three times too and no one those tweets don't matter. The one matters. Um, I didn't mean the constructs of bad guys and good guys goes away. They exist in every form of storytelling. What I meant was there's this date. You almost have to be a wrestler to understand and that's the worst thing to tell somebody. But there's this dated outlook on heels, not even baby faces, just heels, where we can't turn the clock back. Bullie Ray is a great example of someone who, you know, really tries to be a heel, but also if I Google Bully Ray, there's a image of him

holding a cat at the Humane Society because he's a great person and likes animals. And, and, And he's also a radio host on Busted Open. So it was more of a like a play on some of these young idiot wrestlers that are, oh, I don't sign autographs because I'm a heel. Like, it's just, you don't even know what a heel is. You're not really a heel or a baby face until you're into your run, if that makes any sense. Yeah. Should I have tweeted that?

Absolutely not. Because even my explanation now doesn't make sense to people. Good guys, bad guys will have all that. I just don't use the terms. And believe me, everyone around me, they use the terms. So I still get it. I get it. I know what it is.

I know what they're supposed to be. Nobody likes good guy, bad guy. Or I say protagonist and antagonist. God, see everyone. Very Spielberg-esque. You can hear, you literally, when I say it, you can feel people rolling their eyes. Like, oh, fuck, here he is. I don't know how much you can talk about the wins and loss is mattering.

But it's obviously a lot of question marks around that. Does that mean that we're going to see a win-loss record? will that go into whether someone's the number one contender? How is that going to work? Well, so one of the things that Tony really brought on board was kind of the analytical outlook on wrestling, and he's covered it. He's been such a fan, such a hardcore fan of the business. Wins and losses matter in any competitive sport. I think that makes perfect sense. They matter in any competitive sport. Now, what we are isn't just sports. It's also entertainment. It's this whole other thing. It's pro wrestling. But the concept of guys wanting to win matches and women wanting to

win matches because that's who gets paid more. And that is actually real. Isn't that confusing. So when you look at the fact that wins and losses will matter and you ask about like, you know, records, we really want to take a deep dive. And Tony has, I mean, he does it for baseball. He does it for football. He does it for all these sports with his outlook on analytics and and by the number. I think that's a really cool concept. When I read the press release that we put out for WarnerMedia coming to TNT, I felt like it was almost like Trek, like Trek babble. It came across to something that I think people got hung up on.

Really, it's just wins and losses will matter. There's not going to be 50-50 booking. And it's when you commit to something or somebody, we're going to go forward with that. I'm only more vague. I'm getting more vague as we have it. I appreciate that though. How are you going to be able to balance being an executive in the company? I'm not. But also being a worker in the ring. I'm not one of the things is going to take over. Right. So I'm I have just my wrestling ego is really gotten in check. I feel like I have a real good open mind. I'm 100% aware of like, oh, that's a self-serving. I'm aware of it. The other side of things, I'm enjoying the

executive side so much. It sounds so strange, but like the idea that I have an office and my poor assistant, he, and you have an assistant. Oh, yeah, yeah. This is, it's a real deal. Oh, he would be terrified. His name is Michael Quilari. He's not technically my assistant. He's an associate producer. Oh, there you go. Okay. But he's the best. And to be able to have somebody like that with you, and be able to talk and plan and then get with Tony and talk and plan. And I don't know what it is, but I'm just obsessed with writing emails and the organizational aspect of this. Maybe because I never had a job, which is always a wrestler. Now I have a job.

And to be able to talk with Keith Mitchell, you know, executive producer Keith Mitchell and go back and forth there, that stuff really excites me. And it scares me how much it excites me because at the end of the day, what I'll be judged by is actually my belt of bell in ring. So right now I balance it, but we've had six months to prepare for one show. When we go to week to week, that will really be the challenge. But I'm young. We don't have children yet. We just have the dogs. I think I can do it. You could have been the best executive for the last six months. No one would know this, though, because all they see, of course you have been. But all they would see, though, is what we're going to see on Saturday. Yeah. And that's, I totally,

my mom, you know, who's just like really mean, but beautiful, wonderful woman, but she's like really stern about the industry. She's actually always like, oh, you're only as good as your last match. And that is the truth. Like you, that's what they remember, the last outing you had. And she'll be watching on Saturday. And I can't screw it up. Just she'll let me know. Have you popped your mom yet? I know it's very hard to get her to. I got her it all in. Okay. She hasn't watched anything since. Sent her everything. every link to Culture City. Brandy got this, they got a partnership with Culture City, which Double or Nothing is the first sensory inclusive show ever. So autism, PTSD, people with sensory

ailments to be able to provide them a cheat sheet and headphones and glasses. They get their bags from Culture City, which is the people of Culture City are unbelievable. And they do this for concerts and different sporting events and now to be able to do it for wrestling. And they have a room that people can go to. I just visited the one in State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Just awesome. But that was something my mom was really, I think, proud of the fact that her daughter-in-law had accrued that partnership. And that's the last pop I think we got from her. Since you were part of the announcement on January 1st, what's been the one question that people keep asking or tweeting you? Oh, since the first part? Like, since we,

realize AEW is a company. What's been the biggest thing? It goes back and forth. It's usually talent-based. Oh, yes. Because now every talent ever, you're recommended. You can't, because then you would be in another

situation, like another wrestling company is now where they have all the talent in the world, and they don't have the time, even though they should. But you know if that makes any sense? Like, there's so much. What name do you get asked about the most? It depends on the day.

Yeah. So, like, the last few weeks, Sasha Banks has been a lot of Sasha Banks. In the early stages, a lot of CM Punk. If Randy ever likes a tweet of mine, a lot of Randy. Randy's the best, man. They don't realize that. I think Randy just likes that stuff just to stir stuff up, which is great, because he's the best, dude. He's earned that.

They don't realize that you guys could be friends, possibly. Well, that's the other thing. That's like the coolest part about this is the element of recruitment isn't like recruitment anywhere else. The boys in the industry, and that includes the women. So we'll just say the girls, the boys, the girls. The locker room has now banded together more than ever. They banded together because it's not just this.

I hate saying this, but it's okay to have corporate individuals involved with wrestling. I totally understand. bring an acumen and skill set to the business that the wrestlers and the cowboys and pirates that we don't have. But when you have too many and it becomes overwhelming, when they're sitting up in first class and, you know, Cesaros walking to the back of the plane, that stuff's unacceptable. And I forget, what was his name, George Barrios, who shows up at like two WWE events a year and he shakes your hand. You ain't taking a single bump. How are you getting paid millions of dollars? It's just, you know, this is a terrible thing that I'm bringing up.

And I don't mean anything. I'm just saying that it's great to see the locker room come together. Matt Jackson always was really big on the locker room. And that was something I learned from him and I like. And, you know, there is no recruitment anymore. We're all friends. We know each other, just like they did in the late 90s when they knew each other. And the rising tide and the competitive nature of this, it should be good for everybody in wrestling.

I want to be respectful of your time. I'm sorry, George, by the way. We never had any heat. I just didn't see the live events a lot. People are very interested whether there's going to be pyro or not at double or nothing. Yeah, there is. There we go. Yeah.

So you say that? And I don't run a pyro company. So I haven't seen their rehearsals. Well, any pyro is better than no pyro. Honestly, it's got to be big pyro. Because if you do like sparklers, which are cool. But if you do those, it's like, you want. You want rockets. You want like the big mortar bang that scares you to death. You want the big stuff. So we'll find out. I'll probably this evening because I'm going to go over there this evening and I'll see if they can blow something up for me.

So we've seen the card. I'm excited. I'm going to be there. Yeah. Are we in store for some surprises too? I think what we have ready to go is the best wrestling show ever. I really do. It's a wrestling show by wrestlers for the fans. It's 100% fan service. It wouldn't be that if there weren't surprises. There you go. Cody Rhodes. Hell yeah, man.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Sorry, George. Well, there we go, my friends. I love that we kept that whole part with him looking for his phone in there. And it's just so interesting to see how much has changed for him and for AEW. And also how much of what he's talking about here? really, maybe hasn't changed at all.

And I guess we'll see over the next few days or weeks, what's next for him and what's next for his wife, Brandy. Please share this with someone who's going to love this interview. Take a screenshot. Share it online and tag us. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Cody's at Cody Rhodes on Twitter. He's at American Nightmare Cody on Instagram.

And make sure to subscribe or follow on whatever podcast app that you're listening on right now. leave you with the very wise words of Michelangelo, who said, the greatest risk to man is not that he aims too high and misses, but that he aims too low and hits. Be great. Be grateful and we'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why?

Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on the. this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket banj of get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.