Cody recently did an interview with ESPN, regarding the launch of AEW, how he landed Chris Jericho and meeting Tony Khan. Below is the highlights of the interview:
ESPN asks how Chris Jericho land in AEW?
Cody Rhodes: I guess Chris is kind of that wrestling outlaw. When he came to be part of All In, I think he saw that we had a bigger picture in mind. For several years now the business has literally been changing, and it’s just ripe for this movement and this revolution and ultimately this alternative, which is what we’re trying to be. He had the foresight to see that. The next piece of that puzzle was he brought us onto the Chris Jericho Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager cruise and the magic continued. I think he’s capable of making magic, and I think he wanted to make it with us.
ESPN asked about recruiting talents for AEW:
CR: Probably a mix. My favorite word here is fresh. I want fresh. People who haven’t ever been seen. One thing that has surprised me about independent pro wrestling is the amount of quality men and women on the scene. The stars are just waiting to be under the big lights. Obviously there is a great deal of veterans, but I don’t want to make the mistake of putting that talent on the forefront versus featuring up-and-coming wrestlers. Fresh is everything and nothing is better than when you have a balance.
You add to that one of the greatest wrestlers of all time in Chris Jericho, who continues to reinvent himself — he’s wrestling’s David Bowie — you put him in the same ring with somebody who’s fresh and hasn’t been seen, it just ups that individual’s profile. It’s what we call in the business “the rub.” That’s how I really want to balance it out. I don’t want to lean towards one side. You’ve seen in wrestling, the worst thing you can do is abuse and overuse your legends. You have got to keep it amongst your core contract young and fresh guys.
ESPN asked how Cody met Tony Khan?
CR: I’ve known Tony for a long time. People are just discovering that Tony is a diehard wrestling fan, on the tape-trader level of wrestling fan. We also bond over the fact that we are huge Trekkies — he and I are obsessed with Star Trek. He used to come to WWE events. He’s actually in the front row in New Japan Pro Wrestling, he’s in the crowd at Long Beach cheering, you can find him if you look back on it. So I knew him in a friendly manner long before this ever came to fruition.
ESPN asked how it came to fruition?
CR: A lot of what happened stemmed from me, Matt and Nick [Jackson, The Young Bucks] doing All In. We have just the time of our lives and get a lot of great what I guess I call “consumer feedback” from fans for Starrcast, Conrad Thompson’s event, and our event All In. It just seemed to be this kind of renaissance, Woodstock for wrestling, and I just had the idea of, “What if we did this more? What if we did this quarterly or what if we potentially did this weekly?” Everyone said you can’t do that, and I don’t believe that.
The wrestling I grew up on was that every week. It filled your soul up with the goodness. And Tony was somebody who we discussed initially investing in a sequel show. Once I was no longer under contract to Ring of Honor, which was about two months before Final Battle, that’s when we started to get into the weeds a bit on that and talk about the opportunity that exists out there.
See the entire interview here http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/25781334/cody-rhodes-all-elite-wrestling-origins-future-chris-jericho-path-aew
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