Cody Rhodes’ departure from AEW cost the company an EVP, but WWE gained a big event talent. Cody left AEW for reasons that haven’t really been explained, and they might stay that way.
Cody Rhodes talked briefly about why he left AEW in his WWE special. He didn’t give a lot of information, and it seemed like he was also keeping something back.
Cody Rhodes talked about leaving AEW, and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter talked about what he said. It was also said that Cody Rhodes and Tony Khan had a “agreement” that said Rhodes couldn’t talk about exactly why he left.
As expected, because of the deal he made with Cody Rhodes and Tony Khan when he left, the WWE-made video that came out on July 31 didn’t say much about why he left AEW.
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That’s the most he’s said about it, though he’s said many times that the Young Bucks had nothing to do with it when it was said they were involved. It turned out to be the right career move for him, and it was one of the best things WWE did because he was a big part of how their business turned around, along with the Bloodline, Sami Zayn, Paul Levesque taking on most of the work as head of creative, and a lot of other things. Levesque basically said that Rhodes left because he didn’t want to be the winner of a secondary promotion.
Tony Khan may not have wanted Cody Rhodes to say anything bad about AEW. But Arn Anderson has said on the record that he doesn’t think there’s any bad blood between TK and the American Nightmare.
The story also said, Whatever the real reason, we’ve talked to key people at AEW about it, including Tony Khan and Rhodes. Rhodes and Khan agreed not to say anything, and Rhodes said that it was the right time to leave the area and go to a new one, which was true. Others didn’t seem to know because each story we heard from different people was a different guess. Most people were surprised, but one person said he wasn’t, but he still had different guesses as to why instead of knowing the real reason.
AEW and WWE will keep going as the pro wrestling industry grows. Cody Rhodes knows that there are a lot of things going on. He was in AEW Fight Forever and WWE 2K23 this year, after all. He also enjoys his time in WWE, so he doesn’t need to bring up any old problems.
