Cody Rhodes On 1 Thing AEW Needs To Improve, Grades AEW’s 2020

AEW executive vice president and two-time TNT Champion Cody Rhodes has given his thoughts on one thing that the promotion should improve.

Speaking on Talk is Jericho, Rhodes pointed out that sometimes different people end up doing the same thing on the same show, perhaps due to a lack of communication and structure.

He said:

“To me, one of our biggest pros is also our biggest con, no pun intended. We have such freedom. So such freedom, sometimes, means that things are too similar on the same show. Well, this guy’s asking me to join Team FTW. Well, this group, they’re asking if he’ll join in this. So that’s one of those areas where that freedom is fun and pro, they’re not worried about the traditional rules. It’s punk rock, but also, you have to be disciplined so that it doesn’t desensitize the show.

“Eight times out of ten, we’ve got the flow right, but on nights that we have and it’s where our own freedom has been our biggest enemy, but I’d rather that than a sanitized C+ show. To me, the thing we need to work on the most is not taking the freedom for granted and maybe a little bit more of communication between the boys themselves. ‘Hey, I’m doing this. It doesn’t mean you can’t, but what else can you do? You’re super talented.’ I think that would go a long way.”

Cody Rhodes also graded how the promotion performed in 2020, giving it an A grade and saying:

“Somebody asked me ‘grade it’ and of course, as part of the company, I’m not going to give it a bad grade but I said, ”A’ and there’s room for an ‘A+’. We know where we need to grow. AEW, if this had been its last year, thank gosh it wasn’t, it’s still been the greatest year of my life. I learned a lot of lessons and learned some hard lessons about the burdens of management. If you weren’t popular before, you’re definitely not going to be popular as you enter that space. I still think it’s surreal – the numbers, that’s why I love the data, and you’re great about the data – The Demo God. I love it when (Chris) Harrington shows me this spreadsheet and talks about our international deals, we’re having these calls, I was on the phone with Microsoft the other day, what am I doing? But, I know what I want, I know what we’re talking about, that blows me away, I told Tony (Khan), ‘do not give me this job unless you really want me to really do the job, which would probably include pissing you off from time to time’, which he’s never been pissed at me, at least his version, maybe he has. That’s been the most exciting thing, the brain trust here amongst the talent, the EVPs, the management, the committee that exists that we don’t talk about, the committee of thought, which is the Bucks and Kenny (Omega), you (Jericho) and Tony is, more than ever has in his mind, how he wants the show to be as he is booking it, laying it out – I love it. I know it sounds like a tumultuous thing, all those names on paper and those people, and Arn (Anderson) – Arn is out there with me by the ring pretty much doing jack s**t except holding this play card up but what Arn does back here, my gosh, I literally want to look at him – where have you been?”

Quotes via Wrestling Inc and POST Wrestling

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