WWE Star Admits To Feeling ‘Betrayed’ By AEW Launch

WWE/AEW

WWE star and SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis has admitted to feeling “betrayed” by the launch of AEW.

In the event that served as the precursor to AEW, ALL IN 2018 as Cody Rhodes defeat Nick Aldis to win the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship in one of the marquee matches of the night.

Both men have gone on record to share their thoughts on how important this bout was to both Rhodes and Aldis’ careers.

In a new interview with Inside The Ropes, Nick Aldis was asked how he felt about the career trajectories that both he and Cody went on following ALL IN 2018, mentioning he felt “betrayed” by the launch of AEW and not being clued in on it. He answered:

“I think in this business, if you start playing the comparison game, you can really go down a rabbit hole of bitterness and resentment very quickly.”

“I felt a little bit betrayed when I found out they were all familiar, they were all aware of Tony Khan and they’d been sort of plotting this thing, and so then as we progressed a couple months forward, it’s sort like, oh, that’s already happening, that’s sort of a done deal, and so in that respect, yeah, I guess I felt… I felt that I could’ve been informed of that sooner.”

“But, I just looked at it from the perspective of like, that piece of business, meaning Cody (Rhodes) and I at ALL IN, that did nothing but good things for all of everyone involved.”

“It wasn’t like people looked at him and went, oh, he’s finished. We tore the house down and we had the match that everybody remembers.”

On his match with Cody Rhodes being the “real” main event of ALL IN 2018, Aldis said:

“We had the real main event of that show and that built my credibility and off the back of that, we were able to launch an entire show that, at that time, had a strong, sustainable audience…”

“I landed a six-figure contract off the back of that also. Cody obviously had a pipeline to a billionaire, you know, so, it’s different (Aldis laughed). I only had a millionaire, he had a billionaire but whatever…”

“It’s all just a part of the tapestry of your career, right? I certainly didn’t resent Cody. If anything, I was grateful to Cody, because the success of that show… they’d sold those tickets no matter what, right? I didn’t draw the house.”

On feeling like his match with Rhodes elevated the significance of the event, Aldis said:

“But I felt like I made the show what it was. If you take Cody and I’s match out of ALL IN, I think people remember it as a sort of really amazing achievement as a sort of, wow. Almost like a giant crowdfunding exhibit.”

“Like, just, wow, I can’t believe all these guys got together and they managed to sell 11,000 seats to an arena. That’s really cool.”

“But I felt like what Cody and I’s match did was kind of show that, no, it can be done outside of WWE.”

“A moment, you know? Storytelling, emotion, the big fight feel, the delivery of the big match and the fairytale ending can happen somewhere else, with the right guys and look, Cody was the right guy but I was the right guy too. I felt like it underlined me as like, this guy can do it too.”

Nick Aldis is now the General Manager of Friday Night SmackDown in WWE. Meanwhile, Cody Rhodes departed AEW in 2022 and has become the top babyface in all of WWE.

Rhodes is set to headline both nights of WrestleMania 40 as he will team with Seth Rollins to face The Rock and Roman Reigns on night one. Cody will then challenge Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship on night two.

Transcription via POST Wrestling

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• nick aldis
• Cody Rhodes
• AEW
• wwe

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