A big ongoing story in the pro-wrestling world has been the AEW departure of former three-time TNT champion Cody Rhodes, whose status as an Executive VP with the company made the move all the more shocking.
Since the American Nightmare announced that he, and his wife Brandi, were leaving rumors have been circulating that he may be WWE bound now that his status in the industry has risen. However, those rumors have certainly cooled off as many assumed that Rhodes was recently in Florida to return to the Performance Center, only to discover that he was actually in town for a wedding.
In an update from Fightful Select, Rhodes apparently spoke with longtime mentor and WCW legend Diamond Dallas Page about his decision to leave AEW, and DDP relayed that message back to Fightful. Here is what he had to say:
“Cody called me two days before. He said, ‘Listen, I’m gonna tell you something. But I can only tell you so much. But I know if I don’t call you and tell you, you’re gonna want to kill me. You’ll be so pissed off, so I have to call and tell you that I love Tony Khan. He’s a great guy. He loves me. But we’re gonna split up and I want to go off and do something else. I can’t tell you about what it is right now, but I promise at some point I will.’ I don’t want to know sometimes. You know what I mean? I want to be surprised. I gave him all of my viewpoints on everything. I don’t know if you’re doing this, I don’t know if you’re doing that, I don’t know if you’re doing this. But I gave him my viewpoints and then Cody’s a man. He’s very successful,” DDP told us. “To me whatever he does, I wish him the best. I hope I helped him with some of my insights to help direct him. But he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do.”
Prior to this report the latest update on Rhodes was that he was enjoying being a “Stay at home dad,” and didn’t seem to have any certain plan for an in-ring return. Regardless of his decision WWE has made it clear that they are heavily interested in bringing Rhodes back. On the AEW side, Tony Khan and Rhodes left on good terms, and neither has, or reportedly will, bad mouth the other.
Stay tuned.