AEW superstar and Executive VP Cody Rhodes recently spoke with TSN to talk all things pro-wrestling, including how he well the TNT championship has been received by fans, and why he believes he’s less of a wrestler and more of an executive these days. Highlights are below.
How he considers himself more an executive than he does a wrestler:
I’m probably less of a wrestler than I am an executive. I really like leading people. I really like mentoring and collaboration, especially when you have really talented people who just might need a second opinion or just might need some nudging. Or if you have developmental people and we only have a handful of those, but gosh, it’s so cool to see somebody’s success. I root for everybody. We’re a startup company, so it’s very much a team environment, unlike any wrestling locker room I’ve ever been in – it’s so team, team, team, team. But I probably see myself as 60 per-cent executive and 40 per-cent wrestler.
Believes the TNT title has exceeded expectations:
I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s superseded what we anticipated and I think it’s superseded the general expectation. I don’t want to blame people if they want to put identities on things before they happen and that’s just because WWE has been unopposed for 20 years, so they might be used to how WWE does things, but the TNT title was never going to be a midcard title. It was never intended to be middle of the pack and a lot of people thought, ‘Oh, it’s a workhorse belt’ or ‘Oh, it’s a television belt.’ No, it’s this. And the reality is, it’s none of those things. It’s the first time a network partner wanted a title in their own likeness and looked at a bunch of people they thought would be great fits for it. I can’t wait to tell the full story of it one day.