Cody Rhodes reflects on his decision to walk away from AEW and return to WWE.
The American Nightmare famously departed AEW at the beginning of 2022, then showed up at WrestleMania 38 to a thunderous pop from the WWE Universe. Cody has since become one of the top talents on the WWE roster and even headlined this year’s WrestleMania 39. He spoke about this topic during a recent interview with GQ.
No, it was the easiest thing I ever did. It’s because I had a personal issue that I wasn’t going through, over, or around. I was just going to steer clear of it. If anything, I wanted to look at what we had done at AEW and say, ‘Amazing, what a wonderful time, a beautiful memory, and very special in every way. Now it’s time to move on.’
He later adds that he was happy to burn rubber and leave the company that he helped launch behind him.
You know, all good things. It certainly was like that with me. So I mean it not in a negative way, like I was happy to burn rubber and speed out, but it just wasn’t a decision that was difficult for me at all. Or for Brandi.
In a separate interview, Cody spoke about a moment from his first WWE run when he almost punched a writer in the face. You can read about that here.