AEW superstar and former two-time TNT champion Cody Rhodes recently appeared on Busted Open Radio to discuss the current direction of his character, one the American Nightmare hopes will avoid all of the traditional routes WWE has done.
He also admits that the boos coming from the AEW fanbase do have an affect on him, comparing his situation to Woody from the hit Pixar film, Toy Story. Highlights are below.
How important it is to listen to the feedback from fans:
“I’m of the outlook that if you pay your money to attend the show if you give us your attention to watch the show, you do whatever you want. I think our competition in the wrestling space, one of the things that has hurt them is their inability to hear. If you’re a wrestler in the ring, you can hear and if you don’t hear [reactions], you’re doing yourself a disservice. You’re doing the whole company a disservice, you’re doing the match you’re in a disservice. I can hear but I also play chess, not checkers.
Hopes to take his character in a unique and different direction:
“So I think it’s fun to speculate and there’s so much that we’ve seen in the past, “That’s how this went and that’s how this could go.” The challenge I’m facing in the direction I’m going is something that has never been done in wrestling before. There’s tons of just old plays that we could run here, ‘Oh, kick this guy in the balls and abuse my EVP power.’ Very soap opera bullshit. I don’t mean to say that harsh, but the challenge for me now is to go in a direction that perhaps no wrestler has gone before. I don’t come out of either tunnel, if that’s probably the best way to put it, and I’m looking forward to it as the most fun I’ve ever had in my career has been navigating some of these new spaces. For example, in New York, we had 25,000 people and that reaction’s a little different. Last week, I’m in the concourse doing a book drive for community outreach and it’s the opposite of that reaction in Philly. That beautiful feeling of, ‘Alright, these are my people,’ depends [on the setting]. Some places I go, they’ll be my people. Other places I go, they won’t, but that’s your right as the fan to do what you want.”
Says the boos he receives makes him feel like Woody in Toy Story:
“Woody was having a hell of a time. He was having a great time. He was getting played with every day. He was the number one toy. Buzz Lightyear shows up, Woody gets thrown in the toy box. If you’re wondering how I feel, take a peek at how Woody felt in the very first Toy Story because that, to a degree, has been my role lately. However, with that said in my pettiness aside, I have been doing this since I was 15 years old and that education is invaluable in terms of me not panicking, and in terms of also me enjoying this moment. I’ve never had a run like this in my career where everything is happening at once personally and professionally. I want to ride the wave. I want to look back at it and enjoy it. But yes, if anyone wants to know perhaps how I feel identify with Woody from Toy Story if that makes any sense. That’s where I’m at with it.”
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)