AEW Locks In Former World Champion to a New Contract

07/24/2023 07:10 pm EDT

Former ROH World Champion Rush officially signed a new deal with All Elite Wrestling this week, sharing a video of him signing a new deal and embracing Tony Khan on Monday afternoon. Originally debuting at the 2022 Double or Nothing pay-per-view, "El Toro Blanco" has split his time between AEW's weekly programming, his old stomping grounds of Ring of Honor and Lucha Libre AAA down in Mexico (though he announced last month he's done with the promotion). He's contended for a number of titles in AEW, but thus far hasn't found much luck. 

There was some speculation that he might wind up in WWE given that one of his brothers, Dragon Lee, recently signed a deal with the company and is currently working on the NXT brand. But Rush publicly pushed back against that idea and now considers himself "100% AEW."

"I started a new chapter in my personal and professional career, people doubted I could make it, today I want to say that im 100% AEW. Thank you @TonyKhan, thank you fans and thank my LFI brothers. We can now rule the wrestling world," he tweeted."

AEW Dynamite Card (July 26, 2023)

• AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy vs. AR Fox
• The Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. The Lucha Brothers vs. The Best Friends
• Pac vs. Gravity
• Darby Allin vs. Swerve Strickland
• Dr. Britt Baker vs. Taya Valkyrie
• Promo from MJF & Adam Cole

AEW Collision Card (July 29, 2023)

• AEW World Tag Team Championships: FTR vs. MJF & Adam Cole
• Andrade El Idolo vs. Buddy Matthews (Ladder Match)
• El Hijo Del Vikingo, Action Andretti & Darius Martin vs. Bullet Club Gold (Juice Robinson & The Gunns)

Cody Rhodes on Why The End of His AEW Run Flopped

The former AEW executive vice president and three-time TNT Champion spoke with Sam Roberts this week and addressed the issues surrounding his final year with AEW. Rhodes admitted his decision to turn heel by outright refusing to turn got a bit too "meta" for fans to enjoy.

"I think at the end of AEW, I was talking to my students about this the other day, it's just a case of, I have never underestimated our audience in a sense," Rhodes said. "That's why I use a lot of big words and promos and people will say, 'Oh, he's talking down to them.' No, they're not. They're not down. Like these people, some of them are doctors. Some of them are lawyers. Some of them are industrial workers. It doesn't matter. It doesn't mean they're not educated, like the wrestling audience is as educated as any audience. But at AEW, I think trying to do what I was doing there at the end was just a bit too meta. 'Hey, the thing we want is you to turn heel', so for me to do that, to turn heel, is by saying verbally out loud, 'I'm not going to do it', which is being a heel. 

"But that didn't work, and in a sense, it did because I had a really fun match with Ethan Page where the crowd was just going nuts and I love the polarized crowds, the split crowds. I love the polarized, split crowds because obviously, I am part of the (John) Cena era of our industry so I loved it, but it might have just been over the heads of people, but everything was going in such a unique direction, you know, multiple shows and money was through the roof in the industry. It was really wonderful," he continued.

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