Cody Rhodes Admits the Biggest Mistake He Made During His AEW Run

Cody Rhodes has been asked to reflect on his AEW run in a number of interviews leading up to the premiere of his Peacock documentary, American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes. Rhodes was one of the promotion's founding members (and arguably its most vocal supporter) when it first launched in 2019 and served as an executive vice president alongside Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks. He'd leave the company in early 2022 and would make his return to WWE at WrestleMania 38 in Dallas. In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Rhodes discussed what he felt was his biggest mistake from his time in the young promotion — not wrestling enough in its first year. Rhodes wrestled 10 matches in an AEW ring in 2019, though AEW Dynamite wouldn't launch until October.

"I think the wrestling took a backseat right away," Rhodes said (h/t Inside The Ropes). "Because I thought, my bigger mistake. And this wasn't an AEW mistake, this was a Cody mistake. My biggest mistake was thinking, 'I'll stay as good as I am in the ring only wrestling twice, three times, maybe just once a month.' Sorry. And the Gen Z crowd out there is about to lose their mind, and I hope they understand what I'm saying, you have to do live events. You cannot learn how to work a live audience unless you perform in front of a live audience.

"So I was getting worse, as was everybody," he continued. "Some of the best wrestlers, you name them, in that first year, the crowd was incredibly generous to us because we were new, we were fresh. Some of the stuff isn't going to hold up just because we weren't, we weren't able to do this on the regular and get it down and sharpen our tools. And that's just, maybe it's just me, maybe it's nobody else, but you have to be able to do it. So that's an area where I think I was suffering from immediately."

Cody Rhodes on His WrestleMania 39 Loss

Elsewhere in the same interview, Rhodes reflected on his WrestleMania 39 loss against Roman Reigns. He seemed to have a much more optimistic look than his online supporters, stating, "One thing that's been very real and in front of your face and accurate is that the long road, sometimes, can be very special. But you have to see it. If you say it out loud, 'no, that's not going to work. No way.' But if you see it, then you start to feel it and it's even sweeter if that moment comes, if that day comes."

WWE SummerSlam 2023 Card & Rumored Matches

• Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso (Tribal Combat Rules)
• World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
• SmackDown Women's Championship: Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair 
• Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar 
• Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler
• Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs. Drew McIntyre
• Ricochet vs. Logan Paul 
• Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus (Yet to Be Confirmed)