Cody Rhodes Explains How AEW Will Be Booked, Not Scripted

All Elite Wrestling executive vice president Cody Rhodes spoke with the New York Post this week, giving some insight into how the new wrestling promotion will be operated.

Rhodes said he intends on having AEW’s product be booked, similar to how his father did during his time in Jim Crockett Promotions, rather than the heavily-scripted WWE television product.

“In wrestling, some people tend to want it written and some people want it booked,” Rhodes said. “I like wrestling when it’s booked. That’s the wrestling my father [Dusty Rhodes] was famous for, the territory era. I’m not trying to bring back that era, but I think it yielded really good content, versus sitcom writers writing a wrestling show. I know that sounds so anti-WWE, it’s not. I’m just telling you from a standpoint of what we provide.

If you want heavily scripted TV, that’s something WWE can do,” he said. “If you want sports-centric booked wrestling, I think that’s something we can do.”

He also addressed the concern that he, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega will consistently book themselves to win every rivalry they’re in, given the controversial history of wrestlers also serving as bookers in the past.

“I’ll say this, my dad always got a lot of criticism for when he was involved with Ric Flair for so long, he was the champ at certain times and he was also the booker. Well, if you were living in the era or coming to those shows, those were pretty much the two most over guys in Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes, We do want to careful and not do that, but the cool thing is, we’re still wrestlers at heart. If the fans want it, we’ll absolutely give it to them. But I’m very cognizant of it. I grew up in the era of everybody knows the business of the business.

“I learned from the things he (Dusty) did really, really well and the things he might have not,” Rhodes said. “I’m very cautious stepping into this because even when we talk to talent and hire talent, I want them to know it’s not the Cody show.”

Rhodes is booked for Double or Nothing on May 25, though his opponent has still yet to be revealed. Matt and Nick Jackson are scheduled to take on the Lucha Bros. (Fenix and Pentagon Jr.) while Omega will face Chris Jericho in a rematch from their bout at Wrestle Kingdom 12.

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