WrestleMania 38: Cody Rhodes Explains Why He Left AEW

Cody Rhodes made his triumphant return to the WWE on Saturday night, defeating Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 38. Rhodes made his shocking departure from All Elite Wrestling less than two months earlier, and other than his farewell statement he remained silent about his decision to leave. However, just as Rhodes was walking down the ring, Variety dropped an exclusive interview with “The American Nightmare.” He finally addressed leaving the company he helped found midway through the interview.

“I chose to remain silent about my departure from AEW and I’m going to keep my word on that,” Rhodes said. “There’s no shoot interview. There’s no nefarious tale that’s going to be told. There were all these different theories and none of them are correct. I mean, there were things about money and creative control. They were printed as fact and it’s been a very difficult two months to see that, when the reality is it was just time. It was a personal matter and we couldn’t move past it. I have nothing but respect for Matt [Jackson], Nick [Jackson] and Kenny [Omega]. I’m rooting for Tony Khan. His name is going to be in the history books as someone who helped to bankroll and support this entire alternative and revolution that AEW became but for me, it was just time to move on. I get an opportunity at my dream, I get another chance at it. And you really can’t leave any stone unturned with that.”

He also shed some light on what the conversations were like with Vince McMahon when he agreed to return to the company he left back in 2016. 

“I told Vince McMahon, Bruce Prichard and Nick Kahn — this very small circle of individuals — I told them what I truly believe and it’s that I’m the best wrestler in the world. And to go further with it, I actually don’t think there’s a close second. But with that said, the opportunity now exists to prove it, and that’s what I’m most excited about,” Rhodes said.

“It’s a completely different individual returning to the game,” he added. “It’s a different brand. It’s someone who’s experienced all the wonders of independent wrestling, of traveling internationally, of being able to get on the ground with the fans that make this whole ship move. But different person or not, I’m still that little kid that I mentioned in an AEW promo that wants what my dad didn’t get, and I’m not going to say it out loud because I don’t want to jinx it. But, you know, he went to Madison Square Garden, stood across from Superstar Billy Graham and he held it in his hands, the goal of mine, and it was taken away because that was the context of the match. I understand that now as an adult, but as a kid, that was the only reason I ever wanted to get in, so that I could get what he didn’t get.”