Tony Khan Opens Up About Cody Rhodes Leaving AEW

For the first time in its short history, All Elite Wrestling lost one of its stars to WWE this year. While the day was inevitable, as the young company would not be able to retain all of its expiring three-year contracts, many were shocked at who that first man to jump was: former Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes. Beyond his executive title, Rhodes is a spiritual founder of AEW, as his involvement in producing the now-iconic independent pay-per-view ALL IN is credited with helping birth Tony Khan’s promotion. Despite being incredibly integral to its formation, Rhodes began to seemingly sour on AEW in Fall 2021 after he started receiving less-than-favorable crowd reactions.

Speaking to Grapsody, AEW President Tony Khan revealed that Rhodes’s departure was felt throughout the company.

“Whenever you lose a star the caliber of Cody Rhodes, it’s going to have a major impact on your company, and affect a number of different departments and number of different things in terms of the presentation and the backstage,” Khan said. “Personally, I really like Cody and I know Cody really well and he was so involved in so many different facets with the start of AEW and what we were. When he left, that was a major challenge.”

Rhodes’s AEW contract expired in January 2022, and he would finish his storylines over the next couple of weeks on a handshake deal. After dropping the AEW TNT Title to Sammy Guevara, Rhodes spent the spring in free agency before inking a deal with WWE.

Despite the void that Rhodes left upon his exit, Khan felt that AEW’s strong momentum was able to soldier on without him.

“Going into Revolution, we had so many great stories,” Khan recalled. “And I think it helped us and helped keep us strong that people were so invested in what was happening in AEW at the time.”

Rhodes is currently training for a WWE return, as he has been out of action since June with a torn pectoral muscle. Many have looked to next month’s WWE Royal Rumble as the site of his comeback, but nothing has been confirmed as of this writing. Come WWE WrestleMania 39 season, the American Nightmare seems to be heading towards a collision course with either Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns or a renewed rivalry with Seth Rollins.