AEW doesn’t usually do post-match/show “fallout” type interviews like their largest competitor, but they did the one embedded above for Cody Rhodes after he dropped the TNT title to Sammy Guevera on Dynamite yesterday (Jan. 26).
It starts off like most kayfabe promos. Rhodes tells a story about his father coaching his middle school football team to explain how losing leaves a bad taste in his mouth. He puts over Guevara in a way that’s reminiscent of his recent promos where he tells jeering crowds how they owe him for building AEW.
Then he directly addresses one report about his future, and maybe references speculation about what that could mean about Royal Rumble on Saturday night?
“There’s so many elephants in the room. This is an insane week in wrestling. People think that the Sean Ross [Sapp] story is bs — it’s not. I am working here without a contract. I’m not even on payroll any more. I’m working here on a handshake deal. That is 100% legitimate, I swear on Pharaoh’s life. if you want to know how serious things got.
“But I can tell you this. I have never felt more at home, then under those lights, wrestling for the TNT title. A title that will never, ever, ever be secondary because of matches like that. Old school promoters will tell you, the title could make the man or the man can make the title. At this moment we don’t know which is which. Very proud of Sammy Guevara. I absolutely wish I could go home to my baby girl, to my other — my family, and say, ‘Hey, the TNT champ once again.’ A belt that was synonymous with my name, doesn’t look like it’s gonna be just about me. Brodie, Miro, Darby, Sammy, myself. I’m slow when it comes to rematches, but maybe I won’t be so slow getting my rematch for this one.
“For now, gonna take a beat, get with Arn — Arn’s been there for my whole career. I’mma think about it. Again, an insane week, where I have heard the most wonderful, crazy things from all walks of the wrestling world on what it is that I do next. But like I said, I’ve never felt more at home than wrestling for that title in front of a crowd like that.”
He certainly sounds like a man who wants to stay with AEW. In addition to talking about how at home he feels wrestling there, he certainly doesn’t sound like he wants to go back to the place where he used to work. When talking about how wins and losses matter to him in the first part of the interview, he refers to his WWE career by saying “I lost eight f***ing years”.
What other “wonderful, crazy things” could he be talking about during this “insane week”? Is the whole thing just a work — part of his not-heel turn?
Loading comments...