Last week on AEW Dynamite, Cody Rhodes wrestled Wardlow in a Steel Cage match. Cody would ensure their clash was a memorable one, delivering a moonsault off the top of the cage. Talking with Sports Illustrated, Cody reflected on his matchup and the backstage reaction to his intentions.
Cody likened his moonsault to one by Terry Funk, noting how “I’m a bigger guy than people think, so the moonsault doesn’t come off easily. The only piece of thinking in my mind was to throw my head back. My body will go where my head will go, that’s something John Laurinaitis and Dean Malenko told me when I first started doing the moonsault. As long as I threw my head back, I knew I’d be OK.”
He argued how this is what he brings to AEW. Cody compared himself to his Elite teammates. He highlighted how Matt and Nick Jackson have introduced a new style of tag team psychology. Kenny Omega delivers a “different way of doing wrestling” that Cody considers important to the evolution of the sport. Hangman is a “big run-and-gun heavyweight.”
What Cody believes he brings is his ability to “plug into the wrestling I grew up on” from the late ’80s to early ’90s. “That style was a little bit more disciplined, a little bit more deliberate, and I complement those guys by doing that.”
Not Everyone Wanted Cody To Do It
Having thought about the moonsault all day leading up to the matchup, Cody shared how there were some backstage who didn’t want him to do it, including AEW President Tony Khan. According to Cody, Khan was “adamant” he didn’t deliver such a dangerous move from such a height.
“I’ve never seen a boss like him and how he leads, and the way he cares about his investments,” he said. “Too many people were trying to talk me out of it. Typically, I’m by the ‘Go position’ during our show, but I stayed away.”
Cody Rhodes is set to wrestle against his former-best friend Maxwell Jacob Friedman. The two will face off at AEW Revolution on February 29th.
