Cody Rhodes recently appeared on Wrestling Observer Radio and talked about being in a management role with AEW. During the conversation, he spoke about what metrics the companies use to evaluate how popular some of their stars are.
“Numbers have been on our side and I’m not a big numbers guy, I’m a feeling guy,” Cody said.
One metric that is particularly valuable in helping to evaluate the popularity of a wrestler Cody says, is merchandising.
“Merchandising never steers you wrong,” Cody said about using merchandise sales numbers to determine how popular a wrestler is. “Our top stars at AEW also sell the most shirts.”
Cody was asked about AEW wrestlers who are doing particularly well in this regard.
“Orange is always a safe bet but I’ll also point out Joey Janela, only because Joey’s the type of wrestler that I don’t always understand,” said Cody. “I’m a different type of wrestler, I like old-school Southern wrestling.”
“It’s actually cool to see that he moves the needle in a direction and it’s cool to understand why,” he continued to say about Janela.
Luchasaurus was another wrestler mentioned as someone who does well in this metric. Darby Allin was heavily praised during the conversation as well.
“Everyone who you see represented on the show, they’re doing really well numbers-wise, there’s nobody who’s not,” Cody said. He would continue to say that nobody really knows why Orange Cassidy does so well but he does.
