AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes recently appeared on Sirius XM’s Busted Open Radio show. The former WWE Superstar spoke to Dave LaGreca and co-host Tommy Dreamer about AEW, WWE and the fanbases arguing online.
AEW and WWE Fan Divide
Dreamer asked Rhodes about the divide between WWE/NXT and AEW fans. Cody replied saying “I think about this a lot. Because social media’s become an accepted part of our lives now. I keep telling people I can’t remember when we didn’t have the stuff, I mean it’s not going away.”
Cody Rhodes – “A Little Fear from WWE Fans?”
Cody continued, talking about the longtime WWE fans who remain vehemently against AEW, almost on principle. “I’ve tried to kind of learn from it and study it, there’s a logic to both sides of this big deep divided argument. Whether there’s a little bit of fear from long time WWE fans or whether there’s kind of a dislike of the bold personalities because we’ve done some really bold things. Like the breaking the throne [at Double or Nothing] and we are taking little fun jabs. Like Jericho does in this promos here and there.”
When Chris Jericho unveiled his ‘Inner Circle’ stable he took a shot at WWE creative after fans chanted ‘we the people’ at Jake Hager (formerly Jack Swagger in WWE).
Cody Rhodes – “Fans ‘Too Protective’ of AEW”
Rhodes was quick to mention the fact that there are AEW fans who are almost too ‘protective’ of the new brand. “On the other side of it there’s AEW super fans who are kind of overly protective and sometimes are being too generous to us. Because obviously we’re gonna slip up and make mistakes. If you’re ever to put all those people in a room together with their NXT shirts and their AEW shirts I’m sure they would get along just fine because they’re wrestling fans.”
More Than Just Wrestling
Cody was also quick to mention that this argument goes deeper than just wrestling. “If you look at the geopolitical climate, which I’ve followed very closely yeah if you look at everything that’s happening out in the world, our fan base really does need to make better efforts I think to suggest to get along.”
Cody Rhodes on Triple H
Rhodes also discussed how this mentality should be coming ‘from the top’ of AEW as well. “If I were to see Triple H in this moment I would I would shake his hand. I probably even give him a hug out of everything that happened and I learned a lot from him. But he’s on the absolute opposite side of the fence in the same role I have with a with AEW but much more experience.”
