Cody Rhodes says AEW will come through on their promise to make wins and losses matter and talks about plans to keep expanding their new AEW Dark web series.
Cody Rhodes sat down with Wrestlezone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard before AEW Dynamite takes place in Philadelphia tonight and ‘The American Nightmare’ made it clear that records will really matter long-term, as the company has plans to introduce a ‘Top Five’ ranking system in the near future. Cody was asked about being selected to face Chris Jericho at Full Gear based on record, and if there would be a specific cut-off date used to select future title contenders. Cody explained the current plan is to introduce a ‘Top Five’ ranking system each division ahead of AEW Full Gear, and explained how it would reinforce the ‘sports-centric’ feel of the brand and feel familiar to fans.
“On the Friday before Full Gear, I think we’re going to put our first-ever ‘Top Fives’ and [that] should become a weekly thing. This isn’t just broadcast this is also social, just like with college football and the AP Poll, you get your Top 20. Sometimes a guy who is 5-0 is not ranked in the top three because the quality of wins, the softness of the schedule and it’s fun because in college football people argue over—especially when we get near the playoffs—people ‘should, should they not’ [get in].” Cody said. “PAC right now has these great wins over Hangman Page and Kenny Omega, he’s essentially Ohio State for us at this point. There’s gotta be a title shot in his future, and there is if he keeps winning and keeps going, but I believe before Full Gear we’ll have our Top Five for women, for tags and for singles and now that we have more and more every week it helps us so much from data.
“I’ve expanded—to be fair, Kevin Sullivan’s expanded the lower thirds on talent so you can see their records. We want their records to be more present because Jim Ross is talking about them, Tony Schiavone is talking about them.” Cody said. “Once we get a few more wins, a few more losses, a few more draws, whatever they may be, it really helps create that tapestry for us which is something we promised and it wasn’t just a campaign promise. Sports-centric, the guys winning the matches are the guys getting the title matches.”
Cody then reiterated how important it was for him and for the AEW team to deliver on a promise at keeping their product sports-centric, noting that this wasn’t something that was going away or they would be selective about when to present the rankings. He says there’s logic involved with everything and their schedule should allow them to implement this system.
In addition to talking about some of the technical or statistical things to look forward to with AEW, Cody spoke a bit about how Taz agreed to do commentary for the AEW Dark recording in Philadelphia. Last month, Taz responded to a fan’s comment about his status, noting that he’d been in healthy conversations with a few companies, but it wasn’t the right fit for his career at the time. Last week, Cody announced Taz would be making his return to the broadcast booth for this week’s show, and he said they regularly bond over their mutual appreciation for cigars, and things went from there.
“Me and him talk cigars. And I think he was waiting to talk about something other than cigars and he let me know. You know he’s talked to everybody and he’s a valuable person out there, he’s great at commentary. He’s a great mind in general what he can potentially offer, we just have to make sure that that vision is congruent with the vision we have for wrestling and when I say we I mean me, Matt, Nick and Kenny. That being the case,” Cody said, “because I have a real old school wrestling thought for sure, but my crew does not. We like to have a buffet of wrestling, if that makes any sense. I think Taz could be a great addition, I’m excited to see not how he does—I know he’s going to do great—but I’m just excited to see him tomorrow in Philly because I like legends done right. I think that’s doing a legend right. He gets to be out there, but he gets to commentate on tier one, fresh faces that perhaps he’s not seen before and that’s the rub.”
Cody also said the idea for Dark is to keep expanding it and helping it grow, and he’s also considering the idea of putting wrestling talent in the booth. He cited his own work doing commentary for WWE’s Main Event, crediting WWE’s Michael Cole as someone who taught him a lot about that side of the business. Cody spoke about the benefit of having different voices in the booth, citing two names of AEW’s current broadcast team in Jim Ross and Excalibur as why the “buffet” style wrestling works.
“Modern fans who are critical of Jim Ross love Excalibur, and then old school fans who love Jim Ross are critical of Excalibur. That’s why they’re together. That’s why. Excalibur gives the rub of the west coast and the new generation and the hyper-indy culture of wrestling,” Cody said, “and Jim gives the biggest rub of all of having been everything in this industry and entering a new phase in his career as the greatest announcer of all time, so I like to make that balance and that buffet.”
Watch the full interview below:
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
