Anthony Ogogo recently reflected on his infamous weigh-in with Cody Rhodes ahead of their clash at AEW Double or Nothing 2021 and made it clear that he didn’t care for it.
In the spring of 2021, Ogogo rose to the forefront of AEW by feuding with Rhodes, one of the company’s top stars. Ogogo, alongside his stablemates in The Factory, were engaged in a lengthy rivalry with “The American Nightmare”, and before the Olympic boxer faced him at the pay-per-view, they had a weigh-in segment on AEW Dynamite that was critically panned.
During an appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, Ogogo looked back on the segment and called it “f*cking dogsh*t.” He noted that even in the moment, he thought it was “crap:.
“F*cking dogsh*t mate, f*cking dogsh*t! So Cody said to me that we were going to do a weigh-in. I’m like ‘Cool, so what’s going to happen?’ And Cody is brilliant, he is brilliant at what he does and he has got a great mind for it, he is a really good coach, great promo coach. QT is a great wrestling coach, any move he can teach you how to do it, how to get out of it, the reversals. QT is the f*cking man. However, [Cody] was like ‘We are going to do a weigh-in.’ I’m like ‘Cool, who is getting knocked out? What are we going to do.’ [Cody responds] ‘It’s a weigh-in, we are not going to touch.’ I’m like oh, I have watched enough wrestling to know that that’s a bit drab, a bit of sh*t. [Cody says] ‘Nah it’s gonna be cool.’ It’s my third week on TV, I am going to turn up, work hard and do what I am told. Mate, I am in it and I am thinking this is crap.”
Ogogo then recalled how, while he was playing his part, he insulted Big Show, and his accident made the remark come off as something even worse. As a result, it seemed like people were upset with him. He went on to note that he feels like he’s the victim of the situation.
“You got Big Show there sweating his tits off and getting really hot,” said Ogogo. “So I said to him [Big Show], I’m just being a heel and I thought that he hated me for ages. I said to him ‘Can’t you count you dumb yank?’ And then after the segment has happened, no one was happy. I was just doing my job, there was nothing that I could do. I get my phone and my friend texted me, he said ‘I can’t believe you called Big Show a c*nt.’ I went [makes confused face] did I? When I go out there and the red light goes on I am in the zone and what I do is real. That is my favorite word and I say it all the time, but even I wouldn’t have said that.
“I do get lost in the moment, because it becomes real to me. If I have a problem with someone, I will call them every name under the sun before knocking them out, so like possibly I did. So I watched it back and I said ‘You can’t count’ And when I said count it looks like I said [c*nt], but I didn’t. So I’m like agh, I saw him next week but he didn’t speak to me, he was busy not because of that. Mate the whole thing was disastrous, but I feel like I’m the victim. It was my first kind of entry, and I am in this really weird segment that wasn’t my idea.
In hindsight, Ogogo described how he would have preferred to knock out Cody’s brother Dustin so it would have been more interesting. He also stated that he was embarrassed about the way he had to get up on the turnbuckle during the segment.
“I would have rather knocked out Goldust, knocked out Dustin,” said Ogogo. “We get out the ring, we bicker, maybe Aaron Solo gets beaten up and me and QT get away Scott free. At least then something happens. But I have this weird thing where I am wearing Union Jack pants, I get up on the turnbuckle and get a yay/boo thing, which is so childish. I like the Bryan Danielson and William Regals that are so in your face and smash, Jon Moxley [as well].
“They get stuck in, that’s what I like about wrestling, I like blurring the lines between real and not real. I don’t like standing in my pants going ‘Boo! Yay! Boo!’ So I was embarrassed. I had never stood on the turnbuckle before with no shoes on, and those metal struts are very hard. So my poor little feet are getting dug into by these metal struts. I wanted the ground to swallow me up, but you got to do your job.”
Ogogo is still with AEW; he often competes on Dark and Dark: Elevation. Rhodes left the company in February 2022 and returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38.
