Cody Rhodes made a sudden departure from AEW in February last year, leaving fans in shock. Prior to his exit, Rhodes was a standout performer in AEW programming, helping to elevate numerous fellow wrestlers with his captivating performances. Even though several months have passed since his departure, fans remain intrigued by the reasons behind it and continue to discuss it to this day. In fact, Eric Bischoff believes WWE is now pushing Cody Rhodes to tempt AEW talent into jumping ship to WWE.
Cody Rhodes was frequently booed in AEW toward the very end of his run with the company. Fans simply wanted him to turn heel no matter what, but that never happened. Rhodes also does not want to change a thing about that.
The American Nightmare has been booked like an absolute star since his return at WrestleMania 38 last year. In fact, he is already a main event-level star and is set to main event this year’s WrestleMania as well. Even during his injury hiatus, WWE still hyped his recovery process.
While speaking on Keepin’ It 100, Eric Bischoff talked about why WWE is pushing Cody Rhodes so much in the first place. Bischoff stated that he believes WWE is now pushing Cody Rhodes to tempt AEW talent into jumping ship to WWE.
“I’m going to put my conspiracy right on here because I’ve been in the room and heard certain conversations throughout my entire career. Enough of them to lead me to believe there’s always a little something else behind the scenes. But how sweet if, look, I’m gonna talk about if it was me, all right?
If I was running WWE and this AEW thing comes along and there’s this, you know, little fight going back and forth, (…) But now if I’m me and I see Cody get there and go and make me go, ‘oh man, I wish I would’ve listened a little more.’ Here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna bring him back and I’m gonna make him the biggest star ever in about seven minutes so that everybody in AEW is going, ‘damn, I should’ve jumped first.”
Cody Rhodes is set to challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed Universal Championship at WrestleMania 39. We will have to wait and see whether Rhodes will be able to defeat Reigns for the titles.
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