During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Cody Rhodes commented on the reaction to the AEW Blood & Guts match, Stephen Amell possibly coming to AEW, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the reception to Blood & Guts in the industry: “I got up on top of the cage earlier in the day just to feel it, to see it and look at it. And then across the parking lot is Jacksonville Memorial, where WarGames ’92 was, the greatest WarGames match of all time. The Stinger Squadron and the Dangerous Alliance. So there’s a lot of kismet and synergy. I would have literally, had you asked me, “Hey, we’ll take your left pinky right now. We’ll cut it off your hand.” To be in that match, I would have done it, but it wasn’t in the cards. And one of my favorite things ever was Chris Jericho talked to me the week before, and it was a private conversation, but he made it to a degree public, and just told me how he wished I could be in it, but it didn’t work out, and that they were going to do it justice. And they did it justice by giving it its own identity.
“It can’t be Jim Crockett WarGames, and it can’t be WarGames that NXT does, but it can be rooted in the original rules with an actual roof on the cage, two teams. And I just had a blast watching it, seeing Shaun Spiers in there, seeing, Wardlow, who’s been a project at AEW from jump street, seeing Chris being able to tell his story, and then Max [MJF[, as much as I don’t get along with Max necessarily, I still think he’s my little baby, a little kid, and seeing him grow up right before my eyes is shocking. But yeah, no. I think of all things, there were people who had their opinions on that match, opinions on the finish of that match. The number one thing I took away from it is, we will definitely be doing a Blood and Guts again. That it hit the mark well enough that we will be returning to do another Blood and Guts.”
On switching back to his original “Kingdom” theme for Double or Nothing: “Yeah. I’m going to switch back to it at the pay-per-view. I think we indicated that to a degree on social. Well, Brandi’s got her opinions. Brandi is a fan of the Snoop Dogg version of Kingdom. And I am a fan of both versions. Of course the Snoop version, but this version was something that’s actually been tweaked to a degree by Mikey Ruckus. The original version will play this weekend, live in front of a full capacity crowd at Double or Nothing.”
On if he’s involved in Starz’ Heels starring Stephen Amell: “I was talked to a lot about it. Stephen’s my friend, and the production and I had a lot of conversations with them. I was not actually involved other than lending an ear a few occasions, but this is entirely their thing. Stephen loves wrestling so much and is such a hard worker, I think he’ll always respect the wrestling fan first, so that’s something I’m looking forward to. And speaking of, Stephen’s winery, Nocking Point, is actually sponsoring the Fan Fest on Saturday, which is really cool. And they’re sponsoring me going into the weigh-in, which is really nice, because these weigh-ins, I always want them to be on the level of boxing and UFC, and I’m looking forward to this one on Friday night. But yeah, I think Heels, I’m very curious to see. I saw [CM] Punk. When he was down here, he made a visit to The Nightmare Factory when he was filming his stuff, and that’s really exciting. Punk in any ring, in any capacity, his audience being so large, and him being so beloved by our world, I really look forward to what he does on the show too. With Stephen and somebody like Punk, the show has to be a success, because they’re just hard workers. They’re detail-oriented guys. Stephen’s the most detail-oriented guy I’ve ever met. I bet the show kicks ass.”
On if we’ll see Amell in an AEW ring: “So Steven gets me excited. ‘Oh, let’s do this. Let’s do this. Let’s do this.’ And then I’ll write a little treatment out, and then it’s, ‘Well, I’m doing this movie.’ I don’t know. I think Stephen will absolutely appear on AEW television moving forward. I know it’s difficult, because he broke his hip wrestling for Christopher Daniels at All In, which very few people know. So I don’t know how excited he is about returning. I know he wants to do it, but he’s got a family. It’s not ballet, but I could see Stephen getting in the ring, for sure, for one more time. I could see that.”
