Nick Khan reveals how WWE signed Cody Rhodes away from AEW

When AEW declined Cody Rhodes’ choice in 2022, successfully permitting him to barter with any wrestling firm, followers overtly puzzled if WWE would make a tough push at their former worker.

Certain Rhodes had change into considerably of a middling presence within the TNT Championship scene, and his unwillingness to show heel made him a heel with followers of AEW, however he was a founding father of the promotion, an EVP, and already noticed what occurred in WWE when the promotion really feel out of affection with a wrestler.

Would he actually think about going again? Nicely, in response to Nick Khan in an look on The Invoice Simmons Podcast, the choice was really extremely simple, as Rhodes was locked up in on a brand new deal that was “accomplished in minutes.”

“You kind of noticed him fade out over there. And it is one thing that we talked about at WWE, like, ‘That is attention-grabbing.’ It was once, ‘This (AEW) is in regards to the wrestlers, that is about empowering the wrestlers, Cody’s one of many co-founders,’ after which that narrative shifted, and that is after we determined, after we knew contractually we might make the decision, to make the decision, and say, ‘Hey, why do not we get collectively and have a dialog,” Nick Khan stated by way of WrestleTalk.

“The deal was accomplished in minutes, and growth, he returned at WrestleMania 2022 simply three years in the past. And a yr later was in the principle occasion at WrestleMania 2023… He would not discuss numerous sh*t (about AEW) which is one thing I love about him.”

Welp, there you go, of us; whereas followers knew that Rhodes was feeling a return to WWE, the place they’d push him like a real babyface hero, most thought the choice was a bit extra complicated than it seems to have been, with a go to from Vince McMahon wanted to essentially take it dwelling. Whereas Khan could also be spinning a story ever so barely to maintain Mr. McMahon’s identify out of the dialog, it is also potential that the deal actually did come collectively very quickly and any ideas of a deep dialog or back-and-forth negotiations have been merely a ruse to make it appear extra amicable than the state of affairs actually was.