Cody Rhodes Reveals Having ‘bad blood’ With AEW But Still Keeping Up The ‘respect and love’

Cody Rhodes is one of the reasons why All Elite Wrestling (AEW) exists now. The Jacksonville-based promotion was something that Rhodes co-founded in 2019. However, alongside his wife, Brandi Rhodes, he stunned the wrestling world by leaving AEW after less than three years, despite being a central figure. He came back to WWE, their rival, in April 2022, facing Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 38. Since then, he has emerged as a leading face of WWE, with the potential to face the likes of The Rock and John Cena.

Reflecting on his AEW departure, Rhodes spoke on the Bill Simmons podcast. He hinted at underlying tensions, saying, “There’s clearly bad blood, but there’s also clearly respect and love.” He emphasized that feeling disrespected at AEW, a company he helped build, was something he couldn’t tolerate, contrasting it with WWE, which he likened to the “Yankees” of wrestling. Cody’s WWE journey has been historic so far.

Further he stated the greatest revenge is “success” and it has came hugely at WWE. Cody stated if he was not feeling the magic and sitting at a wonderful place in AEW, he better thought of moving forward. He thinks “The American Nightmare” whether it be as a good guy or bad guy had the potential to grow drastically in WWE.

Cody won the 2023 Royal Rumble, earning a shot at Roman Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 39. He made history again by becoming the first wrestler to win back-to-back Royal Rumbles. At WrestleMania 40, Cody “finished his story” by defeating Reigns to claim the championship. He held the title until WrestleMania 41, where he lost to John Cena. Now, Cody is poised to challenge Cena for the title in the main event of SummerSlam 2025.

The Young Bucks ‘might have’ responded to Cody Rhodes’ statement

The four people, also the EVPs of AEW, who were responsible for co-founding the promotion include Kenny Omega, Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson, and Cody Rhodes. The American Nightmare is no longer the EVP and neither an AEW talent. However, the rest three are still and huge pillars of the company. The Jackson twins form the tag team called The Young Bucks and might have to say something on Cody.

The aforementioned statements by Rhodes state that he keeps up the respect for the place that in the first place, disrespected him. To respond to this in the most creative way, The Young Bucks posted on X that the thing hurting them the most is the lack of respect. One way to look at this post is considering their current storyline which involves stripping off their EVP status and thus being (in kayfabe) poor.

As far as AEW goes, Jacksons are treated poorly and are getting less to no priority by the AEW staff. Thus, they might be demanding a sincere respect for being the former EVPs and building this place. However another way to look at it is overlapping with Rhodes’ comment and stating that they feel disrespected just like him.