Arn Anderson Reflects On How He Arrived In AEW

By 2019, Arn Anderson "was done" with professional wrestling. He was retired, and outside of a few public appearances, such as meet and greets and autograph signings, the WWE Hall of Famer had seemingly adjusted to a lighter schedule.

Of course, that all changed when Anderson received a phone call to join AEW. "I get a call from low and behold, [it's] Cody Rhodes and he said, 'Dubs,' he always called me Dubs, don't ask me. He said 'we've got something special going on here and we've got some young guys that you've never seen or don't know who they are probably, but they're some real gung-ho people. We've got a hell of a crew assembled,'" Anderson recalled on the latest episode of "AEW Unrestricted."

Rhodes was one of the Executive Vice Presidents for AEW at the time. As the company began recruiting talent to join them, Anderson piqued his interest. "Double A" made his AEW debut at AEW All Out; from there, he officially aligned himself with Rhodes on-screen, acting as his personal advisor.

"Everything just had a different feel to it," Anderson said, "and [Cody] said, 'I want you to come up and just kind of be backstage at this first show and see what you think' and all that. I said, 'Well, yeah. I can do that.'" Upon his arrival, Anderson described the environment as "refreshing."

After that, Anderson was sold on working for AEW. "I think for the first time in a very, very long time, I was in a wrestling environment that, it was okay to be pro wrestler number one. Number two, it was okay to smile again and walk around bulls****ing with some of the guys that you knew."