Cody Rhodes Recalls WWE Locker Room Reaction To The Elite And AEW Upon His Return

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, alongside the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and AEW President Tony Khan, changed the professional wrestling sphere for good when AEW was founded in January 2019. Rhodes wrestled for the company from its inception through February 2022, when he chose not to renew his contract and head back to WWE to "finish his story." Rhodes spoke about his return to "Inside the Ropes," and said the backstage environment was great when he got back to WWE, despite the two companies competing. Rhodes said that while it may appear there would be hard feelings toward him, the Elite, or AEW backstage in WWE, that wasn't the case, in his experience.

"Truthfully most of the boys, if not all of them, were very appreciative and grateful for what me and Matt and Nick and Kenny and everyone had done, because it helped the bottom line in the industry in the sense of contracts started coming out, really high dollar contracts started coming out," Rhodes said. "Wrestling went from seven figure guys to there was the ability for some guys to make eight figures and still looking at our global penetration that's probably still less than what we could ultimately achieve."

Rhodes said that there was a lot of gratitude backstage when he returned. He said producers and talent alike were telling him "thank you," and no one was "really thinking about going to battle with each other" as the companies had been doing for so long, in his words. He said others were just happy to have his energy backstage within the WWE culture.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Inside the Ropes" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.