Cody Rhodes Reveals Eric Bischoff's Advice Before "All In", "Double Or Nothing" Tickets
Recently on The Jim Ross Report, WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross welcomed All Elite Wrestling's Cody [Rhodes] to the podcast. Among other things, Cody talked about the road to AEW's Double Or Nothing pay-per-view and his connection to the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Cody discussed what types of performers AEW is recruiting. Additionally, Cody shared some advice that he received from former WCW executive Eric Bischoff prior to ALL IN.
On the subject of Double Or Nothing, which will take place on May 25, 2019 from Las Vegas, Nevada's MGM Grand Garden Arena, Cody joked that the AEW braintrust could not find a 20,000 seat venue twice as big as ALL IN to truly make the show double or nothing.
"Right now, I have the building, MGM Grand Garden Arena, me, Matt [Jackson] and Nick [Jackson], scaled for 11,600 people and that's with... folks might know that there are some seats that make become available because if we thought we had a camera there and we kill that camera there, that might open up a few hundred seats. So I can strongly estimate that we're aiming to hit that 11,600. We want to be honest about our tickets from day one because it's really easy for people in this day and age just to look it up or talk to the fire Marshall. You can't really say, 'we've got 100,000 people in the building' anymore unless you have. Yeah, 11,600 is the number." Cody added, "it's funny, we were kicking ourselves over calling it Double Or Nothing when we couldn't find a building with 20,000 to compete with the [10,000 at ALL IN]."
According to Cody, the MGM Grand Garden Arena is a venue with a lot of pro wrestling history. Moreover, Cody and The Young Bucks all went to see WCW shows there as kids.
"This building, it [has] got [pro] wrestling history." Cody declared. "I've gone to WCW pay-per-views here. Matt and Nick have as well. I'm real excited about bringing our fans. We've got so many travellers who come to these events with us and The Elite, from cons to these pop in shows we do. And I'm excited for some of them to see Vegas for the first time because Vegas is a damn good time."
Also during the interview, Cody revealed that AEW is looking for up-and-coming talents who may not have been seen before. The former ROH World Champion explained that stars such as Chris Jericho are the exception to the rule.
"We're looking for fresh more than kind of the equity-garnered individual who has perhaps popped up on various television shows already," Cody said. "We're looking for someone who hasn't been seen. That's kind of the directive. Of course, there are folks like a Chris Jericho who is an absolute star's star, a wrestling frickin' rock star, and he has done it all and seen it all. But I want to have that juxtaposition of somebody on that level and somebody that our audience is seeing for the first time ever."
Apparently, Bischoff's advised Cody to make ALL IN like a buffet of entertainment, which really stuck with 'The Grandson Of A Plumber'.
"It's the buffet and that's something I want to create again," Cody shared. That was something that Eric Bischoff told me before ALL IN, and, man, it made my day because I knew we were taking some risks with that show doing some traditional stuff, doing outlandish stuff, and he said, 'make it a buffet' and I really liked that because if we're asking people to travel, if we're asking people to part with their money, I want to make sure they got what they thought and more."
Check out the podcast here https://www.westwoodonepodcasts.com/pods/the-jim-ross-report/ or via the audio player below. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Jim Ross Report with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Jim Ross Report