Brandi Rhodes On How Kenny Omega Is Helping Behind The Scenes With AEW, Possible TV Deal
Recently on The Jim Ross Report, WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross was joined on the podcast by AEW's Chief Brand Officer, Brandi Rhodes. Among many other things, Rhodes talked about her role with AEW, her ongoing professional wrestling training, and AEW's impending TV deal.
According to Rhodes, she loves her role with AEW. She is building the women's division with the help of AEW Executive Vice President Kenny Omega and the wrestlverse will be excited about some more signings they will announce in the coming weeks.
"I'm finding it to be going really, really well," Rhodes admitted. "I think a lot of people aren't aware and now they're becoming aware because of his recent signing, but Kenny Omega and I are working together on women, so a lot of times I have his support when doing that, especially when it comes to Japanese talent. Clearly, I don't speak Japanese, but Kenny is fluent in Japanese, so he's a real bridge-gap for a lot of talent for us, which is amazing.
"But in my sense with a lot of the girls I have been working with, it [has] kind of been just a dream. There's so much talent that's out there right now. There's never a shortage of talented women and I don't think there's ever going to be, so it [has] been really great getting to watch some of these ladies contour their brands over the years and now they're going to get this opportunity to be seen on a much larger scale and potentially become stars on their own, which is amazing. So I've loved all of the girls that we've committed to so far and there are more, absolutely. I know people a lot of times will say, 'oh my gosh, there's only this number of girls!' We're working all the time, so by the time that you find out one person [has] been signed, we've probably signed three more and you just don't know about it yet. But that's the beauty of it and the nature of it as the roll out leading to this road to Double Or Nothing and actually just the road to the growth of All Elite Wrestling. It's amazing. But yeah, I'm really confident in the ladies that we have and the ladies that will be coming soon and I think people will be very impressed by them."
Rhodes admitted that she took a couple of weeks off from her professional wrestling training to focus on her AEW job. The former Eden Stiles shared that she will carve out more time for training as she plans on wrestling regularly going forward.
"There definitely were a couple of weeks in there that I took off, for sure, but I train with Michael [Cuellari], who is our coordinator, QT Marshall is how most people know him, but he's stays on me," Rhodes said. "He's like, 'when are you coming in? You weren't in for a couple of weeks. Let's not let this slide,' so I'm thankful for him in that sense because I've been in the ring as much as possible. I usually try to get in the ring two or three times a week and that kind of has been the case going forward and that [has] been really good. It [has] been a blessing to have such a great facility so close to me because there's really no excuse. I can pretend I'm so busy that I can't get in the ring, but Michael, Mike, knows better, so he makes sure I get in there. But yeah, no, it's definitely something you have to carve time out for now, but he makes it easy, so it's great to have the facility available to me kind of whenever I want."
On the subject of AEW's eventual TV deal, Rhodes stated that she is confident that AEW TV will exceed the expectations of fans and compared it to her confidence level in ALL IN and Double Or Nothing selling out quickly.
"When tickets went on sale, the week of the on sale for Double Or Nothing, I'm always the one in the group that is just really good with estimations. Like, when we went on sale with ALL IN, everyone was really nervous about it and saying, like, 'oh my gosh, I don't know! I think we'll sell out before the show. I'm just worried?' I said, 'we're going to sellout in 30 minutes! I guarantee you, it's going to be a sellout in 30 minutes.' And everybody was like, 'no, no, there's no way.' We sold out in under 30 minutes. So you would think that people would start to trust me at some point, but yet again, when we go to Double Or Nothing, it was the same thing, 'I think it will sellout in the same day.' I said, 'I think it'll be 10 minutes.' Less than 10 minutes. I kind of have a hand on the pulse of what's going on with that, so when it comes to us being able to contour something really great that fans will be able to watch on a regular basis, my confidence is the same with that.
"I don't have any doubt that we're going to be able to provide television that is going to be great. I don't think anybody should be worried in any way, shape, or form. We're a group that likes to kind of release things how we like to release things. It's just one of those things where you're going to have to trust us." Rhodes added, "we know what we're doing."
Listen to the show here or via the embedded player below. If you use any of the quotations from this article, please credit The Jim Ross Report with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Jim Ross Report