Cody Rhodes Teases One More Upcoming WCW Themed AEW Event
About one year ago Cody Rhodes trademarked "Bash at the Beach" after WWE, which previously owned the trademark, let it expire. That led to AEW reviving the event last month with a TV special from Florida.
Cody also trademarked several other former WCW events, including Bunkhouse Stampede, Battlebowl, SuperBrawl and Slamboree. During a media call this afternoon, Cody was asked by Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman if we could see any other WCW-themed events.
"I have a good deal of trademarks to my name. Some of them are former WCW events but I'd say it's unlikely you'd see many more of those. Maybe one, wink, wink, wink," teased Cody. "But it's so much fun to have this EVP core and Tony Khan to come up with our own stuff. Bash at the Beach was just meant to be something fun and it wasn't meant to offend anyone. It wasn't done in a bitter way.
"I continue to trademark things that my dad had a hand in creating but that's more about protecting his legacy for his mother. She controls his estate and everything goes to her. There's no money to me or Dustin. Maybe you'll see one, and I'm winking heavily, but I don't know about Bash of the Beach or the others."
Since being founded in 2019, the core of AEW has been EVPs Cody, Matt and Nick Jackson and President Tony Khan. Kenny Omega was later added as an EVP and Cody was asked how AEW management's approach has evolved since the beginning.
"There's been no changes as far as creative. You have the four EVPs ? the guys in the ring ? and then Tony Khan. That is the creative structure. There's plenty of advisors and help ? how could you not activate resources when you have Jim Ross, Tazz, Tony Schiavone, Dean Malenko or Dustin? We always like to keep our inner circle ? no pun intended ? small because this was always Tony's idea to have the EVPs and him be on the creative side of things. So, there's been no change and that's been great because we really are forming things for the long-term," stated Cody.
"I think the only things that have changed are, every company has growing pains and I know personally that I've learned a lot in just the 20 Dynamites. I've learned about the workload it genuinely takes versus what we thought. I learned a lot about being on the other side of management. It's unique as you feel like a talent but people talk to you differently and the boys and girls treat you differently. I want to be a leader in the best way I possibly can. I wanna communicate with everybody and I try every week to text everybody on the roster. I try to keep an open communication because I think that' important. Those are just lessons for me and I learn something new everyday? I'm glad it hasn't changed because it speaks to the mission we set out in the first place."
With a full year of AEW under his belt, Cody was asked what he's most proud of about AEW and what regrets he has.
"The thing I'm most proud of is that no one here at AEW is taking their victory laps. We have our Wednesday show and Thursday at 4:00 when the ratings come out and the feedback comes in, it's instantly right back to what do we do next week," revealed Cody. "It's a really friendly, energetic and passionate environment of people in AEW. The more people who speak out that work for us from the legendary figures to the younger roster, the more you'll hear that excitement. That passion ? you can't put a price on it. I'm proud that that exists within the company and we don't get ahead of ourselves. We're working very disciplined and want to make this work for every wrestling fan and create new wrestling fans.
"As far as regrets, I don't think I have a single regret about this and I'm one of those who does have regrets. You'll never hear me say no regrets but, in this case, I don't have any regrets about AEW. It's gone so well and people who come to the events can feel that from me and the other performers in the ring. So, no regrets. I'm very proud of everything and where everything is going."
Cody's full conference call was included on today's edition of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here. The full interview can be heard via the embedded audio player below: