Dave Meltzer On Cody Rhodes Leaving AEW For WWE

Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Dave Meltzer joins Chris to discuss Cody Rhodes' decision to jump from AEW to WWE at Wrestlemania 38.
Watch the full interview with Dave Meltzer on my main ‪@ChrisVanVliet‬ channel here: • Dave Meltzer on 5 Star...
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#davemeltzer #aew #wwe #codyrhodes

[@CVVCLIPS]

Full interview: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXarknWJeZuYa6c

[@TimLoyalToWifeHaterFreeZoneA]

Love It CVVCLIPS Bro

[@jckorn9148]

Return at Wrestlemania, legendary match inside Hell in a Cell, won the Rumble and main evented Mania against literally the Final Boss of WWE, somehow avoiding a potential backlash because Zayn was so hot. I'd say he made the right call lol.

[@FaysalIsGoated]

He’s gonna be the one do eventually dethrone Roman in the end. There’s no one else on the roster with enough star power who’s worthy enough to do it.

[@bellereinette2938]

@@FaysalIsGoated I agree. The only other person that makes sense to do it INSIDE the bloodline is Solo (Jey too, but thats not happening) but I think Solo will be the one to end Roman's Empire (cuz I think that has to be ended by a family member & Roman is scared of Solo on top of that) not so much the reign I still think thats Cody.

[@abhyanshsharma8019]

​@@FaysalIsGoatedcorrect

[@Strangepete]

Dave "uhm ugh so you know it's like.. it's kinda like and everything like that, you know so like and uugh.." Meltzer

[@mikeabel7577]

Sometimes, he sounds like a ditsy high school girl ranting about pro wrestling.

[@brianlafev4261]

A true writer. Words are his weapon

[@Bruv234]

Failed speech class in high school.

[@AyCanche]

Dave “fillers” Meltzer

[@poopbuttmcgee]

Back in the 90s he was a lot more clear and concise with his speech. Getting older can make it harder to organize your thoughts.

[@chrissayeranderson5710]

Dave and HBK having a conversation would break ppv records.

[@breauxcewayne1971]

Hahahahaha!!! It would be similar to his iron man match where after 1 hour neither him nor Hart had scored a pin fall. In this case after 1 hour neither him nor Dave would have completed 1 sentence.

[@kaustavkakati1829]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 .. Atleast HBK has the world wide fans and wrestlers respect . But this guy 😂

[@jon_3013]

@@kaustavkakati1829I don’t like Dave… but you can’t deny how important he is to the business. Learn.

[@sassytroy8282]

@@jon_3013 a lot of people can and have denied how 'important' this moron is!

[@WavesByWayne]

@@jon_3013Why is he important to the business perse?

[@Strangepete]

No one: That song with Usher and Lil John: 1:55

[@theplayaifyer]

😂😂😂

[@rahulmcintyre2553]

Love you Chris your interviews are banger as always.

[@1KQ_]

I dont agree with him often but Dave makes a good point, Cody would have never reached the level hes at now if he stayed in aew. A heel turn would have been nice but in that specific fanbase they would have gotten tired of it and then when he eventually starts winning again those evp criticisms would have started again. In WWE with the younger audience that is the perfect place for cody. He's arguably the biggest babyface in wrestling right now beside LA Knight and he has arenas singing along to this theme song now.

[@camogodz]

La knight ain’t a face, yet

[@FernandoMartinez-pv1id]

Uhhh LA Knight is still a Heel. He's just an insanley Over Heel.

[@FernandoMartinez-pv1id]

Cody spent how many years as a Midcard and Jobber Heel in WWE? Of course he doesn't want to go back to being one. He never did anything valuable as one.

[@RedShogun13]

I think the bigger issue was less the fans and more that Cody almost *immediately* shot himself in the kneecaps by booking himself to never be able to challenge for the world title again on his first try.

[@adrianpheiffer9960]

The issue with Cody in AEW was they were kinda booked themselves in a corner.. when people desperately want someone to turn heel it kinda would have had the opposite effect.. kinda like WWE had when everyone wanted John Cena to turn heel

[@ianfitton9400]

cody played an absolute master stroke of wrestling politics,,using his aew position as leverage to transition into a wwe main eventer,couple that with the nostagia storyline of trying to achieve what his father(who just so happens to be one of the most beloved character in wrestling history) didnt hurt the emotional pull of the angle either,couple that with a pretty poor wwe roster at the time and the stars really did align to put him where he is today!

[@LG215x]

So Cody can get praised for playing politics but people like nash and hogan get shit on

[@ianfitton9400]

@@LG215x Hogan and Nash allegedly played the politics by burying others in order for them to gain,cody just used his position to engineer a move to wwe,nobody fell in order for him to rise making it a totally different scenario

[@phil6844]

@@LG215xCody didn’t bury anyone on his way. Nash was my favorite wrestler growing up but if you can’t see the difference between how he and Cody rose up then there is no help for you.

[@timslee0618]

Oddly Cody was one of the people who sending info to Dave during his first run (pre-aew/njpw/roh days) of his WWE days

[@Robby_C]

5:45 - this is another smart-mark thing that really has to disappear... demanding that somebody has to turn just cuz you are bored... if they were as "smart" to the business as they think they are then they should understand that just "turning" somebody doesn't actually mean anything... it isn't a reset button... . Does ANYBODY actually understand presentation psychology anymore.... All the things that makes pro-wrestling work get completely taken for granted, and then everybody wonders why fans are so jaded and shit doesn't get over..... everybody from the wrestlers to the fans are just going through the motions... the entire industry has lost the plot.

[@emmanuelalexander5694]

And it was the right decision for him he did what was best for himself

[@TheDashingOne123]

@@superfighter7253shut up 😂😂😂

[@bellereinette2938]

I remember I honestly thought Cody leaving was a work UNTIL the stories about him going back to WWE & that his talked to them dropped then I was like "yeah this is real cuz why the fuck is WWE involved if this was a work?" I had a little bit of doubt that it'll actually happen until the Seth Rollins stuff started happening then I knew it was 100. But I do think he ultimately made the right decision.

[@caaccaac8712]

Yeah Dave, tell us something we already know..

[@mansaini9710]

Cody in aew star but Cody return to wwe become mega star without winning tittle he still top star

[@rahulmcintyre2553]

Thank god Cody left. Now in WWE he is the face of RAW and biggest babyface not in WWE but in whole universe.

[@mansaini9710]

He face of wwe without winning tittle he still on top

[@FernandoMartinez-pv1id]

Technically, Seth Rollins is the Face of Raw, but Cody is way more over and maybe he'll take the world championship away from him. If you ask me, Brock Lesnar interrupting on Raw this past Monday was a way of telling us he's still after the Gold, but he has unfinished business.

[@mansaini9710]

@@FernandoMartinez-pv1id I don't see Seth as face of raw beging doesn't make you face of brand back in 2012 cm punk was champ but cena was face of wwe if Rollins was face of wwe he would have main event mania but he never does Cody does

[@FernandoMartinez-pv1id]

@@mansaini9710 he wasnt the face of Raw at Mania 39, he took down Logan Paul. Since then though he's been holding open challenges and main eventing Raw in a Feud with The Judgement Day. Cena was the face of the company not just Raw back then. Cody is defintely not the face of the company. He could become the Face of Raw but right now he's in a feud with Lesnar and not Rollins.

[@mansaini9710]

@@FernandoMartinez-pv1id Cody Rhodes is face of wwe Seth never main event mania Cody dies Cody selling highest merch every time I see the arena I see every t shirt of Cody soon Seth gone loss his tittle Cody given feud with Brock to get more over Cody is more over with fan see raw episode once Cody enter fan ignore Rollins Seth was is never gone be a draw

[@SonnyK248]

It’s still pretty wild that since AEW started only one guy has made the jump to WWE. It’s smart of them to push Cody to the moon though. Get the AEW locker room to watch him get treated like a megastar

[@mjburst1]

Dave can barely give Cody any credit for the move. Dave said he’s a good talker. He’s top 5 in the biz since the beginning of AEW. Yes it’s right place at right time, but the reality is that Cody should have never been mid card in AEW. Cody, Jericho, and less is more Orange we’re the highlights of year 1.

[@marcbasil]

Rhodes is horrible. The guy has a lisp. A LISP, for crying out loud. His little WWF return has already been a flop

[@MrJayRed]

dave acting like he knew everything and ish, chill out uncle dave. you didn't even give angle no 5 star matches. BRUV! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN SMOKIN' BRUV! (*will ospreay voice*)

[@AKGaming-oj8hk]

1:55 uHh yEaH 💅

[@seaside18th]

Wow Dave is actually really cool when he validates me liking Wwe!

[@wasco1989]

Heel Cody would have been massive.

[@markfroman738]

Hopefully we get it in this wwe run

[@BrayzenBull]

Billi Bhatti knew more than you.

[@HMKASTheImpeccable]

Dave: Uhm Ugh Kenny Omega Uhm Ugh new Japan Uhm Ugh 5 stars ✨ no I give it no wait 7 stars ✨ Uhm Ugh 😂😂

[@sqcuk5662]

Dave ' I'm biased for aew and njpw' meltzer

[@BrayzenBull]

People left AEW to WWE before Cody

[@jeffreymarksworld534]

Name 1

[@kenzakitakeru2184]

​@@jeffreymarksworld534cora jade

[@kenzakitakeru2184]

​@@jeffreymarksworld534dragon lee

[@jeffreymarksworld534]

@@kenzakitakeru2184 Cody was there long before Dragon Lee got there and that girl had like 3 matches in AEW and was never under contact so she don't count either

[@kenzakitakeru2184]

@@jeffreymarksworld534 wdym dont count, she got 6 months contract at least.

[@jessewahwah]

He didn't want his FIRST World Title to be the AEW World Championship. That belt meant nothing to him. Best way to make sure he never won it was to create a stipulation that would run the length of his contract. His first World Title was going to come in WWE. Everything Cody did in AEW was setting up a WWE return. The only thing that went wrong was HHH having his heart issues and retiring. Cody was meant to come back for a Mania match with HHH. That was his plan. Cody was using AEW as a way back. It worked. He won't get his HHH match, but his first World Title reign will be for the biggest wrestling company in the world. That was his dream. That was his plan.

[@user-qm8hk9zb1p]

His first world title was the nwa title

[@jessewahwah]

@@user-qm8hk9zb1p Remembered by nobody and cared about by even less people.

[@user-qm8hk9zb1p]

@@jessewahwah point still stands………sorry

[@jessewahwah]

@@user-qm8hk9zb1p Go get another booster, pawn.

[@user-qm8hk9zb1p]

@@jessewahwah point still stands buddy gts

[@princealirogers]

The difference is the majority of AEW fans are cynical grown men. Cody wanted to be the clean cut babyface and that doesn’t work for that audience

[@thetribalist6923]

It worked really well for the first couple years. I’d argue white meat baby faces worked better in AEW than they did on the WWE main roster (NXT black and gold years beat them both in that regard though. Baby faces got booed if they were a top face for too long. Happened literally to everyone. Hangman is nowhere near my favorite wrestler, but he’s pretty white meat and is beloved by the fans, for example.

[@marcbasil]

@@thetribalist6923hangman PAGE!? Beloved…? By whom, exactly…?

[@thetribalist6923]

@@marcbasil the fans in attendance seem to love the guy. I soured on him after the Punk promo, and the rainbows and butterflies on his jeans, but he still gets big reactions. He was mega over on his journey to the title in 2021. He even got people to boo Jon Moxley (before their feud this year, which was the first time he got a negative reaction since coming to AEW). If you don’t like him, you’re in good company because I don’t much either, but if you remove your bias, he’s pretty popular.

[@TheKevlar4]

I see this comment a lot but tbh I don't agree. Cody is booked way better in WWE than in AEW. Cody in AEW did that 2010's Cena thing where he kept doing heel things as a babyface.

[@DivertingTales]

It worked until he tried to solve racism through a promo while feuding with a black english man for not liking America. That’s the feud that killed Cody. It was so tone deaf (which he admits) that people had to rationalize it by thinking he was doing a Homelander gimmick.

[@seanbonella]

dave getting too silly now, hope CCV talks to Jim Cornette

[@nickster1135]

Its cause he got booed out of aew

[@northleedspoppa]

Dave will have to spend next two weeks pretending WWE is closing down to say sorry to AEW incel crew for daring to say anything positive about WWE TBF I thought he would have learnt his lesson after AEW cult started with anti Semitic abuse after he lightly praised WM night 1 Remember for two weeks after Mania all the mark channels went crazy with their AEW fan fiction 'journalism ' Vince is back - the corporate structure makes it impossible for Vince to be running creative but everyone still parrots this nonsense Cody Rhodes is finished -hes had huge cheers, ratings and merch ever since Mania Becky lynch, Bayley,Seth rollins, Asuka,Drew all definitely leaving -*they didn't* The AEW cult and their client media are so far removed from general fan sentiment , modern wrestling culture and historical context it's embarrassing What do expect from a company that virtue signals about how it's wrestling for 'hardcore fan's' yet can only draw ratings with wcw guys from 90s Only thing old school about AEW is the fans birth certificates and the roster

[@D3coify]

Yeah, id like to see "Homelander" Cody one day

[@BrayzenBull]

Dave doesn't protect the business

[@Robby_C]

5:04 - This is the problem with being in the "smart mark bubble" ... Nobody except smart marks understand any of that crap... the American TV audience has no idea who any of these people are.... AEW starting as the time when they were supposed to do all the things that got them over on a bigger scale to get them over to a new audience... but they were too worried about what marks were gunna complain about. It's is narrow-minded mark nonsense... you don't make decisions based on if somebody might say something mean on twitter.... and if you do want to make decisions based on that then make it into a fckin angle! OR you can just pander to the same, limited bubble of marks who just want to see people dumped on their head over and over again so they can chant "this is awesome"

[@ValSempai]

yeah but whats that alternative? who are you booking for if not for the fans? I understand you cant pander ALL the time but the other end of the spectrum is booking for yourself *ala vinny boy* and have incoherent shows that only you like?

[@Robby_C]

@@ValSempai why does it have to be an absolute between giving niche fans anything to make sure they don't complain, or doing the exact opposite of what your fans what? that is such a false dichotomy. idk how to explain it, you just have to understand booking psychology. Tony's problem is that he comes up with all these ideas, but doesn't actually lay them out logically... but his fan base doesn't care cuz they just want to see "cool people doing cool moves" or what ever... so AEW will blow through a month worth a storyline in 1 throw away angle, and then wonder why people aren't invested in the storyline. You don't have to pander.. you have to understand wrestling. Pandering means that you aren't planning things, you aren't leading in any direction... you end up just repeating yourself over and over again with superficial pointless angles. For wrestling to work, there needs to be structure from top to bottom. Tony doesn't actually structure anything he just "books" things... or if he does try to structure it, he structures it like a mark... because he doesn't understand effective presentation psychology.

[@BrayzenBull]

Always wrong, Dave Meltzer

[@NotMyName78]

DM's brain is broken. Word salad world champ

[@niteporter]

Uncle Dave bashing his beloved aew? His nieces and nephews playhouse?

[@gsb408]

1:55 what the hell was that. He never makes a point…Why is this guy relevant

[@hansiedsilva2714]

Yeah he became a bigger star in WWE and hardly wrestles

[@BrayzenBull]

Dave doesn't know anything

[@someoneelse1]

He knows what the Bucks tell him, and he reports that without verifying.

[@garyfagan1933]

Cody is over because idiots like his song. I am sorry, but Stardust in the main event of raw is worse than Big E. Cody, dripped blood for AEW, but it was not good enough.. he goes back to WWE and now the same idiots who hated him in AEW cheer in WWE, wresting fans make no sense.

[@Rockleelives777]

A great song isn't enough. Cody is just a plain great wrestler, he understands how to get people behind him.

[@Rockleelives777]

@@superfighter7253 Same reason why John Cena would get boo'd in AEW, isn't the kind of crowd suited for him. There are plenty of top guys in AEW who would not get over in WWE as well (not saying Cody wasn't over, I was at Full Gear 2019 Maryland and EVERYONE was cheering for Cody to win the world title)

[@RedShogun13]

I don't necessarily like what they've done with Cody in the WWE up to this point entirely but let's not sell Cody short. He's a great wrestler from head to toe and knows how to get over usually. WWE fans like him because he's good and to some of them his fresh. To a lot of them his character is probably really cool. You can't say the same people that cheer for him are the same people that boo'd him in AEW like the same fans in Jacksonville all migrated Monday Night Raw.

[@RedShogun13]

@@superfighter7253 They *were* behind him. Until his baby face antics started getting so damn corny/hokey that the fans vocalized/let him know they wanted a change. Cody didn't want to change what he was doing so instead of listening to the audience which is what they teach you to do in pro wrestling, he decided to just go out and get a new crowd. Good for him because it worked out and all but it's hard to look back and not see him as a little selfish.

[@lisbility]

Nah he’s shaggy stip

[@marcbasil]

“There were always talks”. Uhhh, hasn’t gAyEW been around for like 4 years…..? How were there *always* talks..? It’s a new promotion. Wtf?

[@satsuma1754]

You have a vagina

[@I_beat_up_cuckolds]

Glad cody left the smark infested waters of aew