Cody Rhodes Says AEW Is Leaning Towards Emphasis On Wins & Losses

Cody Rhodes Says AEW Is Leaning Towards Emphasis On Wins & Losses, Presenting Sports-Based Wrestling

Cody Rhodes recently spoke with SEScoops.com and said All Elite Wrestling is leaning towards a direction that will see more of an emphasis on wins and losses mattering more.

Cody, who spoke briefly about plans for AEW at last week’s rally in Jacksonville, says he grew up with ‘sports entertainment’ due to his professional experience, but still has a love for the more sports-heavy presentation of wrestling:

“I grew up in the world of sports entertainment myself because my main career experience is with WWE,” he said. “But when I say sports entertainment, I have a love for the side of the business that skews more towards sports. You find that a lot in New Japan Pro Wrestling, you find that a lot in early 90’s WCW that I am always notoriously raving about, I find it a lot in my father’s product, the same with Bill Watts – it’s more of the sports side of it. Pro wrestling is absolutely sports entertainment but it’s also pro wrestling. I think that’s the direction that we’d like to lean.”

Cody added, saying President Tony Khan bring a lot of experience to AEW from the professional sports world, and they want to capture the same spirit that All In brought last year:

“Initially, this was just the idea of doing a sequel to All In. Now it’s a massive endeavor that I’ve committed the rest of my career to. We want to keep that same spirit that we had going into All In, which was a wrestling show for wrestling fans by wrestlers. That’s really key. I spoke real briefly about a couple of things that are going to be really different, but I can say something that Tony [Khan] brings to the table in his analytical experience and his experience in the pro sports world, we’re going to have a heavy emphasis on wins and losses and will be leaning into the sports side of it in terms of that mattering a lot more. We’re not planning to create characters and chance moments in a single night vs. hopefully a more long-form story.”

Cody also said the promotion is leaning towards keeping track of rankings and records, but those talks were preliminary.