On a recent edition of his “The ARN Show” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson discussed Cody Rhodes winning the Undisputed WWE Universal Title from Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 (Night Two), trying to convince Rhodes to stay in AEW, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On what Cody Rhodes has been able to accomplish: “He bet on himself. When he left the WWE for the first time, nobody including me thought it was a great idea. Because they were offering him a lot of money to stay. But he had a game plan, and he knew what he had to do to execute it. And he made the decision to move on and what a career he had on his own, until he made his way back to WWE.
“And I was one of the guys that, I didn’t want him to leave AEW. I certainly encouraged him to stay because he was kind of in control of his own destiny. We had that conversation. But I also had this to come in right behind it. ‘If whatever decision you make is for the good of your family, then it can’t be wrong’… If you’re building a roster, if you started from ground zero, ‘Tomorrow I’m going to build a company.’ Who do you want that’s marketable, that’s a tremendous performer, that’s somebody that you can depend on, that’s going to draw you money and going to sell merch and is just got to be a valuable guy to have in the locker room all the way around? That would be Cody.”
On Paul Heyman’s WWE Hall of Fame induction: “Well, he certainly earned it. I mean, his body of work throughout the industry. And I think that should play a part of some of the entrance into the Hall of Fame, just their body of work. You know, it’s not that they were used on top and there were in so many main events, or X number of big matches or all that. But what was their body of work contributing to the business? And a guy like Paul Heyman, how can you deny him? You know, he’s been there for 25 years?”
On Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda’s induction: “You know, Barry and Mike, so happy for those guys. Any accolade you can give Barry Windham is probably not enough. You know, we say it all the time, that guy was so good. Mike Rotundo is a tremendous performer, probably underrated for just what he brings to the table. I mean, the guy can have a great match with anybody, and a good solid guy. And with the year that he’s had [losing Bray Wyatt], I’m glad that he had something to really just feature him. To get his mind on just his career, because he did. If you knew Mike as a producer, if you knew him as a performer, you saw just how in tune he was. And I’m very happy for both of those guys as well.”
