The upcoming “American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes” documentary is set to premiere on July 31 via Peacock. To promote the documentary, Cody Rhodes recently appeared on the “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” podcast for a brief interview, wherein he addressed multiple topics, including the speculation surrounding his departure from AEW and his subsequent return to WWE.
Rhodes mentioned a “disinformation campaign” from some members of the wrestling media, including Wade Keller, but clarified that he has no animosity towards them. Rhodes also discussed his role as an executive in AEW and the pride he took in helping run the organization, before acknowledging that he wasn’t fully ready to lead the company at that time. He said,
“You mentioned taking pride in the executive element. So, you were there when I was still running those meetings, I really loved it. But from an ego standpoint, from an optics standpoint, that was really cool. But I also really loved leading, and I just maybe wasn’t ready to fully lead at that point. And it didn’t rub everyone the right way, why is he running the production meeting? Why is this and that and then you know, your vision, Kenny’s vision, Matt and Nick’s vision, everyone’s visions, that one thing. But you know, Tony has a vision and this is his money, and then let’s see how that plays out. But that was a good time.”
“I’m glad you had a good experience because when we left there was this whole like disinformation campaign that Wade Keller put out, and I’m not even mad at Wade Keller no heat with Wade. But I could tell what was going on. Again, you didn’t talk to any real source. No, I was an executive, as a member of management. I was happy, wanted to help and took huge pride in us being a professional organization and, and that shows amongst the roster, the locker room, my kids, the people I didn’t recruit, people I did recruit. Yeah, there was such a fog of misinformation of when I left that. It’s fun to see in the doc itself. You know, that wasn’t the case, it was just time.”
Returning at WrestleMania 38, Cody Rhodes established himself as a bonafide main event talent, challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 39. While Cody was essentially screwed out of the title by The Bloodline, he has since been involved in an incredible feud with Brock Lesnar.
The American Nightmare is widely regarded as the biggest babyface in the wrestling world, and rumors indicate that he will be challenging Reigns for the Undisputed Championship at WrestleMania 40 as well.
