Cody and Brandi Rhodes discuss if the recent big signings of wrestlers like CM Punk and Bryan Danielson will be part of their new reality show, Rhodes to the Top.
Our very own Jeandra LeBeauf of Illuminerdi Wrestling Order was able to recently interview Cody and Brandi Rhodes as they promote their new reality show, Rhodes to the Top.
Recently AEW has made some huge signings to their promotion with the likes of Punk, Danielson and Adam Cole all recently debuting. However, LeBeauf wanted to know what the odds were that we would be able to see a behind the scenes look at these signings and negotiations.
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“In regards to specific signings of Punk and Bryan, we missed the timeline just a tad on those. Those particularly [you] won’t see, but you will see some real inner workings of talent related things like that,” Brandi Rhodes said.
These reality shows can be taped pretty far in advance and who knows how long those two negotiations were going on for. Since they will not be part of the show it would seem like they were either just worked out right before they debuted or were purposely kept off the show to maximize secrecy.
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Brandi Rhodes did give us a peek as to what kind of inner workings we could expect to be part of the show.
“One of the more promising stories is unfortunately at the time of our taping Ricky Starks was pretty badly injured and so we kinda take that emotional roller coaster, ‘cause Ricky is a very good friend of ours, with him. Of okay what does this mean? What happens next? What are you afraid of? It just really kind of takes you through the trials of something that in sport’s very common. Injury and in our case it’s a very scary thing because it could mean so many big changes for you long term so that’s fun,” Brandi said.
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Starks was injured back in early May with a broken neck. He received a German Suplex and landed badly. It will be interesting to see how Starks reacts to the situation at the time. However, I’m more interested in how Cody being the executive vice president and Brandi being chief brand officer handle it because as far as I know it’s AEW’s first big injury.
Brandi Rhodes also gave another example of a behind-the-scenes moment which was far less serious, but may still be packed with drama.
“You also see another kind of fun interaction with me and a couple female talent that wanted to go at it and I’m pregnant, kinda in the middle of it, so that’ll be another fun one too. But yeah you definitely see that. You’re gonna see not only our trials, but some trials of some other fan favorites that are up on the rise right now and I think that’s going to be really compelling for a lot of people,” Brandi said.
It seems like this show will have a lot of backstage stuff which I am looking forward to. I am always interested in seeing what it’s like in the back and how wrestlers interact with both other wrestlers and other backstage employees.
We couldn’t go forward without getting some insight from Cody. He was asked about after growing up in the business with his dad and brother, Dusty Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes, being professional wrestlers and also Cody himself being a seasoned wrestler, what gets him excited about young talent? Cody talked about the guys who are known for high spots like Nick Jackson, Fenix, Ricochet and especially Dante Martin among others.
“If you can take someone like that and you can give them your experience working psychology with the crowd and not strip them away of the cool moves and athletics. That’s a mistake old timey wrestlers have made. They’ve tried to take away the high spots to give you more Shakespeare and give you more psychology and the truth is this generation of fans they want it all. They want the flips, the dives, the strikes.
This new level of high-speed wrestling. They want that in addition to the stories that we tell, to great interviews and great promos. Nothing excites me more than a guy like Dante Martin or someone who is young who I can say ‘hay this is something that was passed on to me and I get to pass it onto you,” Cody said.
I completely agree with Cody. This generation of wrestling fans is probably the most critical to have ever existed. It is only because they or I should say we have seen so much high-level wrestling that sub-par wrestling does nothing for us. It has made us very picky.
Cody went on to say that his real job with the company is to mentor young talent. He said everyone knows Punk and Danielson know what they are doing, but teaching young talent who don’t know what they are doing yet will ensure people are still talking about AEW years in the future.
Leave a comment about what excites you about modern wrestling. Do you love the high spots, do you wish they focused more on psychology or do you like the blend of both? Don’t forget to watch Cody and Brandi Rhodes on Rhodes to the Top Sept. 29 on TNT.
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