Cody Rhodes: ‘No one’s been even close’ to guessing reason for AEW departure
It’s been four years since Cody Rhodes left AEW — and he says fans still do not know the actual reason for his departure.
Cody and Brandi Rhodes announced that they were leaving AEW in February 2022. Soon after, Cody made his WWE return at WrestleMania 38. He’s now heading into his fourth consecutive WrestleMania main event with Cody set to defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against Randy Orton next month.
During a media tour in New York City, Cody made an appearance on The Breakfast Club and was asked about a previous comment he made where he credited his wife Brandi for making the “selfless” decision to not talk about why they left AEW. Cody believes that approach has helped both of them move forward. But fans inevitably create narratives when they do not know the reason for something.
“Our departure from when we left the company we were with and helped create, and that was AEW, it came down to her deciding to not talk about it, that departure,” Cody said. “Like, ‘We’re not going to talk about it. We’re moving on. Did bad stuff happen? Good stuff happened too. I’m not going to talk about it.’
“And one of the sad things about not talking about why we left and the departure, one of the difficult things was narratives get created. Stories get told, podcasts happen, fans literally think they know what happened when no one’s been even close. And what I would say is the selfless part, she lives with that. She owns that. She respects not just here, but the place we left enough to, ‘I’m not going to talk about that.’ And that made it so that — they’re good. They’re out of here. That was very, very helpful for us. And again, good stuff happened there too. But that’s what I mean by selfless, because she lives with that.”
Cody said there is no “breadwinner” in their household because he and Brandi built everything together and their pursuits are equally important. At the moment, they are doing their own thing career-wise, but Cody was happy that Brandi got to see how much fans supported her when she was part of his WrestleMania 40 entrance.
Though he has been mostly quiet about the reason for his AEW departure, Cody has said there was a personal issue involved and that he felt “disrespected” at the end of his time there. Despite that, Cody still has love and respect for AEW and is rooting for the promotion to succeed.
Tony Khan only has good things to say about Cody, and the two have had positive interactions when they’ve seen each other in the time since Cody left AEW.
Cody is now a three-time Undisputed WWE Champion. His title defense against Orton is expected to headline night one of WrestleMania 42 on Saturday, April 18.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.