Cody Rhodes On Chris Jericho’s Role In AEW, Kris Statlander’s Rise

AEW Executive Vice Presient Cody Rhodes recently spoke to SPORT1 in Germany. Rhodes took the time to discuss some of the young talent on AEW programming as well as the influence of veteran performer and AEW Champion Chris Jericho.

“There are people who are definitely ahead of the curve considering they have never been on TV: Darby Allin, for example, or Kris Statlander,” Rhodes stated. “I didn’t know who Kris Statlander was a month ago. Now, I can’t imagine AEW without her. She’s an incredibly special talent and we want to cultivate that. I’ve been really impressed with so much of our roster with how they’ve taken doing live television.”

Cody Rhodes also talked about how the days of ‘territory’ wrestling and an old-school mentality come into play with AEW. “They say in wrestling, ‘What’s old is new’. There is so much of the territory wrestling, and even pre-Crockett, pre-television wrestling, that have so many great stories and elements to bring to the squared circle and tell a story within the ropes,” Cody said. “To be able to do that on worldwide television is huge. But we also have to do our best not to be a parody of what’s old. Not to be nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake.”

Cody elaborated further, saying “you have to give people the buffet: some old, some new. We are melding those worlds. I like Memphis Wrestling, southern wrestling. I revel in that old school, but not lazy old school – the diligent, committed old school. If you mash that up with the new school and create something new like Darby Allin does, or MJF, people will let you know how much they love it.”

Cody then praised AEW Champion Chris Jericho, saying “you don’t want to praise Chris because he’s such an asshole, but you have to give him props,” Cody claimed. “Every week, Chris Jericho does something that reminds me of how important he is to the company – every week! He’s a huge part of this.”