Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, Cody Rhodes, full gear, wrestling

AEW: Sports-Centric Wrestling for Some, Dinner Debonair for Others

AEW EVP and TNT Champion Cody Rhodes held a media conference call Thursday to promote Saturday's Full Gear PPV. During the call, Cody was asked about early claims that AEW would have a sports-centric presentation and whether he still believes that to be true. The answer, despite what many internet pundits, or "smarties" as Cody called them during the call, would like, is that the answer is more complicated than a simple binary. According to Cody, sports-centric is a term that might apply to his own work, but not necessarily to others in the company.

"I look back at what I said, and sometimes I chuckle a bit because I hit things so hard before the first AEW show because no matter what we were aiming for, no matter what we envisioned, you don't know until you know," Cody said. "You don't know until the lights are on, and the red light is blinking, and you're off and beaming across television sets to the world. When I speak of sports-centric wrestling, I speak of the wrestling that I grew up on, Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling, WCCW, I mean, everything that was available to me in the South and that library that's still currently exists."

"I also speak of the current MMA scene with what UFC is doing, the current boxing scene in terms of unscripted promos and drama that is existing based on who the people really are or who the people want you at home to think they are," he continued. "So when it comes to sports-centric wrestling, I consider everything I do, me personally, to be sports-centric. I honor my own identity by presenting myself as such because that is who I am. You talk about the Dinner Debonair. That is who Chris Jericho is. There are different flavors of ice cream that we serve at AEW, and it is very funny to me, some of the modern, I don't know, pundits is the term, the wrestling journalism that tells you it has to all be one way. That hasn't worked for anybody you've told that it has to all be one way. So why tell us?"

"It's very much different flavors," Cody reiterated. "Chris represents his brand incredibly well. The meta style that the Young Bucks have is very well. The strong style approach that Kenny [Omega] is bringing back into his singles repertoire, very much himself. Honestly, so many different flavors. But I can always stand by what I said then and very much still be able to say it now. Because what I do as a wrestler, what Cody Rhodes does when he's on-screen, will always be sports-centric, because that's the type of wrestling I love, and that's the type of stories that I personally like to tell."

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