Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, Cody Rhodes, dynamite, tully blanchard, wrestling

Cody Rhodes Talks Tully Blanchard's Return to the Ring for AEW

Published Wed, 03 Mar 2021 18:35:59 -0600

Tonight on AEW Dynamite: The Crossroads, the legendary Tully Blanchard will return to the ring to team with FTR in a tag team match against Jurassic Express. During a conference call Wednesday ahead of the AEW Revolution PPV, Cody Rhodes discussed Tully's return, his own match tonight with Shaq, Red Velvet, and Jade Cargill, and why AEW makes its PPV go-home shows so special.

Tully Blanchard will return to the ring to team with FTR against Jurassic Express on AEW Dynamite: The Crossroads tonight.

"Well, I would say the FTR boys, I don't know how much convincing they actually had to do," said Cody when asked how AEW talked Tully Blanchard into getting back in the ring. "Tully has always got that wild look in his eye that I wish so many other people had in terms of how he wants it. I don't think it was a difficult conversation. I think we've got a few surprises here for Tully tonight, as we are very excited, and it's not lost on me what it means him returning to the ring."

"As far as Shaq, myself, Jade, and Red Velvet in this tag, I think it fits just great on Dynamite," said Cody, who would go on to reveal that match will kick off Dynamite tonight. "We've actually talked about it on a call before. Whereas the economics of the industry are much different now, the pay per view and the streaming and everything to that nature, there's a great deal of opportunity there. But the television money is your bottom line sometimes, and providing the absolute best content for Dynamite, and not doing a really carny 'let's stretch it, let's stretch it, let's stretch it' that wrestling has done in the past. So I'm excited that it's on Dynamite and it's alive and that it's not only live and on Dynamite, but it's kicking off the show, it being the very first thing. It just makes for a great show."

"And actually, to extrapolate a little bit on this, one discovery I think we've made and Tony Khan seems to be really keen on it and I love that, is that our go-home to pay per views might always end up in some way being themed," explained Rhodes. "They're always going to have a heavy hitter of a match on them because they shouldn't be a throwaway. A lot of rivalries and stories and angles, if you will, sometimes the wagon is already in the barn and you run a VTR and, hey, say check out the pay per view. But for AEW, we still want that go-home show to not only be significant, but newsworthy. And we're learning that as we're finding our own identity. So that will be exciting moving forward."

AEW Dynamite: The Crossroads airs on TNT at 8PM Eastern tonight. Keeping checking back, as Bleeding Cool is attempting to break the Guinness World Record for most clickbait articles churned out of the transcript of a pro wrestling media call, so we'll have lots more on the way from Cody Rhodes and AEW in the coming days.

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