Cody Rhodes On His Double Or Nothing Entrance, Perceived Shot At HHH

All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star and Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes spoke to media following Double Or Nothing this past weekend. Cody talked about a variety of topics, including the appearance of Jon Moxley, facing his brother Dustin Rhodes, his signature entrance with the sledgehammer and the throne, and more.

Cody was asked about his entrance that involved a sledgehammer and smashing a throne, which was perceived as a shot at Triple H’s elaborate Wrestlemania entrances in WWE. Cody said he liked HHH’s entrance, and said it wasn’t so much a shot about his former roster mate as much as it was a sign that he’s still a wrestler, and not just management:

“Okay, so, I had a literal dream about this type of entrance. I love when Triple H came out at WrestleMania 30 where it was like [Mortal Kombat’s] Shao Kahn; it was really cool. The throne kind of symbolized his reign. And man, I want to play ball. I’m not—I know we don’t say competition, but it stands for itself. And I also want people to know this role, this Executive Vice President role—which I love, I’m excited about—but I want to be a wrestler first. And that’s great, we were able to do that tonight.

Tony [Khan] sat here and timed the show; that takes years how to learn. Gerald Brisco is the only guy who would do it for years, and he did it tonight on his first try. They don’t always need us there in those executive roles. We were able to go out there and be wrestlers, and that, more than anything—it’s not a shot at Triple H as much as a shot at I’m not ready to dive into that role yet. I want to be a wrestler first and foremost. I’m not done.”

Double Or Nothing also featured plenty of expletives and blood, including the bloodbath seen in Cody’s match against his brother Dustin. Cody said he thinks we might see things turned up a bit on pay-per-view, but it might not neccessarily be an indicator that’s what the TV show will look like:

“There’s not the standards and practices format we have at the moment, but I think when you look at TV, and our pay-per-views will take it a step up, if that makes any sense. Wrestling—Tony has been very good about this—it’s sports-centric, and the other wrestling company, they almost run a TV-G show, with how protected it is. And I get that, you’re servicing the child audience, but there’s a huge part of the audience that still wants sports, still wants violence. In the NBA guys curse on the court, you move the camera off of them. It’s treated as a live sporting event and that will help our TV and drive how we want to do TV. But I think at the pay-per-views you’ll see a step up and even Tony—and I’m not trying to spoil it—but we’ve talked about a pay-per-view itself that’s another step up. So…wrestling is violent. It’s part of this combat sports, and we have a lot of great guys with legit backgrounds so I don’t mind using that word because everyone here tonight is happy, healthy, my brother is OK.”