On the second episode of AEW Unrestricted, Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards had AEW EVP and recent cage leaper Cody Rhodes on as their guest. It didn’t take long for the talk to turn into how much fun the locker room has backstage (this story particularly involving everyone taking shots at getting a water bottle into a trash can) and Tony makes note of how great it has been being part of such a positive environment.
“You look forward to going to work and everybody backstage and I would think that when you are looking for people to work in this company, Cody, you’re looking for that right? You’re obviously looking for talented people, but you’re also looking for people like the Atlanta Braves used to do. They were not only looking for good baseball players, but they were looking for good people.”
“You’re building a locker room,” Edwards adds.
Cody agrees with that assessment, saying that there were two main terms he, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Tony Khan used when going through the hiring process – “fresh” and “extra credit.” The American Nightmare explains:
“‘Fresh,’ like people who perhaps we haven’t seen in the wrestling world or who haven’t made in that many locker rooms and on television, but the other one, the term we’d always use is we’d say is ‘extra credit’ and what extra credit means is really just kind of putting a bow on passionate. We were looking for all the people who like doing everything – who like everything. Like come to work, ‘I want to do everything. I want to learn everything. I want to be a camera man, I want to be a referee, I want to be a wrestler, I want to be a producer, I want to know everything. Even if they don’t know why I’m standing here, listening and watching, I want to have a ‘master of all’…”
Cody gives a little bit of background as to his first few meetings with Khan and he states how much he’s learned from the young president of All Elite Wrestling, particularly one intriguing aspect of his day-to-day style: having a good group of trustworthy people around him.
“He surrounds himself with people who aren’t just there for his money and he’s built a good team at AEW who really the focus isn’t about climbing any type of corporate ladder here as much as it is at putting on the best possible show with AEW every Wednesday and topping your last show. I’ve learned a lot of Tony in a very short time. Just a really charming fella. Good guy (and a Star Trek fan).”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
This is just scraping the tip of the iceberg with the episode and you can listen to it in it’s entirety below.
