Cody Rhodes responds to criticism of AEW hiring former WWE Superstars

On last week's AEW Dynamite, two former WWE Superstars showed up and debuted for AEW. Both Matt Hardy and Brodie Lee would have brought the roof down had the crowd been there in attendance to see it. While their reveals were well received, some have questioned why AEW has been hiring former WWE talent.

Some criticism was thrown at Cody Rhodes on Twitter, and he responded that AEW is a merit-based company that is hiring the right talent (mostly independent stars), providing an excellent balance to their roster.

Talent is talent. Merit based company. We have a great roster from all types of places(mainly blossoming independent stars). It’s a great balance.

— Cody (@CodyRhodes) March 19, 2020

One Twitter user pointed out all the WWE names that AEW has hired and Cody responded in kind.

Darby, Luchasauras, Orange, Britt, Jungle, Private Party, etc etcMore unknown then known. Fresh is the term we like. Nice balance. Fresh approach.

— Cody (@CodyRhodes) March 19, 2020

Cody's more significant point is that they have a great mix of veterans and fresh young talent that most people have never seen. It can be argued that people like Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy are talents that seemed to have crossed over to the mainstream and certainly gotten over with the rest of the fans.

It should also be noted that several members of WWE's current roster have come from places like ROH, NJPW, Impact Wrestling, and so on. With that being said, as Cody says, it does talk about the need to get fresh talent to balance their crop of experienced ex-WWE stars who could pass on their knowledge to the young up and comers.