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Cody Rhodes believes he made a major mistake during his time in AEW by boxing himself out of the world title picture.
In 2019, The American Nightmare was involved in a memorable feud for the AEW World Championship against then-champion Chris Jericho. However, there was an added stipulation that if Cody were to lose his title match, he would never get to challenge for the gold again. MJF ultimately cost him the match, so the sanction was imposed on Rhodes.
On the Out Of Character podcast, Cody Rhodes explained why he took up the EVP role too early in his career. He stated that it would have been more suited to him when he reached the age of 45. The former TNT Champion went on to admit that taking himself out of the world title picture was an erroneous choice.
"I think that role, I did well with it," said Rhodes. "I was very active and I did start a department, the Community Department and Brandi did bring Culture City into the wrestling and sports entertainment space. So we were very active in terms of all the facets and assets of that gig. But I think that job was meant maybe for, we wanted a wrestling company brought to you by wrestlers. For sure, that's a huge part of the mission, but maybe it would have been better served for me at age 45 than it did at age, you know, 33 or whatever it was. I am just now entering the prime of my career. So to make political decisions like boxing myself out of winning a world championship. Those decisions, in hindsight, not the correct decisions." (24:33 - 26:05)
Cody Rhodes believes he's the best wrestler in the world
Cody Rhodes also shared his belief that he's the best wrestler in the world. He noted that he treats wrestling as a legitimate sport, as he compared himself to NFL athletes.
"What I should have been doing, I'm the best wrestler in the world, Ryan, I can tell you that without it sounding braggadocious, and it's simply because this is all I do," Rhodes continued. "I trained to do it. I live and breathe it. I have a school here with four rings. I treat this like an athlete in the NFL would treat a game in terms of them and their team."
Despite the world title title stipulation, Cody Rhodes later became a three-time TNT Champion. He added a lot of value to the belt as he defeated the likes of Lance Archer, Sammy Guevara and Brodie Lee to win the title on separate occasions.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit the Out Of Character podcast and give an h/t to this article.
