Cody Rhodes reveals the endgame for his 'heel' AEW run; had plans to wrestle WWE Hall of Famer

WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes became one of the most polarizing figures toward the tail end of his AEW career.

The American Nightmare started receiving hostile reactions during his matches, which led to everyone speculating about his possible heel turn. The 38-year-old did play along with the crowd and would embrace the boos, but a character change never came to fruition.

He last wrestled his AEW match against Sammy Guevara, which resulted in him losing his TNT Championship, a title synonymous with his time in old stomping grounds.

In an exclusive chat with ComicBook.com, Cody Rhodes revealed that plans were in place for him to face his childhood hero Sting:

"I was going to wrestle Sting," Rhodes confirmed. "I don't think I've ever shared that with anybody and nothing was on paper or anything like that. But I can say I got a tremendous offer from AEW creatively, financially, the full package. You won't hear me say anything bad about AEW or Tony (Khan) or my time there. It was a tremendous offer, but the offer wasn't right for me. What I wanted to get back to was the first goal that I ever had (winning the WWE Championship). But yeah, that probably would've been the endgame. That's what had been discussed, was to get one (match) with one of my heroes, Sting."

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Cody Rhodes on choosing WWE over AEW

It's worth recalling that AEW planted the seeds for Cody Rhodes vs. Sting when the latter first stepped foot in the Jacksonville-based promotion in late 2020. The two men even had a face-to-face confrontation on the following Dynamite, but the angle went nowhere.

The former EVP explained he could either have a dream match with The Icon or get the chance to work with Triple H, which factored into his decision-making:

"And it's one of those things, you can wrestle one of your heroes or you can work with one of your heroes and he can be the head of creative (Paul Levesque), you can't have it all," he continued. "And I think one thing I do pride myself on as a wrestler is I will make a decision. It might be a left turn, it might be exactly where you think I'm going, but I will make a decision. I will not get stuck because I felt like I'd been stuck early in my career and never want to be that way again."

With Sting inching closer to bringing the curtain down on his legendary career, it seems unlikely that a match against Cody Rhodes would happen anytime soon.