"Out of his own pocket"- Ex-AEW star recalls Cody Rhodes generously paying for vignettes featuring him and popular star

Joey Janela has revealed that Cody Rhodes paid out of his own pocket to help create vignettes for some of AEW's talent. With Cody's help, Janela laid out the foundation to establish a tag team with Sonny Kiss.

Sonny Kiss and Joey Janela began teaming up in March 2020 on AEW Dark. Multiple vignettes featuring the duo were released, starting with them beating up some wrestlers at a gas station. The vignettes garnered attention from fans and notable veterans, thus creating buzz for the emerging tag team.

Speaking with Renee Paquette on The Sessions, Janela revealed how the vignettes leading to the tag team formation played out:

"Cody was like, ‘let’s just roll with it.’ So I said, ‘I got this idea for vignettes.’ They’re like 1980s Miami Vice, but the dynamic is so different because I’m the cis, white male, and Sonny is the flamboyant representative of the LGBTQ community. I wanted to tell a story where I was down on my luck. Sonny Kiss is like, ‘I’m from Jersey, you’re from Jersey. Let’s get back on our feet together."

The Bad Boy then discussed Cody Rhodes' financial generosity in developing the videos and how Tony Khan responded:

"So Cody, out of his own pocket, paid for these vignettes that took 15 hours to film. They showed it to Tony. Tony hated it. Tony thought they were phony, fake. We got an edited-down version and still it got people talking. It was trending on Twitter. Eric Bischoff said, ‘That was one of the greatest promo videos I’ve ever seen.’" (H/T: WrestleZone)

Cody Rhodes helped out many young wrestlers in AEW

Cody Rhodes was one of the founding pillars of All Elite Wrestling. The former EVP of AEW is highly regarded for his immense contributions in building the company.

The WWE Superstar has mentored and helped many young performers such as former Inner Circle member Ortiz.

Speaking to Chase McCabe, Ortiz disclosed that Cody Rhodes brought him and Santana into AEW:

"He was the first person to contact us and say, 'what's going on with you guys?'. We were at Impact Wrestling at the time. We had less than a year left on our contract, and it's Cody's testament he kept in touch with us throughout the whole eight months that we had left. He was the first person we contacted about coming to AEW. He helped us get our job there," said Ortiz.

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The former TNT Champion is currently sidelined with a torn pectoral tendon. Fans are hopeful that the RAW star will bounce back better than ever.

What's your take on Cody's contributions in AEW? Let us know in the comments below.