Nick Aldis and Cody Rhodes have both come a long way since ALL IN 2018.
During a recent Gabby AF interview, the current WWE SmackDown General Manager reflected on his featured match against “The American Nightmare” at the event that led to the creation of All Elite Wrestling.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on this topic with his thoughts and memories.
On facing Cody Rhodes at the inaugural ALL IN event that led to the creation of AEW: “Yeah, I mean look, obviously different paths. Obviously when Cody and I locked up in Chicago in 2018, there was a very big gap in terms of status at that point, obviously that is still the case and I’m not ashamed to say that. For me, that night, it was — we had done three or four months worth of build to get to that and people were there still talk about it, people will still discover it and talk about it now and I think that’s the real beauty of WWE, right, every day you get fans that find it and have never seen it before and they go, ‘Wait, the GM guy? Oh my god, woah. I just watched that match and it was amazing.’ So, you’re still benefiting from it but I think that even though we’re obviously in different positions, but again, looking at the positives, I called up here asking for one job and they gave me two, so that’s pretty cool and Cody is literally in the spot that everybody in the industry wants. So for him to be there, he’s been a great help to me. I know he was a positive advocate and influence right before I came.”
On where their careers went after the bout: “For me to applaud his success and for him to be happy for me getting an opportunity, that’s a nice thing for us to reflect on and we look back at that day and just go, ‘Well, I’m just glad that after everything we did for that one night in Chicago, we’ve both been able to sort of reap the benefits in different ways. My job on that night was to ascend to his level, was to make sure that people didn’t look at that night as a coronation because it would’ve been kind of flat. That was up to me to be a formidable obstacle where people weren’t sure that it would go the way they think it would go and I felt like we accomplished that, I think the reaction in the building that night sort of confirmed that. Off the back of that, I was able to build a brand for myself and he was able to enhance the brand that he had already started and now he’s taken that to the highest he can take it and maybe he finally reaches the top of the mountain at WrestleMania. I sit in a position where I have the opportunity to help shape the industry for next decade or so. Cream rises to the top.”
Check out the complete interview at Spotify.com. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
