Brandi Rhodes On What Went Wrong With The Nightmare Collective In AEW

The Nightmare Collective faction and storyline in AEW was heavily criticized throughout its run, but during a recent interview with "Ring The Belle," Brandi Rhodes clarified that what people saw on television wasn't ever supposed to be the Nightmare Collective.

"It was supposed to be me and Awesome Kong. Awesome Kong the wrestler and me the manager," Rhodes said. "Awesome Kong had this wonderful idea, she had this artwork sketched and everything of what she wanted her character to be and look like and it was this badass warrior woman who collected these trophies at the end of the matches of cutting off the hair."

Kong did cut the hair from her opponents, but Rhodes admitted bringing the entire vision to life wasn't easy because of the injury problems that Kong was having during that time. Rather than working around that or waiting for Kong to be fully fit the former Chief Brand Officer felt AEW hit the panic button.

"The Nightmare Collective was not a me and Awesome Kong collaboration, it was a full creative collaboration," she said. "Everybody and their mother had something to add."

One moment that frustrated fans saw the faction get involved in an AEW Women's World Championship match, as the input was that they needed that at the time. However, Rhodes admitted she knew that wasn't the right way to go and they didn't want that to happen, which was the straw that broke the camels back for Rhodes.

"Part of the reason why I was really like, 'Okay it's time for this to stop,' [was] because there's just too many people that have good intentions, too many cooks are in the pot though," she said.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Ring The Belle" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.