Cody Rhodes Details Personal 'Crisis' That Led To Talks With WWE's Vince McMahon

Reigning WWE Champion and AEW co-founder Cody Rhodes opened up on how he resolved a 'crisis' during his talks with Vince McMahon to switch in 2022. 

Rhodes co-founded AEW alongside Tony Khan, Kenny Omega, and the Young Bucks and spent three years with the promotion as a three-time TNT Champion in the ring and an Executive Vice President in the back office. But in 2022 he switched gears entirely, leaving at the end of his contract to sign with and return to WWE at WrestleMania 38, having since gone on to become a two-time WWE Champion and adopt the nickname "QB1" in reference to his status with the company. 

However, Rhodes went into detail during the "Bertcast" with Bert Kreischer about how the talks arose while he was having a 'crisis' with AEW, revealing that it was his "Go Big Show" co-stars that helped him through the period as part of their shared journey.

"As silly and funky as the Go Big Show was, everyone had a journey that they were essentially about to undertake or in the beginning of it," Rhodes said. "I was in the foreplay, preliminary talking about moves... The stuff sounded just so hypothetical... Then the 'What if?' became, 'Oh, we're actually going to do that, we're going forward with that. We're going back to WWE.'"

Rhodes clarified that it was through conversations on the "Go Big Show" set that he would rationalize the decision he was about to make, with Kreischer recalling the moment Rhodes told him he had been contacted by McMahon. 

"I was at AEW, and I was the Executive Vice President of another wrestling company, which I helped start. And in the midst of it, I was going through, I guess, a crisis... I was talking to people, we were trying to produce while we were there and filming Go Big Show. But the second season we entered a bit of a, I guess, crisis mode," he said.