Cody Rhodes Talks Weird Dynamics With Dustin Rhodes, AEW Going After The "Lapsed Fan"

Ahead of AEW Double or Nothing, Cody Rhodes sat down with Jack Whitehall to discuss the AEW brand, wrestling his brother, and adjusting to his role as both a wrestler and one of four Executive Vice Presidents in the company.

"I feel like I was tailor-made for this job, it's my dream job, but I never thought it would happen," Cody exclaimed. "I have loved wrestling my whole life, I was born around wrestling, I spent a decade with WWE. If you tell anyone in our world about the announcement with ITV, the announcement with Turner, it shocks them. Nothing like this has happened in two decades. It's just wild."

It is well known that Cody is the son of the legendary Dusty Rhodes. That influence can be found in how Cody views pro wrestling to this day.

"His prime was before I even became impressionable, I was 5 years old when he retired," Cody said. "I was always proud of him as a booker, idea man, an executive. He wanted to make movies and I want it to be on the same level. When this is done right, it is on that same level. He was good at making little mini projects. Some of them were disasters, but then there are these other moments where he made peoples careers."

At Double or Nothing, Cody will be taking on his brother Dustin Rhodes (fka WWE's Goldust). This is a match that was often teased, but a long-term feud did not come from it in WWE. Now, with AEW the brothers get to develop the feud based on some real-life situations.

"When I was 17 my brother came to my wrestling practice, wasn't in the best of shape, been down on his luck, and he thought he would roll around with me. And I smothered him," Cody stated. "He was very upset and didn't come home for a few hours. We have a weird dynamic, somehow, I have become the older brother. He lived this crazy, rock star lifestyle. He and our dad had an adversarial relationship, where they didn't talk for a few years and my dad and I were best friends. It was now or never for this match."

Although they are brothers and the family element could almost write itself, Cody has another reason for wanting this match-up: end the Attitude Era.

"It's not so much brother versus brother," Cody said. "It is generation versus generation. I can't stand [the Attitude Era], it is the era everyone says is the best and I can't stand it. There have been five matches in the last five months that were better than anything from the Attitude Era."

Pro wrestling fans seem to be getting restless with the PG-era WWE is currently in. For the fans that have left, AEW is targeting them for a return to the sport. Rhodes referred to them as the "lapsed fan."

"The AEW demo is almost entirely the lapsed fan," Cody explained. "Before WWE and even once WWE took over there were other avenues for wrestling. Once they took over, it created a vacuum. And a void for certain types of wrestling. It has been watered down. And, fans of that type for wrestling have waded through that, looking for that alternative, and now it is here. We have to deliver, with the guys we have, I think this is a crew that can deliver."

You can listen to Cody Rhodes' full comments in the video above.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit ITV Wrestling with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.