Cody Rhodes Talks AEW Competing With NXT On Wednesdays
Wednesdays has often been a forgotten night when it comes to pro wrestling on TV but that's all about to change. NXT recently premiered on the USA Network on that day and AEW will follow on TNT very shortly.
Even though AEW announced their Wednesday TV show first, WWE beat AEW to the punch by getting its NXT show on USA before AEW's network debut. Cody Rhodes was asked about this gamesmanship by WWE and explained why AEW isn't yet in "competition mode" when it comes to NXT.
"We can't pretend that we don't know that's happening," Rhodes said on IGN, "but we were always planning our show. And have been for a long while. This isn't a reactionary move on our part. This is what our intentions were. To be on Wednesday nights and to be on a major network with such a great partner like Warner Media and TNT. Our focus is still on providing the best AEW, providing the best alternative. We haven't switched over to 'Well how can we compete?' because we already felt like we had a product that people wanted to see.
"We want to provide bell-to-bell sports-centric pro-wrestling. That's going to mean longer matches. That's going to mean stories being told between the ropes. That means no invisible camera backstage. That's gonna mean more of a live-sports approach to our product. That's 100% what we're doing, so I want to avoid any reactionary elements. I loved the Monday Night Wars, I did. And I'm not trying to be naive and ignore a situation where it's like 'Hey, if this happens, we'll have to play this card,' but I'm just saying I want us to be more about our young and upcoming crop of talent."
Cody wants the focus of AEW on TNT to be on AEW itself instead of it competing with NXT. He also used the phrase "bell-to-bell" as to what AEW will focus on which also just happens to be the same, exact phrase Triple H used when talking about NXT's focus.
"The very first match you're going to see on TNT is myself versus Sammy Guevara. I can't sit here and tell you that Sammy Guevara's got all the potential in the world because it makes him so angry,," Rhodes said. "He's so full of piss and vinegar and genuinely thinks he's the best and that's the type of thing we want to put out there. People like Jurassic Express, which is Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy. People like Sonny Kiss. Kip Sabian. Obviously, my best friend in the whole world too, Maxwell Jacob Friedman. I just want to stick to our word, that we gave fans back at the beginning."
AEW Dynamite premieres on TNT on Wednesday, October 2nd.
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.