Diamond Dallas Page reflects on Cody Rhodes leaving AEW.
Recently, Cody Rhodes announced his departure from AEW, the promotion that he helped form. However, before Cody informed the world of his decision, Cody shared the news with Diamond Dallas Page. Cody is close with DDP. Page worked AEW Bash at the Beach and also walked Cody Rhodes to the ring for his match against Nick Aldis for the NWA World Championship at All In in 2018.
Speaking with Sean Ross Sapp, DDP shared what Cody Rhodes told him about leaving AEW and says that Cody definitely has a plan for the future even though he did not let him know what his plans for the future are.
"Cody called me two days before," Page revealed. "He said, ‘Listen, I’m gonna tell you something. But I can only tell you so much. But I know if I don’t call you and tell you, you’re gonna want to kill me. You’ll be so pissed off, so I have to call and tell you that I love Tony Khan. He’s a great guy. He loves me. But we’re gonna split up and I want to go off and do something else. I can’t tell you about what it is right now, but I promise at some point I will.’ I don’t want to know sometimes. You know what I mean? I want to be surprised. I gave him all of my viewpoints on everything. I don’t know if you’re doing this, I don’t know if you’re doing that, I don’t know if you’re doing this. But I gave him my viewpoints and then Cody’s a man. He’s very successful."
Diamond Dallas Page spoke about Cody Rhodes leaving WWE back in 2016 and compared it to when he made a decision to leave WCW decades earlier
"When he left the WWE, he knew they were never gonna give him the opportunity to be the guy or even the top five guys," Page said. "He was never gonna get that opportunity. So the only way that you prove them wrong is to leave. I had to leave WCW because I was a job guy and I tore my rotator cuff. I knew they were gonna let me go, but before they did I told Bill Watts, ‘I’m not even gonna ask you for any kind of a deal. I’m still injured. I’m gonna come back and I got Jake Roberts taking me under his wing and Dusty Rhodes is taking me under his wing. A year from now you’re gonna want me back.’ Bill wasn’t there by the time I got back, but Eric was in charge. But I saw Bill when he got inducted in the Hall of Fame. When he saw me, he came up, ‘DDP!’ He gave me a huge hug. ‘Man, you did exactly what you said you were gonna do. You were so smart to leave.’"
DDP continued, "Well, that’s what Cody did. I wasn’t leaving any money. Cody left—and I don’t know exactly—but I know someone in that spot in WWE at that time, they’re making about 400,000 / 500,000 a year. He walked away from that. His wife walked away from her deal. They went off to do something that changed the world. It changed the wrestling world. I was there for pretty much all of it because I loved what the Young Bucks were doing with their little goofy thing they were doing on YouTube. Wrestling fans loved it. I said, ‘I want to do something different for you. We’ve got this whole production company. Let us do stuff for you. It costs you nothing.’ Now if you ever get picked up, you ever get a real guy or someone comes in and it turns into a real company, someone’s paying and I’ll give them the brother-in-law price or nephew price.’"
Diamond Dallas Page also says he was surprised that Tony Khan even let Cody Rhodes leave the company, to begin with.
"But that’s how it went. We all know what happened. I gotta be honest, I’m still kinda blown away that Tony would have let it happen. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Tony, but whenever I text him, he’s not your average billionaire. He’s a great human being. I’ve never—‘cause I didn’t want to get involved in what was happening with Cody, it’s his own thing—but at some point when me and him talked, I was just like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe you let him go. Because you’re the two guys who really made it happen. Your money, your vision, your connections, and what he put on his back and carried for that year to get it to where it was that he wanted it,’" said Page.
Speaking about All In 2018, DDP revealed that Cody Rhodes was largely doing a lot of the legwork at the show while some of the other AEW EVPs were just having fun.
"All In was really when they do a pilot. That’s what it was like. I was there and Cody was running everything. The other EPs, they were having fun. They weren’t doing that. They had things to do and things to say as it became a company. But in the beginning, Cody was just having a lot of fun, ‘I’m getting to do what my dad did,’ and working in a big match. To me whatever he does, I wish him the best. I hope I helped him with some of my insights to help direct him. But he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do," Page concluded.
These days, Diamond Dallas Page is largely involved with Sportskeeda Wrestling and had a lot to say about the current state of wrestling during their 2021 Sportskeeda Wrestling Awards.
You can also catch Diamond Dallas Page on Guardians of Justice on Netflix.