Brandi Rhodes Discusses Possibly Getting Into the Ring in AEW, Lessons She’s Learned to Become AEW Chief Brand Officer

– The Mirror recently interviewed AEW Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes, who talked about plans for the upcoming new wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Below are some highlights.

Brandi Rhodes on AEW increasing size of venues to meet demand for tickets: “Oh definitely. That was the kind of conversation we all had immediately and I know Matt Jackson put out a tweet saying ‘hey, maybe we should look at bigger venues’ but that was lighthearted and serious at the same time. We definitely notice the demand being larger than the supply, which is a great problem to have. At the same time, we want to service our fans as best as we can. So we’re starting to look at, a little bit larger venues for future events, for sure.”

Brandi Rhodes on how they plan to handle racist or homophobic fans and if they’d remove them: “I think most fans are familiar – and sorry if they’re not – with Atlas security, who are our security. If not, I suggest they watch some ECW and familiarize themselves with Atlas Security! They’re the best of the best and nothing gets by those guys. So if they were to hear or see something that’s out of control or not along with what we want to be the best fan experience, I fully trust those guys to take care of the situation. They have no problems removing people.”

“In wrestling, it’s funny, I spent so much time at ringside, for much of my career as an announcer and it’s not often that those things happen but when they do, you’d be surprised at how quickly most people will act on it. I was the ring announcer and if I heard one thing, I’d grab security and say hey, that guys out of here, he’s got to go, that’s it. And they would take my word for it most of the time. At least they’d give people the chance to sit down and be quiet and behave, and if not, you’re out. So a lot of times that falls on a case-by-case basis. But most of the time when people come to events, they don’t want to get thrown out! They want to have a good time, so for the most part in my career, I haven’t noticed a lot of it but whenever I have, it’s pretty quick that me or other fans would notice and once it’s been brought to the attention of security, that’s their job and they act on it.”

Brandi Rhodes on the most important lessons to her in becoming an executive for AEW: “Honestly, there’s so much collectively that I’ve learned over the years from the different hats I’ve worn and roles I’ve had, in all areas of entertainment. It’s funny that you bring up figure skating because that has been the most impactful portion of my life. A lot of people don’t know but I skated for 17 years, I was highly competitive. It was my life. The most important thing that I learned there was that I had to be in control of my future.”

“I think a lot of people don’t know this about me but when I was first starting in figure skating, I was if not the only, then most of the time one of the only black people in the competition, in the shows. It was not always easy. There were many times when I would compete and I would be the best and I would place absolutely dead last. People would notice it, and feel terrible. I remember friends of mine, mothers and sisters and brothers, just being disgusted by how these things would happen.”

“You know, I remember my mum and dad always telling me: ‘Hey! You want to do this, you have to be the best at this. There has to be no room for error. You can’t make a single mistake. These other people can but you cannot.’ And I remember thinking ‘that’s the most unfair thing in the world’ but I loved it so much that I wanted to do it. So I continued on, and I would train harder than anybody else and I would practice harder and I finally, kind of in the last five years of it, I was the best at it. Because they knew they couldn’t just put me last and these people weren’t going to stand for it, it had to turn fair.”

“I think you get some of that in wrestling, maybe not for those reasons but others. People have their favorites and things they expect and want and when a new person or company comes along they’ll fight it, but we have to do the best at what we do. We can’t let outside interference play into that at all. We have to be focused on what our goal is. We know who our fans are and what we do best, so we’re going to stay focused in those areas and continue on. We love this, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Brandi Rhodes on her in-ring plans for AEW: “Well, people joke that women can multi-task, we can function on many levels and many channels. That’s very true of me. I’m best when I’m very busy and have a lot to do. So I don’t think there’ll be any problem at all for me doing both, wrestling and my work as CBO. As far as when and who, I think it’s best to let those things organically happen. Obviously, all the women we have I really believe in and most of them, I’ve not had any experience with in the ring. So, of course, I welcome any chance to work with those ladies but for now, we’ll just wait and see how it all pans out.”

Brandi Rhodes on plans to highlight women’s wrestling: “There are of course plans, and things we want to look at and to do. I think a lot of the time if you focus on things as a gender, you’re going to make mistakes and you’re going to miss some things because you’re not going to allow things to organically be. I think all these women are so talented and have so much to offer, I don’t want to just put my expectations and ideas on top of them. I kind of want to let them do what they do, which is wrestle, and see where that takes us. I don’t want to have in mind this large scale plan, because maybe that plan won’t fit what’s going on with them. Maybe it’s just best to let them be on it and put their art out there.”