Cody Reveals Eric Bischoff’s Advice to Him, Says AEW Is Looking For Unseen Talent

– Cody appeared on Jim Ross’ podcast and discussed AEW Double or Nothing, the company’s search for new talent and more. Highlights are below, per Wrestling Inc:

On the show taking place in the MGM Grand Garden Arena: “Right now, I have the building, MGM Grand Garden Arena, me, Matt [Jackson] and Nick [Jackson], scaled for 11,600 people and that’s with… folks might know that there are some seats that make become available because if we thought we had a camera there and we kill that camera there, that might open up a few hundred seats. So I can strongly estimate that we’re aiming to hit that 11,600. We want to be honest about our tickets from day one because it’s really easy for people in this day and age just to look it up or talk to the fire Marshall. You can’t really say, ‘we’ve got 100,000 people in the building’ anymore unless you have. Yeah, 11,600 is the number. It’s funny, we were kicking ourselves over calling it Double Or Nothing when we couldn’t find a building with 20,000 to compete with the [10,000 at ALL IN].”

On the history of the building: “This building, it [has] got [pro] wrestling history. I’ve gone to WCW pay-per-views here. Matt and Nick have as well. I’m real excited about bringing our fans. We’ve got so many travellers who come to these events with us and The Elite, from cons to these pop in shows we do. And I’m excited for some of them to see Vegas for the first time because Vegas is a damn good time.”

On looking for new talent in AEW: “We’re looking for fresh more than kind of the equity-garnered individual who has perhaps popped up on various television shows already. We’re looking for someone who hasn’t been seen. That’s kind of the directive. Of course, there are folks like a Chris Jericho who is an absolute star’s star, a wrestling frickin’ rock star, and he has done it all and seen it all. But I want to have that juxtaposition of somebody on that level and somebody that our audience is seeing for the first time ever.”

On Eric Bischoff’s advice to him: “It’s the buffet and that’s something I want to create again. That was something that Eric Bischoff told me before ALL IN, and, man, it made my day because I knew we were taking some risks with that show doing some traditional stuff, doing outlandish stuff, and he said, ‘make it a buffet’ and I really liked that because if we’re asking people to travel, if we’re asking people to part with their money, I want to make sure they got what they thought and more.”