Cody Says There Is No Heat On Gallows and Anderson In AEW

Earlier this month, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson spoke about heat they had with AEW for negotiating with the company in 2019 only to sign with WWE. They later clarified that their relationship with the Young Bucks is okay and even appeared on Being the Elite. In an interview with ESPN, Cody said that there is no heat on the tag team from AEW, stating that ‘business is business.’ Here are highlights:

On possible plans for a third hour of Dynamite or a second AEW series: “I think probably in four to six weeks I’ll have a firmer answer on that. That’s still very much the case. The format of that show might be different. It might rely on the production we have in place already, it might not. I know we’ve got all kinds of different plans converging on what we want. The goal of what the third hour would be is to showcase a different crop of talent from AEW. It’s very hard when you have this much talent and you only have a single weekly show. It’s hard to keep people in the mix. As a wrestler, it’s even hard to train for. The only way to train for wrestling is still wrestling. It’s been an adjustment, even without the pandemic.”

On dream opponents for the TNT open challenge: “It depends on the type of dream you’re having. To be fair to your line of questioning, I’ll give you two answers. One is from our world. I’m surprised MJF hasn’t knocked on the open challenge door. I’m surprised we haven’t revisited that. That’s one that I’m legit chomping on the bit, as a performer and competitor, to do again. And then off the top of my head, someone from outside our world, there’s maybe two guys that I hear a lot about. One is my good friend Ethan Page [of Impact Wrestling]. I’ve kind of watched his glow-up continue. … He maybe doesn’t have the God-given talent, but just absolutely will outwork you and will continue to grow up, glow up and mature, which is the key if you’re going to make wrestling your life’s work. Another guy is [current NWA champion] Nick Aldis. That guy and I, we couldn’t be any farther from friends, but there’s this natural bit of respect between us because we did do the two NWA matches and they did have a really warm following. The match at All In, that was one of my favorite moments of my life as a wrestler. And we never finished this. We were 1-1. Now that you ask me this, you’ve opened up a can of worms. I also have split wins with Kenny Omega. That’s somebody, too, I could see that stepping up for the open challenge.”

On the possibility of Henry Cejudo in AEW: “I like Henry a lot, only because he’s seen what our family looks like backstage and behind the camera. He’s somebody who is very intriguing. If he had any interest in it, I think this is a company I feel very confident we would know what to do. Pro wrestling is vastly different from combat sports and mixed martial arts and UFC. But there are some people who can blend the lines a little bit. There are people here with combat sports experience and have that under their belts. They can find that really hard element where it works as a pro wrestler. I’d love to see Henry in the ring. I really would. I’d love to tag with Henry. I think he’s great. He’s a former Olympic gold medalist. It’s very important to me that we have a real sports broadcast. I know there are a lot of very meta and very silly things on our show as well. That’s part of the buffet. But when I’m going out there and stiffing each other to high heaven and beating the hell out of each other, I like the sports side of it. I want to strengthen that as much as we can as a company.”

On if AEW is interested in any free agents: “I think there are two free agents that are on a lot of people’s radar, that being Miro — formerly Rusev — and Matt Cardona, who was Zack Ryder. Obviously, those free agents should be on any radar. They have literally drawn money. They have TV experience. They have high-profile experience. They have locker room experience. The pros heavily outweigh the cons. Those are two great free agents. I’m not going to go as far to say that if I had to sign anybody, those would be the two that I would sign. But I think they’re great free agents. I think if they have the passion for pro wrestling, they’re going to continue to succeed. Here’s the trick. We only have a two-hour show. And a lot of our roster hasn’t even been fully realized or seen yet. I want to make sure we honor individuals like that. If you bring in a hot free agent, that means someone is going to lose a spot. That’s just the reality of it. In my capitalistic, cold nature that I have, I actually don’t mind that, because that makes everybody else step their game up. But you do want to do it fairly and responsibly. The best wrestlers, no matter where they came from, you’re going to want on your show.”

On if there’s any heat on Gallows and Anderson: “There’s no heat at all. Business is business. I think Karl Anderson, just to see his glow up and him get ripped [was great]. And to look back at what he was able to do in New Japan, that guy is a superb talent. Gallows, everyone loves Gallows. He takes the award for the most carny wrestler in the history of wrestling. He is the king carny. He came to my house prior to their re-signing with WWE. There were some discussions. We both lived in Georgia. He actually told me a number he was offered, got drunk and then — not realizing it — only an hour later told me a different number that was of course higher. I love him. You can’t not love somebody who is that carny and that goofy. There’s no heat with Gallows and Anderson at all. I’m curious where their path takes them next. But gosh, how could you have heat with a guy who told you one price and then an hour later, after some Crown Royal, jumped his price up by a significant dollar amount? That’s just funny, that’s just beautiful. When you have a wrestler like me who takes it so seriously, I like having folks like that around to help balance me out.”