Nick Aldis Says The Greatest Acknowledgement of AEW Is Cody Rhodes Being Cody Rhodes

WWE SmackDown GM explained how Cody Rhodes being Cody Rhodes is the best acknowledgement of AEW. Last week on WWE SmackDown, AJ Styles AJ Styles mentioned Cody Rhodes’ history in ROH, NJPW, and “the place he started,” without directly naming AEW, ahead of their I Quit Match at Clash at the Castle.

Speaking on The Gorilla Position (per Fightful), SmackDown GM Nick Aldis talked about AEW not being mentioned. He stated on Cody Rhodes:

“I don’t know, and I’m certainly not involved in the conversations at that level. I don’t think it’s anything nefarious, I think it’s more of a thing of, ‘They made it clear they’re coming at WWE.’ I personally think the war thing is silly, it’s silly on their part. If you sort of liken it to geo-politics. If someone has declared war on you, it’s not like you’re going to throw their name around. They’ve certainly been hostile at times, and from the company’s point of view, ‘We don’t want to poke the bear’ necessarily. We’re not looking for that. At the same time, it’s interesting to be able to acknowledge that part of Cody’s history.”

“It’s unavoidable with Cody because when he came back, he was the American Nightmare. He wasn’t the same guy. To pretend he turned into this person in the middle of nowhere made no sense. In many ways, that’s the greatest acknowledgement of AEW, is Cody being Cody. He crafted that persona and presentation. The fact that it was a major part of a major company being born and a place for people to go to work, it’s a tremendous accomplishment and does no harm to WWE to acknowledge it.”