Teil Rhodes Claims AEW ‘Doesn’t Happen’ Without Cody Rhodes Leaving WWE on His Own

– Teil Rhodes, the daughter of late WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes and sister to Cody and Dustin, appeared on Busted Open Radio this week to talk about Rhodes to the Top, AEW, her brother Cody, and more. According to Teil, she considers Cody Rhodes leaving WWE as a the major reason AEW came into existence. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

Teil Rhodes on how AEW wouldn’t have happened without Cody Rhodes: “Absolutely. People can have their own opinions, but AEW doesn’t happen if Cody didn’t leave on his own accord, make his little list, and throw himself into the fire. There are a lot of other pieces that had to come together too, and obviously Tony Khan being the kingpin of all that momentum that these guys had built together and separate. But none of this happens without Cody leaving. I cried when he told me he was done done. We had talked about it a lot. I sat in the car and I cried because I thought ‘he wanted to be a world champion. That was always his goal and it’s over.’”

Teil Rhodes on ROH not really wanting to go to the next level: “They had the capital and Cody really talked fondly about that period because they gave them all a lot of creative freedom that had been missing, but they were just kind of, I mean, I don’t know. My guess is they were kind of happy with where they were at in like that niche in the business, and they weren’t looking to elevate to that next level competition wise. But yeah, that was a surprise that they didn’t want to just take all those guys.”