Ric Flair desperately begged for a job in AEW in a new tweet, saying if AEW hire him, he will increase ratings, after Dynamite drew under 900,000 viewers last night.
In The History Of The Wrestling Business, One Thing Is Certain: When You Need A Rating, You Call The Naitch! It’s Been 50 Years Of Getting Ratings, And Apparently I’m Needed Again At Almost 73. #RatingsKing pic.twitter.com/l3UBjRFMDr
— Ric Flair® (@RicFlairNatrBoy) February 18, 2022
The former AEW EVP Cody Rhodes and former Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes recently left the company for a painful reason. It has been speculated that WWE could be their next destination and could even work WrestleMania 38. It seems that the major signings of CM Punk and Bryan Danielson affected Cody’s spot in the company. Cody had expressed his desire to be AEW’s highest-paid star and that might have contributed to his wife Brandi’s split from the company as per the reports of Wade Keller.
Cody Rhodes reportedly wanted to be top-paid star in AEW
Speaking on a PWTorch VIP audio show, Keller stated that while Rhodes started life as one of AEW’s top-tier guys, the likes of CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Adam Cole arriving at AEW had changed the scenario. He was no longer a “top-paid guy” in AEW, pushing him down the totem pole.
When he learned Rhodes wanted to be of that payroll status, AEW president Tony Khan decided that, in the current landscape, this wouldn’t be a worthwhile business move. This was one of several things that factored into Cody and AEW’s inability to come to terms on a new contract following his previous deal’s expiration in December last year. The signings of top stars to the promotion made Tony change his focus on those stars and the fans had also turned against him which also affected his presence in the company
Keller said:
It did give Tony a sense of ‘I have enough top guys and then young guys on the rise’ that it took some leverage away from Cody, in terms of ‘you need me to pay me’ and there’s only so much salary-cap room that Tony has to spread around. And he had the good fortune to have Punk and Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole become available to him, but they were expensive. The top guys in WCW had the clause in their contract that if anyone got paid more than them, their contracts would go up to match it. And they knew politically that if you’re not the top paid person, you by definition lose leverage with the boss, with the network, with your co-workers, your peers. And Cody was no longer a top-paid guy. And my understanding is he wanted to be and to a degree that just wasn’t seen by Tony as what he was worth to him in the current landscape. But it’s complicated and there’s not a single factor that plays into this because Cody might have been worth it if he weren’t getting booed and he wasn’t the subject of ridicule online and in buildings and frankly, behind the scenes in various ways.”
We will see what is next for Cody in the coming days.
