During an interview with Wrestlezone, Cody Rhodes discussed why AEW’s philosophy is going to focus on the current stars rather than surprises from the past. Here are the highlights:

On The Focus Needing To Be On The Current Roster:

You can only do that for so long, and to the effect that you can do it. Sometimes it’s a big effect, and other times it was a little ripple cameo, if that makes sense. I don’t ever want to—I really want to put an emphasis on the roster we have. We would be doing them a disservice. The biggest surprise we could possibly do in the business, [people saying] ‘Oh, he’s with them, she’s with them’—I still need to put a focus on Private Party, Jungle Boy Jack Perry, Kip Sabian, people of that nature. I have felt, and this isn’t talking poorly about WWE, but I felt like my generation of guys who came from that OVW 2007-ish period, we were never able to have those characters and dedicated character spotlights.

It takes time, and my Dad would tell you, it takes a year for anyone to even get remotely over. He would always talk about these project guys he had. I know that people love a surprise, but I also know that our product is something that people want to see, that sports-centric wrestling, so we don’t always need to count on a surprise.

On His Favorite Match Of His Career:

My best match, or people ask me my favorite match, it happened [at the Wells Fargo Center] in Philly. It was Money In The Bank, all bad guys, the ‘Losers Club’ Money In The Bank starting the night, not ending. The story of the match was about me losing and Damien Sandow winning. But they chose me because they thought the crowd would organically get behind it. It was a whole group of guys working together, and a risky call because had they not gotten behind it, we would have had a very flat situation. But man, Philly, we had lightning in a bottle. I show that match, when you get selfish and egotistical and you’re like ‘hey’ and watch it—it’s my favorite match. It’s not the loudest a crowd ever was for me, it’s not the most they bit on something, it just was totally organic. That’s the most beautiful thing in wrestling, when it’s real. And that was such a real, special moment.

You can listen to the interview below:

Credit: Wrestlezone.