During an interview with Wrestlezone, Cody Rhodes revealed that AEW’s ranking system will debut on the Friday prior to Full Gear. Here are the highlights:
On When The AEW Rankings System Will Debut:
On the Friday before Full Gear, I think we’re going to put our first-ever ‘Top Fives’ and [that] should become a weekly thing. This isn’t just broadcast this is also social, just like with college football and the AP Poll, you get your Top 20. Sometimes a guy who is 5-0 is not ranked in the top three because the quality of wins, the softness of the schedule and it’s fun because in college football people argue over—especially when we get near the playoffs—people ‘should, should they not’ [get in]. PAC right now has these great wins over Hangman Page and Kenny Omega, he’s essentially Ohio State for us at this point. There’s gotta be a title shot in his future, and there is if he keeps winning and keeps going, but I believe before Full Gear we’ll have our Top Five for women, for tags and for singles and now that we have more and more every week it helps us so much from data.
I’ve expanded—to be fair, Kevin Sullivan’s expanded the lower thirds on talent so you can see their records. We want their records to be more present because Jim Ross is talking about them, Tony Schiavone is talking about them.
Once we get a few more wins, a few more losses, a few more draws, whatever they may be, it really helps create that tapestry for us which is something we promised and it wasn’t just a campaign promise. Sports-centric, the guys winning the matches are the guys getting the title matches.
On His Bond With Taz:
Me and him talk cigars. And I think he was waiting to talk about something other than cigars and he let me know. You know he’s talked to everybody and he’s a valuable person out there, he’s great at commentary. He’s a great mind in general what he can potentially offer, we just have to make sure that that vision is congruent with the vision we have for wrestling and when I say we I mean me, Matt, Nick and Kenny. That being the case, because I have a real old school wrestling thought for sure, but my crew does not. We like to have a buffet of wrestling, if that makes any sense. I think Taz could be a great addition, I’m excited to see not how he does—I know he’s going to do great—but I’m just excited to see him tomorrow in Philly because I like legends done right. I think that’s doing a legend right. He gets to be out there, but he gets to commentate on tier one, fresh faces that perhaps he’s not seen before and that’s the rub.
On The AEW Broadcast Team:
Modern fans who are critical of Jim Ross love Excalibur, and then old school fans who love Jim Ross are critical of Excalibur. That’s why they’re together. That’s why. Excalibur gives the rub of the west coast and the new generation and the hyper-indy culture of wrestling. And Jim gives the biggest rub of all of having been everything in this industry and entering a new phase in his career as the greatest announcer of all time, so I like to make that balance and that buffet.
You can listen to the interview below:
Credit: Wrestlezone.
