Cody Rhodes recently talked to the New York Post about All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s working relationship, what can happen in the future, and how the AEW Bash At The Beach event came into reality.
“I think the thing that was strange to me was people were asking for this partnership,” said Rhodes to the NY Post regarding a potential partnership between AEW and NJPW. “I don’t know what a partnership would look like other than what you saw. Chris Jericho was part of one of the main events of Wrestle Kingdom, Jon Moxley as well. They both were successful.
“The forbidden door. It may be forbidden, but clearly the door is opening and closing and opening and closing. It’s public knowledge that some guys here, myself included, have exemptions to work New Japan Pro-Wrestling. But I know that New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s focus is New Japan and AEW’s focus is AEW.
“So more likely what a partnership would look like is perhaps some sharing of talent, some shared creative, but we’re not going to do a Super Clash III where (Kerry) Von Erich and (Jerry) Lawler are fighting over the title (in 1988). Sorry, that’s a real specific angle I brought up. I’m always hesitant to combine banners versus just respecting each other’s banners. But I like how it’s referred to as the forbidden door. I don’t really think it’s forbidden at all.
“Like I said, many people have the exemption to work there. They put on a great Wrestle Kingdom. They have some amazing talent, particularly Will Ospreay. He’s a top-five wrestler in the world right now. So, we’ll see where that goes. I know everyone pretty much feels the same about it.”
As for Bash at the Beach, Rhodes revealed that he had trademarked some old wrestling IPs and wanted to tie-in an event to Jericho’s cruise. “We were looking at the two weeks where you have the cruise itself and the actual Miami show as kind of like a two-week special. That’s actually what it is, a two-week special, because they will be codependent on each other. We wanted to give it a theme and it ended up being “Bash at the Beach” because I had the IP and wanted to use it in a fun way and not do something that’s been done before, but do our own version of it.”
Tbere’s a lot of other information in the full interview, so be sure to check it out.
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