Arn Anderson spoke on an AdFreeShows.com exclusive episode of Ask Arn Anything about his current status with AEW given the news that Cody Rhodes has left the company. Cody Rhodes made his WWE return in an unannounced match against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 38 Saturday. Arn Anderson revealed what he and his son Brock do on a weekly basis with AEW and why Cody’s departure has left them in limbo.
“I’m at AEW TV every week, as is Brock,” Anderson said. “We’re kind of in limbo as you could imagine but we’re there. Brock has had some matches on [AEW] Dark, hope everybody is finding those and supporting him in that venture. It really is the best way and only way to get some reps in and it be televised, it’s just a different vehicle you have to go to to get it, being on YouTube.”
Cody leaving AEW for WWE makes him the first top All Elite wrestler to leave the company for WWE since the inception of the brand three years ago. As of late, AEW has started to add more and more former WWE talent, leaving many including Chris Jericho and AEW commentator Jim Ross to comment on those criticisms.
Arn Anderson gave his take on whether or not AEW has a problem right now with too much talent and revealed what he believes is the key issue with AEW’s talent roster right now. Arn also spoke about Tony Khan being different from Vince McMahon in that if he sees an issue with what he’s doing and the fans tell him, he’ll listen.
“I agree 100%, my son being one of those,” Anderson said. “You remember his debut match was being partnered with Cody, they had a really really good match with QT [Marshall] and one of the other kids. But it’s been so far back, nobody remembers it, he had his three or four weeks. To his defense, because people get sick of me singing Tony Khan’s praises but his intention is, now that he’s assembled quite a hell of a talent roster, to try to get everybody exposed. If you get one week or two weeks and then they move on, I get exactly what you’re saying. In order to get a person over, you’ve got to have about eight or 10 or 12 straight weeks of good TV, now I am invested in this guy.
“Tony knows what he wants out of the shows, we supported him 100%. I do agree that talent doesn’t get exposed. Dante Martin is a very special kid, he’s got springs like nobody else in the business. Here just a short time back he had two or three or four short good weeks and now they disappear down to Dark. It’s a dilemma that we have, we will figure it out but now you’re bringing in Daniel Bryan, you’re bringing in CM Punk. No matter what you’ve done prior to that, that’s going to push everybody down a notch because those guys cost a heap of money to employ and when you bring them in, they’re going to take precedence over anything else they have going on.
“That’s the dilemma that we have, we will figure it out because Tony’s intentions are to listen to what you say and give you what you want. The other guy [Vince McMahon], which I have 19 years of experience with, says ‘here’s what we’re going to give you folks, either swallow it or spit it out. I don’t give a s–t.’ Tony listens to his audience and he wants to give you as his fans whatever it is. So hey, be vocal about that. He listens to Twitter, he reads Twitter and he gives feedback.”