On why Tony wasn’t willing to pay big money to Cody:
“Cody wanted to be a superstar, and AEW signing big money contracts, especially with Bryan Danielson and CM Punk, changed the dynamic to a degree with Cody. And I’m not saying this wouldn’t have happened if that didn’t happen. But Cody knew and Tony knew that Cody became expendable.
You know, he went from a clear essential top tier guy, top four talent in the company. And you know, Cody was fine obviously with Moxley being signed, and with Jericho being signed.
Jericho was a huge boon to the AEW brand at the beginning. And Moxley was a great acquisition and disgruntled with WWE and not really a threat to Cody, because he was just so different than Cody, even if they’re not too far off in age.
But Danielson and Punk and then Adam Cole to a lesser extent, changed things certainly more than Malakai Black or Miro or Christian changed things. And 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 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.
Cody has always had some issues. There’s been wrestlers who have had issues with Cody even early on. But over time, Cody pulled himself more away. Like he got a really expensive bus and was driving that only to like the Florida shows, in part done for the reality show and stuff.
I mean there’s more than two sides, really to everything. But it was perceived as ‘well he got this bus and it’s really expensive and its this giant gas guzzling unnecessary luxury is sending a different message than what the company founded by wrestlers for the wrestlers were supposed to send.’ And it was like, ‘Oh boy, here he goes.’”
On Cody wanting to have a more meaningful role backstage:
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