For those who don’t know, former WWE Superstar and current ROH World Champion Cody Rhodes is trying to draw 10,000 people to a self-financed wrestling show in 2018. Below is what Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer had to say about this:
“We talked about this months ago, but I guess it’s coming closer to the fruition. This is not a done deal. They still have to get Ring of Honor’s approval and everything. They want to try and draw 10,000 people to the show.
So whoever the guy is on Twitter who asked… almost everyone that you know…..they asked me this question – “Do you think Ring of Honor can draw 10,000 people to a show?” and I said, “No. You are the reason. So if this thing doesn’t work then you can blame it on yourself and if this thing does work…you should take the credit.”
And I know who it was, some guy on Twitter. And Cody Rhodes saw it and just took it as challenge which was very impressive and then Matt and Nick took his challenge and they’re looking at different arenas legitimately. They’re looking at promoting the show in a major arena.
There hasn’t been a crowd of 10,000 for a pro wrestling show in the United States that I can recall that wasn’t a WWE show, obviously WWE being exception and NXT also, I would guess, in probably what…17 years. I can’t even remember the last one.
I mean WCW did them obviously all the time until probably last year. ECW never came close in its entire history. I think that they topped out at around 6. TNA I think topped out around 7. Ring of Honor’s never broken 3,500.
So it’s a big undertaking. At the same time if you look at it, there’s two matches that you could go with obviously, Cody against Bryan or Daniel/Cody against Kenny Omega.
First time matches that would probably do real well. I don’t know if they’ll draw 10,000 people. Danielson, I could see it having a chance.
The one thing about this is that for all the the talk and everything like that, by saying “to win the bet”, to win the bet they’ve got to draw 10,000 people, right? But to make the show work you don’t have to draw anywhere close to 10,000 people and you can make money on the show which is really the thing.
Let’s just say that they run the Cow Palace. The Cow Palace has been run twice this year. The first show did between 2,500 and 3,000 people and it was a successful show. They made money. The second show did about 2,000 and they did lose money on it, but if it wasn’t for the show going over time they would have made a little bit of money.
So you can go in there and make money and God knows if they did a show and it’s those guys doing a show with Omega and some of the New Japan guys or whatever.
Let’s just say they would draw 4,000 people. They would make so much money and merchandise. It’s a money-making show even if it doesn’t draw the 10,000. So who knows what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen and all that, but it’s certainly a great goal to have.
And it’s a done deal like I said. Ring of Honor still has to okay things. There’s just a lot of things that still have to happen, but it’s enough that they’re talking about it publicly that they’re gonna do it.
I think that they’re looking at trying to make an announcement relatively soon if they pull it off. So that’s the deal. But like I said, if they went in there and let’s just say they drew 4,500 people to a show, I’ll bet you besides the ticket money they’re gonna do $20 a head in merch because that fanbase is a heavy merch fanbase.”
During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Cody Rhodes said that he wants to headline the event against retired WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan.
Below is what Cody said:
“Me vs. Daniel Bryan for the Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Championship. If I could have everything, that’s what I would do.”
