AEW: Kenny Omega on Cody Rhodes’ AEW Impact, Tony Khan on Interest in Jay White & Kota Ibushi, Dark Results

Feb 21, 2023

Kenny Omega Comments on Cody Rhodes’ Contributions to AEW & Early AEW Criticisms of “Too Many Cooks”

A recent episode of the Swerve City Podcast featured Kenny Omega as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Omega’s thoughts on Cody Rhodes’ contributions to AEW during his time in the company as one of its Executive Vice Presidents.

“There’s only three (EVPs in AEW now) and I won’t say the fourth EVP. We can’t mention his name. I’m just kidding, it’s Cody (Rhodes)… I’ll assume that this is just from knowledge of being in the business all his life. He was born into the business and he understood a lot from his father. He knew what we needed, he knew what we needed to line up and the things that I couldn’t get so it’s like, okay, I’ve got good contacts for any unsigned Japanese talents that you guys need. I can be that guy and The Bucks would be like, ‘Okay. We know some great guys from SoCal, we know some great indie guys that we can get’ and Cody’s like, ‘Okay, cool. Well how about this guy, this guy, this guy.’ We would have the list of talent or whatever and we would put them together but then Cody’s like, ‘Okay, what are we gonna do about medical staffing?’ And it’s like, oh, that’s right! We need that too. We should have doctors so he’s like, ‘Okay, I’ve got a contact for Doc. Sampson’ and I was like, ‘Okay. That’s probably not gonna be enough’ so I had a dude down here, you know, Bryce (Ready). So Bryce, and I thought, ‘Hey man, I know that you’ve taken care of some of our guys and you really love wrestling and the business. Would you maybe be able to take a full-time opportunity doing that?’ So we were able to get trainers through that and it’s like, okay, what else do we need? Oh boy, we need producers for TV. We need guys that actually have experience doing wrestling production on TV so again, that was a Cody thing where, ‘Okay, yep. I can get in touch with this guy, this guy, this guy’ and then The Bucks maybe knew a guy and I would know a guy but it was like, at the beginning, just to build that small little bit of infrastructure which we didn’t have, when you start checking names off the box. Like, okay, we got this, this, this, this, this. It’s like, you think you’re there but you’re not because we were so understaffed in the beginning and even to this day, I could probably, confidently, hell, we could use an extra trainer or two, you know what I mean? The tables are always busy. But we could use an extra trainer or two. We could have a couple other gophers or whatever in case that we’re running low on certain materials and things.”

Omega also gave his thoughts about the early criticisms of AEW having “too many cooks in the kitchen” in regards to AEW’s creative team at the time.

“Year one of our company, a lot of people would say maybe there’s too many cooks in the kitchen where we had Tony’s ideas for stories, we have The Bucks, we would have mine and then we’d have Cody’s ideas and if I had to work with Cody (Rhodes) on a story, the way that we’d go about it might be completely different and it might not work. But I think it’s because we had that; we had that variety that it brought interest to the company. I think too much of the same-same is only gonna get the same-same amount of people showing up, you know what I mean? You need to have that variety, so I think it’s very important.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

Tony Khan Comments on AEW’s Interests in Jay White & Kota Ibushi & Relationship with NJPW

A recent episode of the In The Kliq podcast featured AEW CEO Tony Khan as the guest.

One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts on Jay White’s future in New Japan Pro Wrestling and his interest in signing him to a potential deal with AEW. This interview was held prior to White losing his “Loser Leaves NJPW” match against Eddie Kingston at this past Saturday’s NJPW Battle in the Valley 2023 event.

“Well, Jay White’s still a big part of the New Japan roster. We’ll have to see what happens with him in the future. He’s one of the great wrestlers. We’ve definitely loved having him compete in AEW wrestling against top stars here. He was a big part of Forbidden Door last year and certainly we’d love to have him here working with us or fighting against us. Right now he’s a big part in the New Japan roster. So, I’m focused on that.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about his interest in signing Kota Ibushi to a contract with AEW.

“Well, Kota Ibushi, another great wrestler. We never worked with Kota Ibushi in AEW, but I would love to have Kota Ibushi here. KotaI bushi’s wrestled in Ring of Honor in the past, and has a great history of wrestling in Japan and in America, and is a top free agent That’s somebody we’d love to have here if the deal was right and the timing was right.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about the status of AEW’s current working relationship with NJPW.

“We have a great partnership with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, they’re doing more events in America and we’re working closely with them as good partners. Of course, we always build up this big event. AEW and New Japan coming together, Forbidden Door. I think Forbidden Door was such a big success. We’re looking forward to doing it together again. They send a lot of their top stars to AEW and Ring of Honor and I love working with them. I think it’s been a great relationship and there’s a lot of trust between the parties.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

AEW Dark Results – Feb. 21, 2023

February 21, 2023
Orlando, FL – Universal Studios
Commentary: Excalibur and Taz

AEW Dark Quick Match Results:

Matt Sydal defeated Slim J via Lighting Spiral (pinfall)
Julia Hart defeated Devlyn Macabre via Heartless Lock (submission)
The Workhorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake) defeated Oliver Sawyer & Jay Malachi via Enziguri & Flatliner combo (pinfall)
The Renegades (Charlette & Robyn Renegade) defeated Lizzy & Payton Blair via Assisted Spinebuster (pinfall)
Preston Vance defeated Blanco Loco via Discus Lariat (pinfall)
Tony Deppen defeated Caleb Konley via Running Forearm Strike (pinfall)
Iron Savages (Boulder & Bronson) defeated Chris Sandson & Terry Kid via Top Rope Splash (pinfall)
Jora Johl & Rohit Raju defeated Dale Springs & Bryce Cannon via Pump Kick (pinfall)
Emi Sakura defeated Billie Starkz via Moonsault Press (pinfall)
Brady Booker defeated Dak Drapper via Torture Rack (submission)
The Wingmen (Peter Avalon, Ryan Nemeth, & Cezar Bononi) defeated Jay Marte, Jarett Diaz, & Rich Adonis via Top Rope Splash (pinfall)
Jeff Jarrett & Satnam Singh defeated The Boys (Brandon & Brent) via Chokeslam (pinfall)
Trent Beretta defeated Tony Nese via Crunchie (pinfall)