AEW TNT Champion Cody Rhodes recently spoke with talkSPORT, were he spoke about CM Punk and his negotiations with AEW. Cody confirmed that Punk did ask for a lot of money, but feels that it really wasn’t about the money with Punk. He also mentions that AEW is willing to spend a lot of money on guys who have the passion for the business.
Check out the highlights below.
Cody Rhodes on CM Punk asking for a lot of money from AEW:
“As far as the CM Punk negotiations go, everyone heard the famous ‘he got a text from us’. Yeah, of course there were negotiations and he did ask for a great amount of money and Punk is worth a great deal of money. But you also have to – and this isn’t speaking to Punk specifically, this is speaking to recruitment and what we’ve learned in wrestling in general – a lot of people think ‘these wrestlers are running this wrestling company’. These wrestlers are doing everything they can to run the creative, the brand and the marketing and things, but there are some very smart and fiscally conservative people who surround us and flank us because this isn’t my money. At all.”
Cody Rhodes on negotiations with CM Punk never getting too serious:
“And I don’t want a situation that happened with WCW or Jim Crockett promotions where we think we’re flying so high that we can do anything. No – this is a business. And we have to turn a profit. The fact we were able to turn a profit as a company within only two years of being alive, very few other companies within wrestling – it’s real limited, you can count on one hand who’s been able to do that versus who has bled money – but in that situation the negotiations, I don’t think they ever got too serious.
Cody Rhodes on having a good relationship with CM Punk:
“Doesn’t mean they won’t one day, but they never got entirely too serious. I think there is a good relationship there. I think I have a good relationship with Phil, I believe Tony does too and I’m not sure really when it comes to him, it’s not so much about the money. It’s about are you interested in doing this?
Cody Rhodes on AEW willing to spend money on guys who have the passion:
“Because the price tag becomes a lot more justifiable if you’re genuinely interested in what we’re doing at the high speed we’re doing it. And again, that’s not even specific to him, just in general, if the passion is not there, the money is not there.”
