Arn Anderson: Coaching Cody Rhodes Is ‘A Very Real Thing’ And A Promise Kept To Dusty
When Arn Anderson comes out with Cody Rhodes on AEW Dynamite, you best believe that the “Waffle House menu” play sheet has years of sage advice for “The American Nightmare.”
Arn joined WrestleZone’s Dominic DeAngelo for an interview recently, and “The Enforcer” spoke to being a coach for Cody Rhodes in AEW. As he’s shown on Dynamite, he isn’t afraid to express his distaste for Rhodes taking his eye off the ball from time to time.
“Well it’s a very real thing sometimes with Cody,” Arn said to wearing the whistle. “With all of the experience he has and is polished and is smart and the wrestling IQ that he has now, and the business IQ that he has, he gets caught up in the excitement of the match a lot of times and will do something that is not necessarily good for the way he’s perceived, but the way the match goes soon after that. I’ve never been someone who thought when you had a guy down you should take your foot off the pedal. Cody will sometimes take his foot off the pedal to do three ridiculous push-ups. I can’t even do three push-ups still so that doesn’t impress me and it’s a pause that I have to call him on because a long, long time ago when he first started with WWE, I was talking to Dusty and I made him a promise. ‘I’ll keep an eye on Dustin,’ who—Dustin was fine, he was already a veteran. I said, ‘But I’ll keep an eye on Cody and I’ll make sure that I’ll look after him and I will guide him when I can,’ and I have kept that promise. I think he still needs it. I think it’s comforting to Cody to sometimes be able to take him out of the gameplan and get a different idea that he likes and goes, ‘Yeah, if this comes up, we’ll try that.’
Arn and Cody both know that there’s always room to learn in that 20 x 20 squared circle. The valuable knowledge that he’s accrued over his four decades in wrestling is nothing to sneeze at.
“We all need help in this business. If you ever think that you stopped learning because you ‘got it’ you know it all, you better go take your boots, throw ’em in a fireplace and set them on fire because you’re done. You never quit learning in this business and that’s for sure and I think he takes, not all, but some of my suggestions and he’s always been very respectful as we come back to the curtain for chewing his backside out ever occasionally, but I didn’t sign on to be a ‘yes’ man, I didn’t sign on to be a promoter of Cody Rhodes, I signed on to help the product, and help them grow and help Cody where I could and just give a presence,” Anderson said. “I’ve been around a long time. At 38 years you run through different phases of the industry. I’ve been around for all of it and I can offer an insight that very few people can. Not blowing smoke, just been there, seen that, done that and I can lend that to Cody and the company itself.”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
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