Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
It's a busy week for both TBS and Cody Rhodes. On Wednesday, AEW Dynamite migrates to its new network home within the WarnerMedia family. The next day, Go-Big Show will premiere it's second season with Rhodes returning to judge the over the top competition series that will see one performer rewarded $100,000 for their larger than life antics. Rhodes sat down with PWInsider.com earlier this week to discuss wrestling on TBS for the first time, fatherhood, returning to the Go-Big Show and more.
Mike Johnson: Hey Cody, I appreciate you sitting down, talking to us for a little bit about the show and obviously about AEW as well. You've gone through the first season, which we saw Tomas win last year. What can we expect from season two of the Go-Big Show in comparison to what we saw last year with the first season?
Cody Rhodes: Well, I think with that first season, there's this natural learning curve and the show now has developed an identity. It's got global penetration, so that was able... that allowed us to cast a wider net for talent, for contestants. And that really shows up in the dichotomy of acts, whether it's horse, who's getting kicked in the balls and miraculous, amazing, crazy ways, or it's James Carter doing tricks that have never been done before in the space, he's doing the motor-cross or JD Anderson, the Iceman. Really the variety of acts in this season is second to none when it comes to competition series, and I look forward to people kind of finding that out as we go.
Mike Johnson: Now as a professional wrestler, you live a pretty strange unique lifestyle in comparison to the average person, but when it comes to competitors on Go-Big Show, whether during the first season or the season that we're about to see what were some of the acts that kind of surprised you the most, even given the unique life experiences that you've lived through.
Cody Rhodes: I think the acts that both season one and season two, really kind of throw me, because perhaps I was not familiar with their world that much, is sideshow acts. Sideshow, covers a large area in terms of what they do, but there's an element of the grotesque, there's an element of magic, there's an element of pain. This season, there's a sideshow artist female that is genuinely car crash like in a sense that you can't turn away, but you really don't want to be watching either. It's got that level of kind of discomfort that makes for a great TV. So, the sideshow has always really thrown me. Another thing I really appreciate is an act with a twist. If you have an act that's a traditional act that you're putting in front of us, that may get you out of the preliminary rounds, that might be okay, but to move forward from the semifinals of the finals and the whole thing, you've got to give it a twist, "Oh, I'm going to do this, but I'm going to light myself on fire in the process. Or there's a timer, or there's a, I'm going to be locked in this pool." Whatever it might be, that level of danger and risk really is prominent this season. The safety team on the show is second to none, but man, it's the most dangerous show on television, and I dig that.
Mike Johnson: In the season finale last year, we saw you get pulled in a car by Andrew through his eye sockets and we saw you hanging from logs. Over the course of judging the show, has there been anything that's made say, "Hey, I'd like to experience that. Or I'd like to try that genre out." Obviously, as a professional wrestler and as someone who's acted, you've presented and performed as different personalities with different skills, but was there anything that made you say, "Man, I'd like to scratch that itch and maybe try that out."
Cody Rhodes: I know this will almost sound like Michael Scott magic camp, but I really have a strange outlook on magicians. If you're a magician you're already, I feel like points off in my book and I do think that comes from a place of jealousy. I think I want to be able to learn some magic. I've learned a lot about storytelling and crowd connection via wrestling. So, magic is just that next thing that perhaps I could dive into and have that, be something that I pull out, I don't know, at the AEW after party or somewhere like that. So that's something that appeals to me, if I had a shred of time, I would be learning some magic right now.
Mike Johnson: This Wednesday AEW Dynamite moves to TBS, it's going to debut on TBS the day before the second season of Go-Big Show. Thoughts on both of your series now being on the same network and potential synergy between the two?
Cody Rhodes: Well, I mean, you're lifelong person who studied, and reviewed, and looked into our business, so when I say the fact that I get to be on TBS two nights in a row, knowing from the lineage I have and where I come from, it doesn't sound like it's real. It doesn't, I don't know if I believe in destiny or fate, but I sure as hell I'm an example of perhaps why you should, because of all hard work aside, the fact that the super station, the mother ship that this is happening and that there is that synergy between Go-Big Show and AEW. We've had Rosario [Dawson] on, we've had T-Pain, Snoop in the first season, we've been able to cross those streams and kind of break those rules. I think that's a great season we're in.
Mike Johnson: You mentioned Rosario appearing last time AEW was at the Prudential Center in Newark. This Wednesday you're back there. Let's talk a little bit about that moment. How do you get a Jedi to be convinced to show up on AEW programming and what's that moment like? We heard coming out of it, that it was such a closely held secret that even people at WarnerMedia didn't really know it was going to happen until after it took place, so how does it come together?
Cody Rhodes: That was one of those Khan/Cody secrets, that was one of those that you tell too many people and they might get too involved. You've just got to let it happen. In true wrestler fashion, she hiked from the airport, basically got out there with only a few minutes of spare, and the next thing you know, she's jumping on the incredibly dangerous and large and dynamic Malakai Black's back. That's why I told her the next day, I said, "If there was ever somebody who fit the category of a wrestler, it's you, for just how you made the show and helped us out." I, think the judges, all of us have a respect for what we do, and whenever asked to do anything when it comes to Gin or T-Pain or Rosario or Bert I'm there for it. I've seen now with having asked them to come be part of my world, they've been there for me. And I don't know if you find that on other shows, that type of genuine chemistry between everybody. But again, that's one of the things I like, we do have real synergy between the two series, and to get the Jedi, I mean, to get Ahsoka Tano on-screen in a Nightmare Family jacket, one that she had had since the first season in Go-Big Show. She might be the best member of the Nightmare Family that we're not talking about. She might be the best, very lucky.
Mike Johnson: T-Pain is joining the judges this season. How does he change the makeup of the show and how judging goes on Go-Big Show?
Cody Rhodes: Well, he found out right away, that it's the most dangerous show on television and how he found out is he decided to jump into as many acts as he could. I think he's part of more acts than any of us in terms of the other judges are Bert as well. His fun...some people have gotten an early screening of the first episode, the fun he has, it just permeates through the television. At this point, T-Pain could have just sat back and scored on the power tower and called it day, such a large mogul and presence and entertainment icon, but he did not do that, he went all in. He learned about the contestants, about the judges, about the format, about the game that exists between the three rounds, and he really sunk his teeth into it.
Mike Johnson: In AEW, you just won the TNT championship from Sammy Guevara. You've had an interesting relationship with the AEW live audience in recent months, and what's it like trying to stay ahead of them when the reaction is kind of upside down compared to you come out and automatically you are getting cheered, and there's more of a complicated relationship with the audience. How much more fun does that make it creatively? And even from a performance standpoint, for you to try and stay ahead of them and make sure that they're not leapfrogging you and dictating what you do on the programming.
Cody Rhodes: Well, you mentioned that, and so I'm always of the idea that you can't judge your audience and they pay their money and they can do whatever they'd like, and that's one of the most beautiful things about it. Wrestling is at its best when we lead them, but the true is, it's when we lead them to what they want. So, it's very much the chicken and the egg type scenario, and in that case, the number one thing that right now is most apparent is to let it breathe, is to let it happen, we don't have to turn down the boos, we don't turn up the cheers. We have to let it be, and it can be jarring, Mike, I'll be frank, it can be jarring from going from this wrestling Messiah in the first year that could do no wrong, to now three years in, and people want to see you lose, but I grew up on wrestlers that I wanted to see win and wrestlers I wanted to see lose, and as long as they're doing what they're doing, I genuinely consider myself the luckiest wrestler on the planet. If you've got a dueling chant going on, man do I feel like the center of attention? Do I feel lucky? But again, it's jarring, and I think it's jarring for a lot of people backstage as well, because it's undiscovered country. It truly is, especially if we don't just knee jerk, do something that's been done already in wrestling. If we do follow this road less traveled and that's what we intend to do. So again, I mean, you know me, not everyone knows me on a personal level, but I couldn't ask for a better season in wrestling right now than what's happening, and truly it's nuts, and I'm lucky to be in the spot.
Mike Johnson: Go-Big Show is hosted by Bert Kreischer, who's tremendously creative and funny comedian. What dream scenario would you like to see him dropped into in AEW?
Cody Rhodes: I would love Bert to do the guest ring announcer, because Bert's standup, in addition, to being very funny, his just off the cuff wit and old bits reminds me of kind of an '80s wrestling manager in the first place. So I really, anytime that Bert's name has come up, I always wanted him to be that announcer who kind of playfully ribs both your heel, both your babyface, both your wrestlers. I think he'd be great at that because, what you see on Go-Big Show, season two would how funny bird is right there in front of you, but so much of it is happening the whole time we're filming, the whole season we're filming, the guys is just constantly on, and you can learn a lot from that. Big fan of Bert.
Mike Johnson: We saw on Rhodes to the Top, the journey to fatherhood for you and motherhood for Brandi. How has having your first daughter changed your life and changed how you approach things like Go-Big Show and AEW and performing in general?
Cody Rhodes: Well, now that I have a child, I'm starting to look at the actual numbers on the checks, because for so long, I didn't care at all. I was, "Yeah, I want to be a wrestler." It doesn't matter what you pay me. Now you're starting to look at it like, "Okay, we've got to get this college fund. We've got to get this set up for this beautiful little girl." But the number one thing she's done for me, and this is, my life is about her at this point, and I can't see that changing forever. But the number one thing she's done for me personally, is, it has taken a lot of the selfishness away from me. All wrestlers are selfish, all wrestlers have egos, and if you meet one who doesn't, they're not a good wrestler or they're lying. But, I care a lot less about what happens to Cody Rhodes in terms of, I care a lot less about bad versus, what happens to Liberty and how does Liberty perceive this? And the baby's only six months old, but she's definitely instantly my best friend, instantly Brandi's best friend. The dogs are obsessed with her. Everything they tell you is going to happen, you had even told me things were going to happen.
All this stuff is real, but you can't, words don't do it justice. I don't know what life was like before her, and I don't know what life would be like without her. That she's, she's the one, and in my family, one thing that really, a beautiful thing about Liberty was, the last big thing that my family all had, was a loss, was a subtraction. My dad passed away in 2015. We hadn't had this unifying moment for us all to get together over this, and then we did. So, everyone loves her. I can't wait to bring her to AEW at some point. I have a group text with almost the entire roster where I say something really professional. Like, "Can you believe this? I heard Tony wanted to do this." And then I'll wait for a couple people to bite, and they will be like, question mark, question mark, and then I just send a picture of Liberty. I'm really abusing my power when it comes to baby pictures. But what else am I going to do? I got people I need to steer.
Mike Johnson: Cody. I know we're running out of time, so let's go with the obvious question to close this out. Why should people, if they didn't already experience the first season of Go-Big Show, make sure this Thursday they're watching season two?
Cody Rhodes: I think because they can pick, in terms of, this is a show where you can sit down with your whole family and that's one of the things I like about it, and you can pick and you can follow. And, really we try. There's a great amount of responsibility that comes with judging over a show that $100,000 is going to go to somebody. So, that's the thing I liked about season one that carries on into season two, is you can sit there and say, "I want to see this individual go forward." And you can judge at home, just like we're judging right there.
Go-Big Show debuts this Thursday at 8 PM on TBS. AEW Dynamite emanates tomorrow from Newark, NJ at the Prudential Center on TBS.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
