WWE: Cody Rhodes on WWE Return “Far Bigger Gamble” than All In, A&E WWE Ratings, More News

Cody Rhodes Comments on His WWE Return Being a “Far Bigger Gamble” Than All In

AP News held a recent interview with Cody Rhodes. One of the topics discussed included Rhodes’ thoughts on his belief that his return to WWE in 2022 was a “far bigger gamble” for himself than helping put together and promoting the All In event in 2019.

“Life is splendid. When I left my former gig to come back to WWE, it was a far bigger gamble than “All In” (the first AEW show in 2019) ever was. That’s why I get these “All In” vibes when I think about WrestleMania because I certainly could have been the laughingstock of the industry. And going into the biggest event ever involved in the wrestling ring from any measurable standpoint is one part of life being great, blessed and lucky.

The other part is I have my family in terms of Brandi (his wife) and Liberty (his daughter), for them to come to this and experience this knowing that it wasn’t a life wasted. Every sacrifice I’ve made, early morning gym trip, times I wasn’t able to be home or won’t be able to be home, it’s not a life wasted in what we do and that makes this run just all the sweetest.”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about the legacy and fingerprints of his late father Dusty for this year’s WrestleMania 39 event.

“When he passed away, “Dusty’s Kids” was something that I heard a lot because his influence and legacy were being spread out. That was a statistic being touted. Bayley, Sasha (Banks), Becky (Lynch), Seth (Rollins), Roman, Sami (Zayn), Kevin (Owens), the core ones, were all doing better than I was. It wasn’t something I could complain about or throw a tantrum over because they were honoring him. It almost felt like they were honoring him more than I was. And there’s jealousy and envy that comes with it. But that’s why in these interviews, even on nights I don’t want to say his name or talk about him, you hear it nonetheless because his fingerprints are all over WrestleMania. Every one of those people I just named, for the most part, is doing something spectacular. You want to add yourself to that list, and you almost can’t function if you don’t. I feel like that’s slightly weaponized in a sense by Roman toward me. I wasn’t adjusted and ready for it. I’m ready for it now.”

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A&E WWE Programming Ratings – March 26, 2023

This past Sunday’s Biography: WWE Legends doubleheader first episode drew 338,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.11 rating in the 18-49 demographic and a #27 ranking in the key demographic rankings. This was down compared to last week’s first doubleheader episode of 350,000 viewers. This episode focused on Charlotte Flair.

This past Sunday’s Biography: WWE Legends doubleheader second episode drew 366,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.13 rating in the 18-49 demographic and a #21 ranking in the key demographic rankings. This was up compared to last week’s second doubleheader episode of 297,000 viewers and 0.10 key demographic rating. This episode focused on WWE Hall of Famer Yokozuna.

Both episodes of the doubleheader drew an average overall viewership of 352,000 viewers, which would be the second lowest ever overall viewership in Biography: WWE Legends series history.

This past Sunday’s WWE Rivals drew 362,000 viewers on A&E. This episode also drew a 0.13 rating in the 18-49 demographic and a #20 ranking in the key demographic rankings. This was up compared to last week’s 271,000 viewers and 0.11 rating. This episode focused on the famous Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar feud.

More Sunday ratings: ShowBuzz Daily

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WWE News & Notes

Former WWE wrestler Gangrel reportedly is currently scheduled to be making an appearance at this weekend’s WrestleMania 39 event in Inglewood, California, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Gangrel’s exact role is currently not known but he will likely be involved in some form for the Hell in a Cell match between Edge and Finn Balor at the event.

WWE reportedly recently invited around 50 current and former collegiate athletes to attend their upcoming new set of tryouts in Los Angeles, California, according to ESPN. It was reported that 26 male athletes and 24 female athletes were invited by WWE for these upcoming WrestleMania 39 week tryouts in the city.

As noted before, WWE currently has plans for Konnan to induct Rey Mysterio at this year’s WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on March 31st in Los Angeles. In a recent episode of the Keepin’ It 100 with Konnan and Disco podcast, Konnan provided an update on the status of the talks with WWE and his potential speech for Mysterio. Konnan stated “Until WWE announces it, I won’t be doing one. So, they haven’t announced it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, Alexa Bliss has been absent from WWE since this past January due to a hiatus-related reason and had recently underwent successful treatment for skin cancer. In a recent interview with Cinemablend.com, Bliss provided an update on her status for WrestleMania 39. Bliss stated “I will be in L.A. for WrestleMania. I will be at the arena. Who knows what that leads to? Because, you know, in WWE, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s the company where you always expect the unexpected. We’ll have to see.”

In a recent interview with the Cool To Be You podcast, Bayley stated that she currently has plans to potentially open a wrestling school at some point in the future. (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Monday’s RAW show in Phoenix, Arizona featured a promo segment by Dominik Mysterio. Mysterio started off his promo in English bashing his father Rey Mysterio for punching him last week and calling him a deadbeat dad over it. Dominik then continued ranting about his father in Spanish before finishing his promo in English stating that he wished Eddie Guerrero was his father and Rey never existed. Denise Salcedo reported on Twitter that the English translation for the Spanish portion of the promo was “Dominik Mysterio said his family was jealous of him because he was taller and more handsome than his father Rey Mysterio. He also said his mom and sister always sided with Rey.”

NXT talents Electra Lopez and Odyssey Jones reportedly were in attendance backstage at Monday’s RAW show in Phoenix, according to PWInsider. Lopez and Jones were invited by WWE officials for main roster tryout matches that were taped for this Thursday’s Main Event show prior to the start of RAW.

Kofi Kingston announced on Instagram that he is currently auctioning off his ring gear that he wore at this past January’s Royal Rumble 2023 event with all proceeds going directly towards the CLICK for Quality Education Foundation.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE’s “Brand to Brand Invitational” for cross-brand talent appearances has been “effectively dead” as a concept in the company since last year. It was reported that those spoken to stated that this idea was something that had been disliked by WWE’s Creative team. One source spoken to stated that they had not heard anything about this term in 2022 while another source reportedly stated that this was something that has not come up since Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over creative.