AEW's Cody Rhodes Talks About The 'Tradition Of The Title Bag'

Despite missing AEW’s recent Battle of the Belts, Cody Rhodes is still TNT Champion in his third reign. But unlike his first two runs with the belt, the audience have turned on ‘The American Nightmare.’

People have long debated whether Rhodes has turned heel or not, and when asked about the direction of his character on the Rasslin’ podcast, Rhodes was blunt about his input behind the scenes:

“I don’t have any say, have you not read the, read the news in terms of I do not book AEW? I am not the head honcho, actually, the head honcho is coming in, coming in later, ‘The Khan’, as I like to refer to him. I’m not referring to him as TK.”

Rhodes defeated Sammy Guevara for the TNT Title, but has resorted to carrying the title belt in a pillowcase, saying Guevara didn’t honour a time-old wrestling tradition:

“Why it’s a pillowcase is because the individual I won it from did not pass the belt bag along, and that’s super taboo. Because it’s such a pretty belt, it’s a very pretty belt. Three times, and it’s in a pillowcase. Three times. So that’s what I think happened.

“And finishes are still tricky,” Rhodes continued. “Once you’ve, once somebody’s found out you’re winning, I’m losing, whatever it might be or how this is going, the last thing you want to do is come back to him an hour after he wrestled or the next day and say, ‘Hey, I need the bag’”.

Cody continued as to this tradition, conceding that Guevara just may not have known about it:

“The real traditional thing that you’re supposed to do is you’re supposed to put the bag in the other person’s bag,” Rhodes explained. “So the bag belt that carries (the title), you’re supposed to put it in their bag before the match happens. I don’t know how taboo this is, I’m just swinging, might have to take it all out, but that’s the rule. You’re supposed to put it in their bag. ‘Oh look, it’s in my bag. I can pack it away easy’.

“I would say responsibility is a strong word for it, maybe just a time-honoured tradition. Maybe a time-honoured tradition, that Sammy, who is eight years old, I shouldn’t expect to know said time-honoured tradition.”

H/T: Wrestling Inc.