Cody Rhodes Discusses CM Punk & AEW Negotiations

Current AEW TNT Champion and company EVP Cody Rhodes recently spoke with Alex McCarthy of TalkSport.

Cody discussed many topics, including some of AEW's recent signings like Brian Cage and FTR.

One person who AEW have not signed (but were at one point negotiating with) is CM Punk.

When asked, Rhodes talked about those negotiations, Punk's supposedly high asking price and his current relationship with the Straight-Edge Superstar.

On the negotiations, Cody stated: "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".

He was also quick to point out that, while he and other wrestlers have decision-making power within the company, he does not control the finances: "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".

The American Nightmare also touched on his and Tony Khan's relationship with Punk and the role passion would play in any potential signing: "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? 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”.

Punk was last seen as an occasional analyst for WWE Backstage, which was cancelled by Fox in June.