10 Best Promos In AEW History
2. Cody Rhodes Makes A Career Announcement
On his worst day, Cody Rhodes can be a terrible promo, rambling, scattershot and needlessly jingoistic. At his best he feels untouchable. As talented as Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks are, there’s a reason Cody Rhodes became the promotion’s talismanic spokesman.
Proving it possible to play a convincing, white meat babyface years after WWE forgot how to book them, Cody is almost unmatched at giving his programmes an enormous, “big match” feeling. When Cody added a momentous stipulation to his Full Gear World Title match with Chris Jericho, he set in motion his AEW destiny.
His promo does touch on several different subjects - his backstage role, AEW’s status as “An Ellis Island For Wrestlers,” Jericho’s hypocrisy - but manages to feel laser-focused. It's strange to think he would one day lose large sections of the AEW live crowd, as he conducts them so masterfully here.
Rhodes' words for “Le Champion” drew praise from no lesser authority than The Rock. With Cody characterising Chris as a “carny succubus”, “The Brahma Bull” was compelled to tweet,
“Rhythm, cadence, tone, intent, passion, execution. Great promo, brother. You dropped that MF. “