Cody Rhodes Comments on Zack Ryder and Heath Slater Signing With AEW, Says AEW isn’t “All Friends Wrestling”

Cody Rhodes held a Q&A today on Instagram to talk about things with fans. The recently released wrestlers from WWE are a hot topic nowadays and he was asked about a couple of them signing with AEW in the future: Zack Ryder and Heath Slater.

As far as Matt Cardona aka Zack Ryder is concerned, Rhodes mentions that he’s a little worried about signing him any time soon. “That guy’s the best. And he’s got over two million followers on Twitter and a million followers on Instagram, so a very broad influence; incredibly famous, more famous than a great deal of guys, but that doesn’t always translate. The biggest hurdle Zack will face is his friendship with me,” Rhodes warns, “He’s one of my only close friends in wrestling, maybe my only friend in wrestling. I have my brother here, my beautiful wife, due to work. So it can’t be All Friends Wrestling, you got to handle it the best way.”

Rhodes also made a very heartwarming post specifically about Ryder after he was released, which you can see here:

View this post on Instagram

I’d like to take a moment to say how proud I am to be a friend of @zryder85 – In a world of weekend warriors and “play wrestlers”, this dude exudes passion and drive for pro-wrestling like no other. Through 14 years to see him CONSISTENTLY try to better himself(whether that be his in-ring work, or watching him physically mold himself and his body into such a specimen DRUG FREE with hard work and will). I have a little rule, and that’s that if you’ve ever “gotten over” in wrestling…you can always do so again. That rule being fully applicable to Matt now. At 34 years young, his best wrestling days are ahead of him. Cheers to a great start and 14 years of unrelenting blood, sweat, and tears. Future endeavors are limitless when you actually endeavor. I chose this picture because it was one of my last days at WWE, watching 80,000+ people applaud as Matt won gold was an eruption not only live in the arena but in the locker room as well. Hearing Dolph coordinate for his father to come over the rails(meanwhile I was ass deep into a broken ladder and stuck but had the best seat in the house) and seeing father/son embrace, I thought I’d be jealous or bitter, but I was truly happy and proud for one of my peers. Congratulations my friend, and good luck!

A post shared by Cody Rhodes (@americannightmarecody) on Apr 15, 2020 at 7:31pm PDT

He was also asked about Heath Slater, but his response was much shorter and definitive. “Nope! No on Heath Slater.” Ouch.