Cody: I Hope NXT Does Something Special With Great American Bash And It’s Not A Starrcade Situation

NXT and AEW will go head-to-head as usual on Wednesday, but the next two weeks will be a bit different as both companies promise to deliver pay-per-view quality shows.

AEW will present Fyter Fest where all titles are on the line while NXT will present Great American Bash which will feature a Winner Take All match between Adam Cole and Keith Lee. Great American Bash was a concept brought to life by Dusty Rhodes in 1985 and WWE owns the trademark, but they haven’t used it since 2012. 

Appearing on Busted Open Radio, Cody weighed in on WWE using the Great American Bash name to counterprogram AEW. 

“People sometimes mistakenly think that Dusty just named Starrcade and Great American Bash. It’s well beyond just naming them, it’s booking, marketing, and creating what the event stands for. My dad always told me that Starrcade was for my sister and Great American Bash was for me. At the time he came up with these events, I’m not sure that was the case, but that’s what he told me and that’s why both events are special to me and my sister,” he said. 

Cody continued, “I’m not going to get angry because it still brings up his name in a positive way. The marketing of the event reminds me a lot of what Disney currently does. If you go to Disney World, they still sell Haunted Mansion shirts and they are all done retro style and they market it very well. They market nostalgia. If you run a sizzle with Sting, Dusty Rhodes, and Hulk Hogan; none of them are going to be there. It’s a unique marketing thing and I’m not really upset about it. My sister thought it was strange that it was announced willy-nilly and last minute. In the strangest of ways, I would hope that they do something special with it. I think our show is better and will be better in execution, but I hope they do something special with it because I hated what Michael Hayes did with Starrcade. He took a creation of my dad’s and made it a live event in North Carolina because they weren’t selling any tickets and he wanted to save his job. That was disappointing to me. I hope that’s not what happens with Great American Bash. I’m not upset about anything that brings my dad’s name in a positive light. Is it a weird feeling? Sure. But I’ve also been in a tag match with my brother competing against the Dusty Rhodes Classic. One guy I never mind competing with is my dad. I like that they bring his name up in a charming and loving way, I hope it’s not another Starrcade situation.”

Cody has often expressed interest in acquiring the Great American Bash trademark from WWE. He has filed trademarks on old WCW names such as Bash at the Beach and Slamboree, but he said in an interview on AEW Unrestricted that he would give up 100 Slamboree trademarks for the trademarks to Starrcade and Great American Bash.

Fightful will have live coverage of both Fyter Fest and Great American Bash beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

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