Cody Rhodes Wants To Engage A Younger Fan Base, Believes Monitoring Demo Numbers Is Important
Cody Rhodes admits that the demo talk in AEW is no joke.
Speaking with Chris Jericho on his Talk is Jericho podcast, the AEW Executive Vice President spoke about accepting his managerial role and all the different people that work together to make the shows come together.
“I told Tony, do not give me this job unless you really want me to do the job. To really embrace it. Which would probably include pissing you off from time to time, which he’s never been pissed at me. At least in his version, maybe he has. But that’s been the most exciting thing, the brain-trust here amongst the talent, the EVP’s, the management. The committee that exists that we don’t talk about. The committee of thought, which is the Bucks, and Kenny, you [Jericho], and Tony more than ever has in his mind how he wants the show to be as he is booking it and laying it out. I love it. I know that sounds like a tumultuous thing, all those names on paper and all those people. Arn is out there with me by the ring pretty much doing jack shit, except holding his play card up. What Arn does back here, my gosh, I literally want to look at him [in awe and say] “where have you been?”
What excites Cody the most about AEW is its youthfulness. He also acknowledged the importance of monitoring age demographics, wanting to avoid a situation where the show’s viewership starts disappearing.
“The youth that is on the roster and the youth that is in the creative. The direction of the show with Tony in that lead spot. The direction of the show. The artistic vision of the show. The talent on the show. We joke about the demo, but it’s really not a joke. There’s a potential that if you, and this is for any show, if you don’t look at that, you’re going to age out. One of the reasons I’ve turned my act around into a bit of a squeaky clean act is because it’s really not an act anymore. I want to engage a young fan base. And not just the young and affluent and cool, I want to engage kids because the show has a lot of grittiness, a lot of violence, a lot of adult content, and I want to make sure they know there’s guys doing right and there’s guys doing wrong, that’s here too. Just like all great wrestling shows, when they’ve been great. The youth we have and the demos are really not a joke at all. Anyone who’s not scared, and I’m not talking about our competitor, I’m talking about any show, if you’re not in the youth, in terms of if they’re not watching your show you should absolutely be terrified. 50+ means you’re losing your audience. Again, this is about TV in general, not about WWE and not about AEW.”
As part of the Go-Big Show crossover, Snoop Dogg joined AEW Near Year’s Smash night one as a special guest. Prior to his match against Matt Sydal, Cody was accompanied to the ring by Snoop as Cody’s new remixed theme of Kingdom performed by the famous rapper played throughout the arena.
Cody can be seen Wednesday nights on AEW’s flagship show, Dynamite. Fightful provides live coverage as well as a post-show podcast every week.
