Exclusive: Cody Talks NWA Title Negotiations; Talks WGN-Sinclair-Tribune-All In Situation

Cody Rhodes’ vision of All In is is nearly ready to come to fruition.

The September 1 independent supershow will feature talent from Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Impact, MLW, NWA, Lucha Underground, and numerous Mexican Wrestling promotions. With so many wrapped up in TV deals, Cody’s All In show landed their first hour on WGN, which was almost a possible home for Ring of Honor recently as the latter’s parent company of Sinclair nearly merged with the former’s of Tribune.

When Cody spoke to Fightful.com’s Andrea Hangst Thursday night, he said he was well aware of the politics at play, but being independent proved effective for them in that regard.

“None of this could have happened if it were a company — a WWE, a Ring of Honor. This happened because it was three guys. That’s why none of this situation surrounding the madness (of Sinclair-Tribune) — we were quiet. People wanted All In and Zero Hour on. We were outside of the politics. It was something that was heavily discussed. They wanted wrestling and we had the best wrestling thing to give them,” said Cody.

A heavy promotional tool for the show has been the All Us and All Incoming programs, which along with Being The Elite have followed (albeit in much different) ways, talent from the show. With All In and All Us following the “Ten Pounds Of Gold” formula — complete with producer — Cody looks to expand upon the success.

“I’d like to keep it going. The sentiment behind All In isn’t a single show as we’ve seen. I’m also at the end of the month wrestling for the NJPW United States Championship. I’d like All Us and All Incoming, whether we change the titles or not, there’s a great production company behind that. Dave Lagana has done an exceptional job. He likes capturing what’s happening on in a wrestler’s life in a real way, and I like being the focus for that,” said Cody.

With Cody competing for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship at All In, the production relationship to produce the programming made sense. However, before Billy Corgan and Lagana took over NWA, there had been ill-fated pitches to Cody to participate in the company.

“It’s always been floated my way because it’s the easiest thing to do, I guess. Dusty Rhodes’ son. I think I pushed so much Dusty related things away, not because they’re not valuable to me, but because they’re not me. This came along as something that felt like me. Billy and I talked about it and I happened to be self funding a show. They didn’t have a match, I didn’t have a match. They pumped blood back into the Ten Pounds of Gold and made you turn your head,” said Cody.

You can see our full discussion with Cody above, and tune into Fightful’s live All-In post show directly after the event, as well as our live discussion and coverage throughout the day Saturday. Our first edition of Making A Finisher also goes live this weekend, with Adam “Hangman” Page as the subject.