Cody Wants To Reel In Casual Fans But Not At The Expense Of AEW’s Core Fan Base

Cody wants to take care of the core AEW fan base first.

“The American Nightmare” and former IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Champion Cody is fresh off of knee surgery and is focusing on his co-Executive Vice President role within All Elite Wrestling. Cody, alongside Nick and Matt Jackson, Kenny Omega and AEW President Tony Khan have a plan that has been described by those involved as a true alternative wrestling program. 

The Elite have a specific vision for the sport of professional wrestling and the fan base that they have is a key part of that. AEW’s ‘Double Or Nothing’ show in Las Vegas on May 25th sold out in under five minutes. The fast-paced sellout was the same for The Elite’s ‘ALL IN’ show in September of 2018. With wrestling fans awaiting the announcement of an AEW television deal, Cody wants to continue expanding what has already been established and wants to reward AEW’s core fan base for that as well. Cody spoke with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald recently and was asked about AEW’s target audience and Cody stated that while he is opened-minded to attracting the casual fan, he wants to first cater to the AEW fan-base that has been with them since the beginning.

“It’s not really a question for me just because… I mean maybe it is. The target market, I always say is our base that we have already.” He said. “You hear all these people online that are like, ‘Gosh, they gotta get casual fans. They gotta get casual fans.’ Well, will we get casual fans at the expense of discouraging the fans who have been with us all along? What I said with ALL IN was very true. People wanted this and a lot of people doubted me. People thought, ‘Oh, no way. They can’t do this. They can’t put 11,000 people in that building’ and we did and we could’ve put 20,000 people in that building. It’s something that people want. So I always like to honor my base first. They’re the ones who were there for us and they’re the ones who have joined this revolution. But, I always like to keep an open mind and I think that’s one of the wonderful things about this being a collaboration is you’ve got to keep an open mind.”

During this same interview, Cody chatted about television deals and how he feels they are powerful but not necessary and to read his full quote about that, click here.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.