WWE News: Cody Rhodes Discusses ‘Legal Nightmare’ With WWE
Citing the latest episode of AEW Unrestricted, 411 Mania reports that Cody Rhodes‘ recent experience of acquiring classic World Championship Wrestling trademarks has been a “legal nightmare.” The AEW executive vice president has already obtained Bash at the Beach and he wants to own the rights to the Starrcade name as well, though he did admit that he’s unsure what to do with the trademarks.
“I don’t know what my grand play is here, I just wanted to pick it up to have for my family. We’re not merchandising it. I’m not making any money off the Bash at the Beach name. It’s just to have it.”
According to Rhodes, WWE is a good “custodian of history” thanks to the Network, but he also believes that they’re letting a lot of classic events and ideas go to waste. However, since many of these concepts were devised by his father, Dusty Rhodes, the AEW co-founder has a sentimental attachment to them.
“The network is done well, and they do do some stuff well, but there’s been a lot of stuff they didn’t care for that they’ve let lapse or kind of fall to the wayside, and anything that was connected in any way to my Dad, I just wanted to pickup.”
? Wow, strong words from a heated @CodyRhodes on #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/wEByb2zFHX
— AEW on TV (@AEWonTV) November 7, 2019
During the conversation, Rhodes also addressed Dave Meltzer’s claim that Starrcade wasn’t Dusty’s idea. Rhodes confirmed that Dusty did come up with the name, as well as The Great American Bash. According to the AEW executive, those are the two trademarks he wants to obtain because they’d mean the most to his family.
However, both of those trademarks have proven difficult to acquire so far, and they are still owned by WWE. Furthermore, one of them has been getting used by the company from time to time, but not in a way that’s celebrated by wrestling fans.
WWE has brought back Starrcade in recent years, but the events have essentially been televised house shows that air on the Network. Back in WCW, however, Starrcade was one of the biggest events of the year. It remains to be seen if Rhodes would bring it back as a notable pay-per-view, or if he’d just keep the trademark to prevent WWE from mishandling it.
Given that AEW and WWE are rivals, it’s highly unlikely that Vince McMahon’s company would be willing to cooperate with Rhodes and sign over the Dusty trademarks they currently own. However, Rhodes seems determined to acquire them nonetheless.
