Originally published at Dustin Rhodes planning to launch independent promotion
The promotion will be based in Austin, Texas.
The Rhodes Wrestling Academy has their next showcase this week and to promote it, Dustin Rhodes returned to Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
Dustin shared that in addition to his school, he is looking to launch an independent promotion that was dubbed ‘Rhodes Wrestling Association’. He said it’ll probably get going this summer and it’ll be based in Austin, Texas.
That is correct (I’m looking to launch an independent promotion & book shows) and it’s probably gonna happen sometime late summer, I think, and that’ll be local here (in Austin, Texas) so I know that we’ve had someone like Inspire (A.D.) come in town and we had WrestleCircus a ways back and it was a couple more but, I think we can really take over this market in Austin and do something big with it and that’s all I’m hoping for is that these kids have somewhere to go in front of kids, in front of people to feel their energy, you know? Because this is only so much. When you have 300 people, it gives you a lot more energy when they’re there and they’re in the moment and they love their pro wrestling and Austin’s a great pro wrestling city. They love their wrestling here.
On night two of WrestleMania 39, Cody Rhodes is going to be challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title.
Dustin expressed how proud he is of Cody and says his brother is walking the walk and talking the talk. He’s looking forward to watching the match. Elsewhere in the conversation, Dustin did confirm that he’ll be in Los Angeles, California that weekend.
I’m super proud of him (Cody Rhodes), I’m so proud of the man he’s become. He’s become very wise for his age and just since AEW and since he’s went out on his own, making a name for himself, he’s flourished and he’s done a damn good job at it. He’s taking care of his body, he looks great, he walks the walk and he talks the talk and he backs it up and he just looks like a billion dollars and I think that’s the important thing about it. You wanna be world champion, you wanna be a mega star, the company is on your back, then you gotta look that part and I think he does that — I’m not a suit guy, he is. I just wear t-shirts and jeans. That’s a lot of pressure. It’s a lot of pressure to have the weight of the WWE universe on your shoulders but he will become, hopefully, if he wins this match, he will become the first Rhodes to win this, you know, the big one in WWE and that’s impressive and I’m super proud and I’m here for it. I can’t wait to watch.
On AEW programming, Dustin has formed an on-screen alliance with Keith Lee. He shared that he’s hoping it can grow into something more.
I wasn’t expecting Keith (Lee) to make his return when he did and he made the save or else I probably would have went to the hospital that night because they were trying to do some serious damage with Parker (Boudreaux) and Swerve (Strickland) and thankfully, he came in the ring and he helped me and he picked me up and it’s like, is he here to kill me? Or is he here as a, you know, hey man, I saved the day for you and this could be a nice, little bonding friendship and it was. It was really cool to be standing next to Keith and to see where this goes, you know, hopefully it goes somewhere. We just had a match (on AEW Dark: Elevation). It’s kind of our second tag match together so right now, we’re undefeated, 2-0 so, let’s see where it goes because he has a nice element and I think we kind of have good chemistry together.
Rhodes and Keith Lee were featured on the 3/20 edition of Dark: Elevation. Rhodes’ contract with AEW expires in July 2023.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Sports Guys Talking Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.