Eric Bischoff Sent Cody Rhodes Same Text When He Left WWE And AEW

During the debut episode of an AdFreeShows exclusive podcast titled Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff spoke about what his thoughts were on Cody Rhodes’s WWE return and revealed a conversation he had with Cody when he originally left the company in 2016.

Of course, Cody made his WWE return after a six-year absence from the company at WrestleMania 38, defeating Seth Rollins in the process and then making his intentions of winning the WWE World Title clear on Monday Night Raw.

The former President of WCW detailed why it took balls for him to leave WWE the first time and why the situation reminded him so much of something Dusty Rhodes would do.

“I was excited as hell for him,” Bischoff said, reacting to Cody’s WWE return. “Let me put some context to this because I always bust other people’s chops for not doing that. I met Cody when he was a little kid when he was working with his dad and I didn’t see Cody really again until he was in WWE when I was in WWE as a talent in the early 2000s.

“I never really got to know Cody as an adult on a level that I could understand what he was going through and what he was thinking. I didn’t know Cody that well but when Cody left WWE, I texted Cody and just told him how proud I was of him and I was proud of Cody because of leaving WWE. You’ve got a 30-year-old kid, making close to a million dollars a year and he decides to chuck it, that takes courage, that takes passion and it’s also kind of insane.

“I wouldn’t have done it but Cody did and that reminded me of Dusty because if Dusty wasn’t creatively satisfied, the money didn’t matter. He would make bad decisions financially because his desire to create and to see a vision come to life was one of the most important things to him. I saw Dusty struggle with that, Dusty and I at different points were really good friends, and had some very very deep long conversations about life in general but mostly about business and wrestling.

“So when Cody left, I thought…