Wrestling superstars often move from one wrestling promotion to the next, depending on various factors. Sometimes it’s a lack of direction for their character and sometimes it’s a lucrative package on the other side.

But all these factors lead to superstars joining other rival promotions, as seen during the time of WCW. Wrestling heavyweights like Hulk Hogan, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, Macho Man, and many others left the WWE for profitable deals with WCW. Similarly, ‘The American Nightmare’ Cody Rhodes also once left the WWE for AEW. And when he was about to make a WWE return, Tony Khan made him a tremendous offer.

Cody Rhodes reveals that AEW offered him a match with his childhood hero Sting

Cody Rhodes had a great initial stint with the WWE which lasted 10 glorious years. During this time he did multiple gimmicks, one being ‘Stardust’, a spin-off of his brother Dustin’s character ‘Goldust’. He even teamed up with Ted DiBiase Jr. to form ‘The Legacy’ winning the World Tag Team Championship. He even won the Intercontinental Championship during this period. But eventually left the WWE in 2016 over frustrations with WWE’s creative department.

Post that, he eventually joined rival promotion AEW in 2018. There, he served as the ‘Executive Vice President’ while also being a wrestler. During his time with AEW, he won the inaugural ‘AEW TNT Championship’ and went on to win it another 2 times. Then finally, in 2022, Rhodes ended his association with AEW citing issues with the new contract. But as he was exiting, Tony Khan offered him a match with Wrestling heavyweight Sting but Rhodes had other plans in mind.

In his recent interview with ‘ComicBook.com’, he revealed how the offer was really lucrative, but not something that would make Rhodes change his mind. He said, “I was going to wrestle Sting. I don’t think I’ve ever shared that with anybody and nothing was on paper or anything like that. But I can say I got a tremendous offer from AEW creatively, financially, the full package. You won’t hear me say anything bad about AEW or Tony (Khan) or my time there. It was a tremendous offer, but the offer wasn’t right for me. What I wanted to get back to was the first goal that I ever had.”

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He added, “And it’s one of those things, you can wrestle one of your heroes or you can work with one of your heroes and he can be the head of creative, you can’t have it all.”

And talking about his first goal, which still remains as the ‘Holy Grail’ for Rhodes, is winning the WWE Championship. He did have a shot at Wrestlemania 39 but ‘The Bloodline’ ruined his chance of winning the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship that night against Roman Reigns.

But currently, Rhodes has another hurdle to eclipse, a challenge he wants to end once and for all at ‘The Biggest Party of the Summer’ SummerSlam.

Rhodes faces his biggest challenge yet in the form of Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 

Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar have been feuding for quite some time now. They have faced each other twice, once at Backlash and once at Night Of Champions in Saudi Arabia. Both these juggernauts are tied at 1-1 in this series. And the final match that will determine the eventual winner of this boiling feud takes place at SummerSlam this Sunday.

Just a week ago on RAW, ‘The Beast Incarnate’ pulverized Rhodes in front of his home crowd and family. His mother was seated right in the front row and Lesnar smiled in his typical evil fashion while punishing Rhodes and targeting his already injured left arm. Then this week on RAW, the two superstars met face to face in the ring to seal the deal for SummerSlam. But Rhodes had blood on his mind and took the fight straight to Lesnar attacking him while he left.

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But Lesnar quickly turned the tide and started torturing Rhodes as usual which ended with a menacing F-5 in the ring. But with all this punishment that awaits Rhodes at SummerSlam, do you think ‘The American Nightmare’ even stands a fighting chance against Lesnar? What are your views on Rhodes fighting Sting? Do you think he should have stayed back with AEW?