All Elite Wrestling (AEW) has established itself as one of the top pro wrestling organizations in the world over the last two years. And now, fans will get a more in-depth look at AEW with the new reality series Rhodes to the Top, which premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on TNT. PopCulture.com recently caught up Rhodes to the Top stars Cody and Brandi Rhodes, who are also AEW competitors and executives. The couple talked about some of the challenges they dealt with while filming the series.
“I think we felt somewhat protected in the sense that we’re producers on this show,” Cody Rhodes told PopCulture. “And I was very proud of that, but that aside it is still a reality series. It’s an unscripted show, which means if you think they’re not filming, they’re 20 yards away with directional mics. I mean, they really invaded our professional space and our personal space, and that was the right call because that’s where all the good stuff and that’s where all the reality is. We didn’t want to frame the show up. We wanted it to be authentic.”
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The series will focus on Cody and Brandi handling everything that’s going on in AEW. Along with being competitors, Cody and Brandi work behind the scenes as Cody is an Executive Vice President and Brandi is the Chief Brand Officer. The premiere episode features Cody and Brandi dealing with any issues the talent has as they get ready for the flagship show AEW Dynamite. Filming of Rhodes to the Top also took place when Brandi was pregnant.
“It made for some really fun situations,” Cody said. “And, I do think a lot of people growing families will look at that and understand where we were coming from. You know, this was something that we didn’t plan for. And then when we found out we started planning hard, hard, hard, hard, and trying to get that all right. It’s been the experience of our lives.”
Cody and Brandi have come a long way from their time in WWE. Due to the success of AEW, TNT gave the couple an opportunity to showcase themselves and the company with Rhodes to the Top. “There’s a lot of growth, clearly with AEW,” Brandi said. “We now have a second TV show on Friday’s , we’re growing across brands, as Cody is on TBS’s Go-Big Show. And, it just seems probably like the appropriate moment to try to do something in the reality space, with something that was different.”
“It’s very different from anything you’ve seen before. And we thought that would be a great idea, to take a look at that and show fans more of the behind-the-scenes of this company that they’ve already been on the ground level with watching us grow from very little to something very, very large.”
