During an appearance on AEW’s official Unrestricted podcast, Dustin Rhodes commented on losing his passion for wrestling while working in WWE:
“When you’re sitting at home for a couple of months with another company who doesn’t value you at all, and you’re sitting there knowing you have so much more to offer. You kind of lose your passion, and for the first time in my 31 years, I lost my passion for the wrestling business. I love wrestling. Came out of my mother’s womb wanting to be a wrestler, and we were raised that way. Dad wanted something different for me. He did not want me to go through the hardships that he went through, and I understand it looking back at it now, but I’m sitting there just knowing I have so much more to give.
They just will not give me the time of day, and I had enough. I said enough was enough, and for the first time, I kind of stood up for myself in a big way and said, ‘I am quitting, I am asking you for my release, I am done. I’m not happy here anymore,’ and you know how they do, they kind of make you wait for it. It was getting close to Double or Nothing, and Cody called me. He said, ‘would you like to work a match with me?’ At first, I thought ‘we have tried this for years and years and years.’…
In my opinion, it was perfection,” Dustin said. “I know Cody says it probably wasn’t his greatest match ever, and I understand that, but for me this was the tops. It topped everything that I’d ever done in the business. It was a special night, It was emotional.”
