During today's Wrestling Observer’s “We’re Live, Pal”, Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast discussed the internal reaction in WWE about Cody Rhodes departing All Elite Wrestling.

“There’s no contract signed, I know that. There’s nothing signed as of 3pm ET on Tuesday. But it looks like he may be heading over there, because the WWE guys were… they were waving their WWE flag in victory with this. I was very shocked at the reaction this was getting from that side. Normally, I’d never seen – I’ve been covering wrestling 11 years, been doing it on the Observer for a year now – I have never seen a celebration of sorts with someone that hasn’t signed yet.

“So they see this as a win. I was told multiple times that optics-wise, this looks bad for AEW and this looks great for WWE. Especially with the fact that not only was he an on-air top talent, he’s an EVP, he’s one of the founders, conceptualised the whole idea. So, this is a mega story. This is huge.”

See also: Cody Rhodes And Tony Khan Reportedly Had A Falling Out, Lawyers Involved