AEW Executive Vice President and active wrestler Cody Rhodes apologized for comments he made at a AAA event that turned out to be in bad taste.

Approximately one month ago, Cody teamed with Psycho Clown and Cain Velasquez in a winning effort against Texano Jr., Taurus, and Killer Kross at AAA’s TripleMania XXVII. After winning, he joined his tag team partners in a post-match chant that wasn’t exactly politically appropriate.

Velasquez led a "puto" chant towards their opponents, but Rhodes was apparently not aware the term is looked down upon for its homophobic nature. It’s not a new chant in terms of the Mexican-sports scene but over the past few years, athletic organizations are making it known the term is no longer taken with a grain of salt and really not acceptable.

When SB Nation's Outsports contacted AEW about the chant, they received the following statement:

Cody joined his teammates at AAA TripleMania for what he understood to be their post-match tradition in Mexico and was unaware of any negative connotations. Certainly the last thing Cody would want to do is to hurt or offend anyone.”

Should AEW and Cody Be Concerned?

This is the kind of mistake that is not ideal for Cody to make but when all is said and done and the smoke has cleared, this really shouldn’t be a big issue for either AEW or Cody who is set to take on new AEW World Champion Chris Jericho at AEW’s next pay-per-view Full Gear. A slap on wrist or being embarrassed about his actions will probably be enough to teach a valuable lesson.

If anything, this is really just a learning moment for Cody that he and his new wrestling company are being watched a lot more closely now that they are part of the mainstream landscape. Homophobic slurs are never ok, but when buried on the indie scene, may go unnoticed. As part of AEW, almost every decision Rhodes makes will be dissected. He’s simply better to avoid making them.

* Thanks to wrestlinginc for the quote.

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