AEW’s TV show debut is rapidly approaching and in a new interview Cody Rhodes says the company is more focused on pleasing their existing fanbase than casual viewers.

Rhodes told Busted Open this week that he hates the term “casual fan” because he believes it’s “vernacular to describe wrestling that is based on the Monday Night Wars.”

“So my focus is always the base that built AEW,” Cody added. “And that base, if you’ve seen it, you get it. And if you haven’t seen it, it’s just something that you have to see and feel. Bully [Ray] knows what I’m talking about. Because there’s a lot of confidence, that sometimes can get misplaced for arrogance on my half or The Elite’s behalf, but I’ve seen the power. I’ve seen it. And that’s why I want to focus on them first and foremost.”

In case you missed it … the AEW VP will kick off the company’s first show on TNT in a match against Sammy Guevara. In addition to that, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks are booked in a match against Chris Jericho and a mystery tag team.

“There’s people who are plenty critical of what AEW does and instead of signal boosting that, I’d rather a hundred of the fans that we have in that base than that one sulky son of a bitch that’s not coming on-board anyways,” Cody ended this portion of the interview stating. “You guys know that first way to fail is to try and please everybody, but I gotta take care of the people who brought us to the dance in the first place … and I think that will be appealing on a global level.”

AEW’s TV show premieres October 2. Tickets go on-sale this Friday.

Listen to the FULL INTERVIEW HERE.