Dusty Rhodes Once Encouraged Son Cody to 'Quit' WWE Over His Dissatisfaction with Former Character (Exclusive)

In an exclusive clip from Peacock's upcoming documentary about Cody Rhodes, the WWE star recalls his father's advice about betting on himself

WWE’s Cody Rhodes is opening up about a low-point in his professional wrestling career, when his late father Dusty Rhodes once suggested he might as well quit.

Cody, 38, has been on a collision course for the WWE’s top title since returning to the company last April and he’ll be taking on former WWE and UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar in one of the main events at next month’s SummerSlam.

The second-generation pro wrestler is also the subject of a new documentary, WWE American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes, premiering July 31 on Peacock. In the doc, Cody opens up about initially walking away from WWE both in part to escape the shadow of his WWE Hall of Fame father’s legacy and to escape a suffocating character he was upset about portraying.

Cody, whose real name is Cody Runnels, was tasked with portraying the face-paint-wearing gimmick “Stardust” in 2014 and continued to grow more and more frustrated with the character until he walked away from WWE in 2016 after a decade with the company.

In an exclusive clip shared with PEOPLE, Cody reveals insight into what his conversations were like with his father Dusty, who also helped mentor young wrestlers backstage after he retired from in-ring action.

“The conversations when I was doing Stardust became so negative and downtrodden, that that was one of the first times he just hit me with the basic, ‘Well, you should quit,’ “ Cody recalls in the documentary.

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Cody’s sister Teil Gergel says in another interview that she remembers Dusty becoming just as frustrated over the character, which both believed to be suffocating his chances at being taken more seriously as a top-star in WWE.

“My dad called me and he was upset,” Teil says. “He said he’ll never be world champ in this.”

Dusty, who died in 2015, is also featured in the documentary through archival interview footage from his time as a WWE coach.

“I see how talented he is,” Dusty says about his son. “What are they not seeing here? [It’s] to where you just want to go off, ‘Are you blind?’ But [this is] his dad talking. His dad wants him to be on top.”

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Cody debuted on WWE television in 2007 and seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of his father’s celebrated career, joining a group of other second-generation wrestlers who called themselves “The Legacy.” He went on to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship twice on top of six tag team titles during his initial run with the company where his father — who went by the name “The American Dream” — cemented his legacy in the late 1980s.

But ironically, Cody found his breakthrough success outside WWE when he made the career-altering decision to leave and restart his career on wrestling’s independent scene, fighting matches in local gymnasiums, minor league baseball stadiums and other off-the-beaten path locations where he regained popularity among fans.

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After winning two world championships outside WWE, Cody and a group of other independent wrestlers launched All Elite Wrestling, which found success and now airs on TBS and TNT, rivaling WWE. Cody then turned heads once more when he made the shocking decision to return to leave his upstart pro wrestling brand and rejoin WWE in early 2022, where he landed in the main event of the company’s marquee WrestleMania show this past April.

"Filming the documentary was scary," Cody told PEOPLE. "Opening up and letting the world see the real you, and see the road I’m traveling has had wonderful success, but many failures as well. Failure being a wonderful teacher."

Cody has said his reason for returning to WWE is to win the company’s top world title, something his late father Dusty, nor his real-life brother Dustin Rhodes, were able to accomplish during their own careers with the famed pro wrestling company. He's currently one of the show's top contenders to re-challenge champion Roman Reigns.

Dusty posthumously appears in the new documentary about his son via an interview he conducted with WWE two weeks before he died nearly a decade ago. Cody said watching the footage of his late father now and remembering his thoughts about his career "was a treat."

"He always had my back," Cody said.

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