The Dreams and Nightmares of Cody Rhodes
What. The. Hell. That's the resonating sentiment for the nearly 15,000-strong sellout crowd at Chicago’s All State Arena—not to mention the millions watching at home. It's balmy night in early June, at the main event of one of WWE’s premium live shows: Hell in a Cell. The ring announcer officially introduces one of the two grapplers involved in the match, and everyone scream at the top of their lungs, showing admiration the only way they know how.
Cody, Cody, Cody!
It's Cody Rhodes. The American Nightmare. Platinum-blonde hair, action-figure biceps, son of royalty.
Rhodes takes off his robe—and the fans stop cheering. Immediately. The crowd lets out one huge, collective gasp, all at once. A dark purple bruise covers the entire right side of Rhodes’s chest, streaking all the way down his bicep.
A few days prior, Rhodes tore his right pectoral muscle clean off the bone. Went too hard at the gym. At Hell in a Cell, it isn't about the show anymore. There's so much blood under Rhodes's skin that it looks like it's about to burst. No one had ever seen anything like it. Rhodes looks into the crowd and sees little kids asking their parents, “What is that?” The parents are confused, too. Why is this guy not in the nearest hospital?
Miraculously, Rhodes would go on to wrestle his opponent, Seth “Freakin” Rollins—recognized by many as one of the best ring performers on the planet—for over 20 minutes. Rhodes won the match and their clash was named Match of The Year by many wrestling pundits.
Four days later, Rhodes’s own mother asked him if the purple blotch on his skin was “painted on”—as she picked him up just after having arthroscopic surgery.
A legend was born.
Rhodes's win arrived in June 2022, a couple months after his monumental return to WWE, where he professionally debuted in 2007. Rhodes had wrestled elsewhere for six years. (More on that later.) Upon Rhodes's comeback, WWE’s owner and chairman, Vince McMahon, immediately recognized how popular the wrestler was with fans and quickly began positioning him as a cornerstone of the company. Now, a year later, Rhodes isn’t just in a main event, he’s in theeee main event. This Sunday in Los Angeles, Rhodes will face the unequivocal kingpin of wrestling, undisputed WWE universal champion Roman Reigns, in the penultimate match of WrestleMania 39. The result, of course, will not only have massive WWE implications—but win or lose, it'll change Rhodes's life forever.
“On the live events, the non-televised events, I usually will grab the mic for a little bit," Rhodes, born Cody Runnells, tells me over Zoom. He’s fresh from a grueling workout with fellow WWE superstar Sheamus. "I’ll say something to the crowd about how I'm taking in all their faces and how splendid it's been." He's reflecting on the past few months since earning his spot in the coveted primetime spot of WrestleMania. Rhodes came back from his injury hiatus in January, only to end up as the last man standing in another marquee event, the 2023 Royal Rumble.
“Honestly, that's what it's been,” he continues. “It's been splendid. You work your whole life for something. Then you get there and it's like you don't have a plan anymore. It starts to feel like, week by week, everything is drastically different. I've wrestled more matches on The Road to WrestleMania than Roman might have wrestled this year.”
Regardless of Reigns’s in-ring schedule, he's had the most impact on the sport since John Cena in his prime. WrestleMania 39 is his sixth time in the show’s main event and third consecutive headlining stint as champion. He’s currently enjoying the sixth-longest title reign in WWE history: 950-plus days and counting. After hearing boos for a large portion of his career as a good guy or a “face,” Reigns finally broke back bad in August 2020. He's a villain—or “heel”—now. Ironically, fans cheer on Reigns more than they ever have, watching him conclusively take out each and every opponent that has challenged him.
“He even beat Leukemia [in real life]. That’s beautiful man,” attests hip-hop star and wrestling fan, Westside Gunn. The rapper attends several events throughout the year. He’s been a staple of WrestleMania the past several years, seated in the front row with friends and fellow MCs like Wale and Smoke DZA. “I don't think there's nobody on the planet that's better than Roman,” Gunn continues. “As far as wrestling in the ring, as far as character, the big ticket is Roman. He’s worked his ass off since [debuting] in his Shield days.”
But there's nothing like WrestleMania. Its magnitude is off the charts. Rhodes, a white-hot face, will fight insurmountable odds, challenging not just a seemingly unbeatable heel—but a man people are starting to refer to as the GOAT.
“Roman's got you glued,” Gunn declares with a smile, showing his diamond teeth. “You’re ready to hear what Roman’s got to say on the mic. The two best in the game on the mic are Roman and Cody. So if it's gonna be any other champion besides Roman, it’s gonna be Cody.”
“To see him fight Roman after going undefeated for a whole year,” Smoke DZA adds, “I’m a betting man, so I will bet on Cody.”
But as always with WWE, you can never say never. Some are even comparing Rhodes vs. Reigns, set to take at the behemoth SoFi Stadium, to all-time matchups in the sport: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. The Rock, and even last year’s Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar title unification match. SoFi will be sold out both nights of WrestleMania weekend, plus viewership on Peacock streaming network is expected to reach an all-time high. Everyone wants to see if Rhodes can win his biggest match. Ever.
“I want to be the best wrestler in the world, the biggest superstar on the planet for many reasons,” Rhodes says unapologetically. Two of those reasons are the ladies in his household. Rhodes is very candid about the support he has from his wife Brandi—known to wrestling fans as former wrestler, ring announcer, and executive, Brandi Rhodes—and the inspiration he receives from his baby daughter, Liberty. “I have everything I’ve ever wished for,” Rhodes adds. He says he literally would not be at WrestleMania without them. “They’ll be at WrestleMania and be able to see what we do all this work for—the time away that I do spend—what it culminates with.”
Rhodes and Brandi married in 2013, not too long after he says his spirit was “broken” by his status in the WWE. While taking on the character of the cartoonish Stardust, Rhodes realized that after almost a decade in the company, he was far way from his dream of headlining WrestleMania. Rhodes couldn’t find his footing—and fans weren’t heavily invested in him. So much misery over his career set in, he contemplated leaving the ring to take online classes so he could teach wrestling at his old high school. In 2016, Rhodes bolted from the grand stages of WWE for the independent wrestling circuit, where he was suddenly fighting in front of crowds that would be low as a few hundred people.
“The thing I needed when I left was the connection with the audience,” Rhodes says of his WWE departure—and what he found elsewhere. “I was in a lot of pain. I was like a raw nerve. I needed to connect. When you connect with one fan, it's amazing. Connect with ten fans, it's amazing. Connect with a hundred fans, it's amazing. But in my mind, I wasn't thinking, I wonder if I can connect with the billions of fans watching? Because although I had been in front of them, I had rarely fully connected with them.”
In 2007, Rhodes debuted in WWE—and the next year, he won Tag-Team Gold teaming up with Ted Dibiase Jr., the son of “The Million Dollar Man,” Ted Dibiase. AKA the guy who infamously tried to buy Hulk Hogan’s World Heavyweight title in 1987. When that didn’t work, Dibiase Sr. hired Andre The Giant to win it for him in the ring. If you haven’t connected the dots yet, Rhodes is also a second-generation wrestler, the son of wrestling icon, “The American Dream,” Dusty Rhodes.
The uber-charismatic Dusty became such a huge wrestling star in the latter part of the '70s and the early '80s that Vince McMahon wanted to build the WWF around him, years before Hulk Hogan came along. Dusty declined and wrestled for companies in the south, becoming one of the most transcendent superstars the sport has ever seen. His everyman tales of being the son of a plumber resonated with everyone. Rappers such as LL Cool J, Lil Wayne, Outkast and Killer Mike have name-checked him in their songs.
“Dusty was salt of the earth,” Killer Mike tells me. “What is more hip-hop than growing up poor and making art out of that poverty and making profit? What is more hip-hop than taking pride in being the son of a tradesman?”
On October 29, 1985, just a few months after Cody was born, Dusty went on TV and delivered one of his most popular and soul-stirring promos, known as “Hard Times.”
“Hard times are when a man has worked at a job 30 years. 30 years!” Dusty, who grew up attending Black Baptist church, said with the passion of a Reverend. “They give him a watch, kick him in the butt, and say ‘Hey. A computer took your place, daddy.’ Thats hard times.”
“My dad got laid off from Hall Steel. Every man felt that,” says Killer Mike. “Dusty didn’t get on there and cry and complain, but he would give you some speeches that made you sympathize and empathize with him.”
In 2007, Rhodes and his older brother Dustin had the honor or inducting their father into the WWE Hall of Fame. Dustin made his WWE debut in 1990—he was jumped on TV by The Million Dollar Man. He still wrestles to this day, having a WWE Hall of Fame-worthy career himself, primarily for his unforgettable character, Goldust.
Rhodes and Ted Jr. would soon align with fellow second-generation wrestler Randy Orton, forming the formable three-man crew, Legacy. The trio broke up in 2010. For the next several years, Rhodes morphed into a few personas, the narcissistic “Dashing” Cody Rhodes. From there, it was a not-so-dashing version of himself who wore a protective face mask—and Stardust, who was a quasi-spinoff of Goldust.
After Rhodes left WWE, he spent two years wrestling for both small indie companies and established leagues like Ring of Honor. On that circuit, he regained his confidence. Rhodes tried new moves and expanded his ring repertoire. In 2018, he was reborn yet again, helping to form All Elite Wrestling—which is owned by billionaire sports titan Shahid Khan. At AEW, Rhodes was once again showcased every week on a major cable network and we saw a new man, dubbed the "American Nightmare." Like Steve Austin and The Rock before him, Rhodes found that getting on the mic—being genuine and letting his real personality shine through—is what made audiences fall in love with him.
He found it. Now, Rhodes is suddenly one of the most relatable superstars in the sport. Just like his pops was.
“I almost don't consider them promos,” Rhodes says about his segments on the mic, where he hypes matches. Rhodes gets so emotional and passionate while speaking in the ring, he fights back tears. “They just feel like these excerpts from my life that I was lucky enough to have play out in front of a live audience. I grew up a really shy kid. But I'm clearly not a shy adult. I love that it's my place to let my soul loose in a public setting. Growing up where there's that public ownership, a little bit, of Dusty—growing up in the public spotlight because of who he was—I just accepted it in a way that it's now how I live my life.”
The seeds of Reigns vs. Rhodes at WrestleMania 39 were planted a year ago, the day after WrestleMania 38. Rhodes let the world into an intimate look into his real life.". On April 4, 2022, during WWE Raw in Dallas, he entered the ring—and the entire audience chanted in loving unison, “You deserve it.”
With his voice cracking from emotion, a teary-eyed Rhodes told the audience that his dad was his hero. Plus, that when he was eight years old, he vowed to win WWE World Heavyweight Championship and present it to his father. Dusty neither fought in a WrestleMania event, nor won a championship in the company. “Unfortunately, that dreamed died. It died right in front of me,” Rhodes continued, referencing his father’s death in 2015.
Later on, Rhodes said that he couldn’t physically bestow the belt to The American Dream—but he could put it around the waist of The American Nightmare.
Chants of “Cody!" and “You can do it!” rang out.
So, can Cody Rhodes do it? The buildup for Rhodes vs. Reigns has been nothing short of masterful—with real-life stories serving as the meat and potatoes of their physiological warfare. “The respect, but also the rivalry between Roman and myself is sincere,” Rhodes divulges.
Regardless of the result, the world has suddenly realized just how intertwined these two really are. During a WWE Smackdown segment in March, Rhodes finally came face to face with Reigns for the first time in 10 years. Reigns sent a verbal jab at Rhodes that cut like a knife. “I’ve been groomed since I was just a little boy,” Reigns said of his upbringing in wrestling. “Not only by my father, but by your father, too.”
Reigns, who is the son of legendary wrestler Sika, is also cousin to more legends: Yokozona, Umaga and The Rock. Rikishe is his uncle. But it was under the tutelage of trainer and coach Dusty Rhodes in the early 2010s—while at the WWE’s developmental company, NXT—that Reigns started his path to WWE main roster ascension. Dusty was instrumental in the early learning stages of many modern WWE superstars, such as Seth Rollins and his real-life wife Becky Lynch, Kevin Owens, Bayley, and Sheamus. He taught them in-ring psychology and how to cut promos. Meanwhile, Rhodes has always been forthcoming with the fact that—besides one day when Dusty body slammed and hip tossed him in the ring—his dad never trained him.
Despite the lack of ring guidance, Dusty was a very hands-on dad with Rhodes and his older sister, Teal. He even coached Rhodes’s middle school football team. Rhodes does, however, acknowledge he’s more like his mom Michelle than he is The Dream. “It's really nice to have that diversity in the blood,” he says about his mom's Cuban heritage. Her dad—Rhodes's grandfather—is from Cuba. “She’s a culturally sound and worldly person. She's just a special person."
“My mom is who I'm like far more than my dad,” Rhodes adds. “Everyone who knew Dusty and doesn't know me, they want Dusty when they meet me. And I feel like they’re jarred when it's not Dusty that they get. It's Michelle. For her to be sitting front row at a WrestleMania… That’s a dream come true for her son.”
This Sunday, rest assured, Rhodes will be thinking of his family during his date with destiny. He says that fans are “nestled” in his heart, his soul is “filled up,” and that’s how he wants to keep it. “It’s the hardest feeling to capture and it's very validating that I found it,” he says. “I don't want to take it for granted. If this ride ends tomorrow, I am a very lucky man that I ever got to drive this far. God, I'm lucky. I am. I don't want it to end."
You Might Also Like
