Cody Rhodes on ROH, Indies, and Rhodes Name Dispute with WWE

Recent episode of the Dinner With The King podcast show had Cody Rhodes as the guest discussing topics involving his ROH career, his current indies career, and the status of the “Rhodes” naming issues with the WWE.

On the topic of his current career in Ring of Honor, Cody revealed his current deal with the company is a dates based deal and not a long term one. He stated ROH were upset when they couldn’t lock him into a long term deal but his time in WWE soured him on the idea of being exclusive to a single company.

“Ring of Honor hates the fact that I genuinely remained a free agent; I did not sign a contract with them. I signed on for various dates, and I have many dates left with them. I really like Ring of Honor. But I’m not going to be exclusive anywhere. I did exclusive.”

On the topic of his current career in the indies, Cody stated this has been the happiest point of his career and he has been having a lot of fun since leaving the WWE.

“This is the happiest I’ve been in my career. It’s been so rewarding to get out there and do my own schedule. I’m very much a happy man. It’s a cool time.”

Later in the interview, Cody revealed the current status of the “Rhodes” name dispute with the WWE. Cody stated he’s allowed to use the “Rhodes” name for non-televised events but WWE still holds all the rights for the name when it comes to televised events. He hinted at no longer fighting to get rights to use the “Rhodes” name for all wrestling events and has gotten used to just being called Cody.

“It’s a very simple matter of, if I want to ask for my last name, if I want to ask for Cody Rhodes back to perform under it — I perform under it at non-televised events, it’s not secret to the fans that’s my last name — but when it comes to television, that’s WWE’s intellectual property. And I am wholeheartedly sure that if I were to ask them to go by Rhodes, they would have no problem.

But I don’t mind going by just Cody. I think there’s something cool about it.”