Cody Rhodes on Young Talent Being Featured at WrestleMania Being WWE “Reloading” with Talent, WWE’s Current Main Roster Being “Older Than Ever”, Being Cast as Guile in Live Action Street Fighter Film, & Him Trying To Draw A Lot More Attention To His Butt

A recent episode of The Breakfast Club podcast featured Cody Rhodes as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Rhodes’ thoughts about the young talent that will feature as part of this year’s WrestleMania 42 event and how WWE are “reloading” with young talent.

“WrestleMania in general, you’re going to see, because you mentioned the old, the good thing about it is you get to see the new too. You get to see the young too. We’re reloading. It’s very clear we’re reloading, and that’s great. It puts the fire on me, and I like that. But it’s the biggest thing we do. It’s the best thing we do. If you’re ever going to step in, if you don’t like wrestling, if you kind of used to like it, going to a WrestleMania can tell you – if this is gonna be for you, and I think it’s for everybody.”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about WWE’s main roster being older in general than its ever been before and how he views it as being a “very experienced crew.”

“Well, it goes in phases. So in like the golden 80s, it was, we used to joke, wrestler prime for the man was 35 to 42. That’s in the golden 80s, and that’s because they needed all that experience psychologically. They worked, they’d did this town to town, the live crowds are everything. How do you work with a live crowd? How do you involve them with this? We’re not doing this just for each other and we’re not doing this just for the camera. How are they involved? That now has cycled back because a few years ago they brought in, it was what I’d say is like all freshmen on a varsity team. There’s this famous picture of me and CM Punk and Matt Cardona and we’re all babies and we had won the big titles, but we didn’t have a clue really at that point. We didn’t have that experience. So now I think you’re getting back into where you’ve got, I know exactly who we’re talking about here. Roman, me, Punk, Randy, the main events of WrestleMania. I just like to say it’s a very experienced crew.”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about the meeting where he was cast as Guile for the upcoming new live action Street Fighter film and how he was concerned about how WWE would react to the news.

“So, Roman Reigns has been announced as Akuma, and I thought, ‘oh, man. Dang, man. That’s awesome. Good for him.’ But also like, ‘dang, man.’ I was really happy for him, right? I didn’t think they’d be interested in anybody else from the wrestling space, but I got a call saying, ‘would you come to Legendary and meet the producer?’ (of Street Fighter) I thought it was just a general meeting. Sincerely thought it was a general meeting, and I thought best case scenario, they’re like, ‘could you consult?’ Because I played this game and I loved this game. I had a buddy who played competitively in Japan. I’m like, ‘man, I know enough. Maybe they’ll have me as a consultant. If not, great meeting. Happy to go.’ I get there and the director’s on Zoom, he’s in Australia. Producer’s across from me, I’m just thinking, ‘ok, cool. We’re gonna talk Street Fighter, talk 1994.’ Then they said, ‘give us a second, the head of the studio wants to come down here,’ ok, that’s cool. I like meeting people. This is a no pressure meeting for me.’ She comes in, and just like (had) all the aura and swagger you could imagine. The whole room is there, and she just hits it. She’s like, ‘hey, I know your schedule is what it is, but we really like you for the role of Guile, and we think you’d be incredible. The dates are going to be what the dates are. These guys are gonna give you the information, but I’m just happy to meet you. This is gonna be awesome.’ She leaves. So I’m like: ‘What? What are we doing here? Is this real?’ I’m also lying through my teeth a little bit because the guy’s asking me, he’s like, ‘You think WWE will be okay with that?’ ‘Yeah, yeah. They’re gonna be great. Champ’s going to leave for them, they’re gonna be great.’ Thank gosh WWE’s president Nick Khan, he knew the power of that movie. He understands, and Triple H understood. It was an easy sell. But after I left, it was all set up. There’s another wrestler in Hollywood, I’ll just leave him nameless, who called me as I’m leaving, and he goes, ‘hey, how’d that meeting go?’ Like he knew. He knew it was about to go down. So I told him for the future, I go, ‘you can tell me. Like, I’m not gonna blow it, you can tell me.’ But it was so much fun.”

In a separate recent interview with The Nikki & Brie Show podcast, Rhodes gave his thoughts about how he has been trying to draw more attention from fans to his butt for his appearances during WWE shows after seeing how much attention Rhea Ripley has been getting lately.

Cody Rhodes – “I think you’re starting to see, ’cause there’s a lot of fans who notice, I’ll give you an example. Rhea Ripley’s cover that she does. It’s quite, it’s provocative, right? So, now I think there’s some guys who are starting to go, “Cool, I’m gonna lean into my thing.” So like, I started trying to draw attention to my butt a lot more. I’m like, “Hey, if they’re doing it, I also wanna do it.”

Brie Bella – “Wait, did you make your trunks smaller?”

Rhodes – “No, I just like the suits were carved out a little bit more, and then I started wearing the braces or the suspenders, which is a new bit.

Brie – “I do like that. That’s sexy.”

Rhodes – “Give it a little extra. You know what I’m saying? I’m not doing anything that anyone else isn’t doing.”

Becky Lynch – “You gotta put the ones around your thighs. There you go. Like matching your tie. You know?”

Rhodes – “Rhea does the promo and does the turn, you know what I’m saying? What’s to stop us from, you know?”

Brie – “You should. All of us women, we’re not gonna say no.”

Rhodes – “It’s a fight at that merch day. You know what I’m saying? So, you’re just trying to get your percentage up, you know? Whatever it takes, you know?”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, & 4