A recent episode of the ALL THE SMOKE podcast featured Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Rhodes’ thoughts about the importance of his match against Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 39 for his wrestling career.
“It just shaped me in a way that I thought it was the first time in my entire career I had a complete match. I know that’s a crazy concept because I was maybe 38 at the time… I had a complete match. I’m a slow, slow learner and that was special to me.”
Rhodes also gave his thoughts about him missing WWE’s old heavy work schedule where he’d wrestle all the time but praises WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque and WWE President Nick Khan for making WWE’s work schedule healthier for talent in the company.
“I will — and my man from Talent Relations is here — has said, ‘Don’t say it out loud’ but I will. I loved the days we were wrestling all the time. Oh my gosh. Loved it! I want it back!
It would be 200-something dates… And now we’re at a hundred and 20-ish. Again, credit to new management at WWE with Triple H and Nick Khan. It’s far healthier, but I came up in the system where you’re always wrestling. That’s how I know you would get good at it. So we’ve gotta figure out how else can we do it.”
Rhodes also gave his thoughts about the El Grande Americano character in WWE, who is currently portrayed by Ludwig Kaiser.
“Well, so at the beginning of Stardust, I looked at it as a real — this was in the era of you’re not getting a lot of playing time. But they want you to do something special — this character. You’re gonna be with your brother, Goldust. So I looked at it as a challenge to maximize. To really kind of make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t essentially. That’s always a big thing in wrestling. Take something that’s always a little silly, and then you blow it up. El Grande Americano’s a guy we got right now, who is doing this exact thing. He’s taken something that could have been a death sentence for another wrestler and is just making it special, and they don’t mean it to be a death sentence but they mean it to be a challenge…”
Rhodes also gave his thoughts about how Dominik Mysterio is currently viewed internally in WWE as someone who is the future of the company.
“Credit to whoever figures out — with load management — whoever figures out how we improve, and I’m seeing it. Dom Mysterio is probably my favorite example. Dom Mysterio does not have the amount of live events that we used to have, although he’s working multiple companies for WWE at the moment. Special, special talent. He’s somebody that’s often cited internally — I don’t think I’m giving anything away here — as somebody who’s gonna be the future of the WWE. He’s one of the ones that when it’s said, I believe it. I think I’m gonna come to a WWE show in 15 years and pay money to see and it will probably be Dom Mysterio on the top of the card, because he’s figuring out how to do it.”
In response to the host’s question about if Dominik is the son of Rey Mysterio, Rhodes responded stating:
“Yeah, but you’d never know. He’s tall. You’d know by the work and the hereditary passion that Rey has because Rey’s the greatest luchador of all time, with respect to (El) Santo. I think he really is the greatest to ever do it. Dom is special. There’s a few that I see on that list and that one for sure — I don’t wanna be overly confident… I certainly believe it. He’s somebody I’m gonna go pay to see at an event in 15 years.”
Rhodes also gave his thoughts about him not wanting to become a corporate version of himself.
“I think a lot about it now, because now I’m often put out there as the face of the company and I don’t know if that’s accurate or not but that’s often where I’m positioned and I’m honored by that role but I think, is he still inside? I know that’s like a crazy thing. Is this disruptor — is he still in there? How would he approach this? How would he feel? I try everything I can to not become a corporate version of myself, even in the most corporate settings. It could be quite easy actually. You get everything you ever want and then, you gotta find it inside. Is it still lit? Is it still on fire?”
Rhodes also gave his thoughts about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Final Boss character.
“I think The Rock is on there, Mount Rushmore-wise. He came back to a very tumultuous WWE, a year or so ago, and decided, nope, I’m not gonna deal with that. I’m instead gonna create a new character even though I’m already one of the greatest characters ever, that being The Final Boss… We’ve just scratched the surface on The Final Boss. There’s something incredibly special there so The Rock is on my Mount Rushmore.”
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