Cody Rhodes on Pat McAfee Being Inserted Into His Feud with Randy Orton, There Being “A Lot Of Sincerity” to WWE WrestleMania 42 Main Events Matches, Not Wanting To Change His “Kingdom” Theme Song Unless He Becomes A Bad Guy, & More

A recent episode of the Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast featured Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Rhodes’ thoughts about Pat McAfee’s recent involvement in his feud with Randy Orton for WrestleMania 42.

“I’ve been told some of the people in his orbit, his circle, think he’s the next Sylvester Stallone in terms of TV and film. I don’t know if I’m getting that. From what I’ve watched, I have very limited knowledge on that. I love me some College GameDay, he’s very good on College GameDay. I’m glad there are people who like to pitch themselves in WrestleMania and big moments. I’m flattered. This is the first time I’ve been asked about him. Hencefourth, I’m just going with the Mariah Carey, ‘I don’t know him.’”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about McAfee’s betrayal and what happened to cause it.

“Randy Orton, we have almost two decades of history. There is a lot of rich story material. Then, we inserted Pat McAfee. We are literally in that part right there. Your question is literally everybody else’s question. You know the troops all outside and there is that clown? I’m not saying he’s the clown, but it’s an interesting fit. We’re going to see where it goes. You can’t have that much success and be ground up like he is without being a serious person. What I would say is, from what I’ve seen, everyone around Pat McAfee, his orbit, probably someone needs to say ‘no’ every now and again. You need that one guy being like, ‘I don’t know, man. Jumping into the WrestleMania main event.’ Looking up while I’m getting my ass kicked, he’s wearing shades. It’s a different era of wrestling. It’s like watching a guy at a bar doing a Stone Cold (Steve Austin) impression. I’m going to stick with ‘I don’t know him.’ I heard him talk about the Attitude Era. I don’t think he knows. Almost 30 years ago. Love it and it was the most prolific era of the business until the last four years. If you’re part of the last four years, you’re kind of talking like, ‘Why are we talking about this?’ I’ll stick with ‘I don’t know him.’”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about the common theme for the main events for this year’s WrestleMania 42 event involving him and Orton for their match and WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk and Roman Reigns for their match.

“When wrestling is done right, the best thing ever is when you can just have a little bit of doubt on, ‘Oh, seems like those guys do hate each other.’ And we have a lot of that in both main events this year. There’s a lot of sincerity to the suspension of disbelief.”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about him not wanting to change the “Kingdom” song he has been using for his entrance theme since he returned to WWE in 2022 unless he becomes a bad guy.

“The trick with a wrestling song, all the greatest wrestling music, it doesn’t need to be a good song. It needs to be a catchy song. I like “Kingdom” but the issue is, I hear it so much that, especially at the end of the night when I’m doing the rounds, just playing that one song, it gets you. I heard my daughter the other day, she doesn’t know the words, but she’s saying, “something, something, Paw Patrol.” As long as you get to the Woah! It’s a pretty interesting song by WWE standards. I can say this, it can never change. Unless I was to go bad guy, then that song is out, I suppose, but I’m locked into it. We’re married together.”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about how WWE’s NXT developmental system has been better and “healthier” for training new talents compared to when he came up in wrestling.

“Today, they’ve got it all mapped out really well. They’ve got exactly what you mentioned. They’ve got agility. They’ve got multiple rings, including one that has an extra layer of pad and bounce if you’re going to try big high spots. They’ve got Shawn Michaels. Again, we’re talking about probably the greatest in the ring ever. So that’s your head coach. How could you not be good?

The system they have down there with the Performance Center now is designed for the NIL athlete because they’re used to it. ‘I came from baseball, I came from football, I came from gymnastics.’ So they need all that. They need a room that’s a recovery suite. They need a full-blown weight room, which they have. They need all that.

When I came up, you were just doing it yourself, which I liked because you found like-minded people. I remember my whole class of coming up from OVW, but the system now, it’s a lot healthier. A lot healthier to get everybody ready.”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about how WWE introducing a Wellness Policy in 2007 has also led to a change where overall athleticism is more of a focus for wrestling than just having the biggest physique.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2, F4WOnline.com 1 & 2