Cody Rhodes Reveals Who He Used To Be Jealous Of In WWE
Former WWE Intercontinental Champion and current Ring Of Honor (ROH) star Cody Rhodes recently did an interview with Edge and Christian on their podcast, E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness. During their chat, Rhodes explained why he feels he owes a tremendous debt to Rey Mysterio:
“I have a Wookiee life debt to Rey Mysterio and he doesn’t even know it.” Cody continued, “Rey was kind of the one who ribbed me and brought me into the office that day with Vince [McMahon] and said, ‘I want to work Cody at WrestleMania – he [has] got some good ideas.’
“And I did, thank God. And that’s where I think Vince kind of even played me. He said, like, ‘oh, do you have it on paper?’ and I actually had it on paper in my bag and I handed it to him. And after that, he kind of just grumbled and I got a ‘yes’ out of that grumble.
“I owe Rey everything I have, man. He [doesn’t] even know. He [doesn’t] even spell my name right, C-O-D-E-Y. That’s got to be a rib.”
Rhodes also opened up about how he learned that you can always work harder in WWE, no matter how hard you think you’re already working:
“One thing I consistently learned with WWE, I’m sure [Edge and Christian] both, I know [Edge and Christian] both figured this out over and over again, you think you’re working hard, and then you enter something new, you fill that block.
“And then, you’re like, ‘gosh, I’m covering this every second of every day.’ Like, in that company, you always find out that you could be working harder, I guess, if that makes any sense. There’s always this graduated level you’re working at.”
Cody then opened up about being a “fall guy” during his time in The Legacy, as Randy Orton was already a top guy while DiBiase Jr. was being groomed to be a top guy:
“With The Legacy particularly, I was the ugly duckling. I had a great spot, but I was the fall guy. Teddy was positioned to be the next Randy. Randy was the man.” Cody explained, “I knew I had to supersede Teddy in terms of they put me on SmackDown, they we’re expecting much, but they definitely didn’t set me up to fail. I started the ‘Dashing’ Cody Rhodes stuff and during that period, I learned that I had to work a-whole-nother degree harder to compete.”
Rhodes then went on to explain why he was “incredibly jealous” of DiBiase Jr. and when he realized he needed to stop trying to compete with him and other young WWE talents:
“There was this pivotal moment where I had to stop competing with my peers like Dolph Ziggler, and [The] Miz, and DiBiase, and [Jack] Swagger, all those guys.” Cody recalled, “there came a moment when I stopped competing with them. We did a South America tour and after a show, Teddy got real drunk on the bus.
“Many guys get real drunk on the bus. I loved Teddy, but I was really jealous of him, just incredibly jealous of him. And he came into catering and he was so drunk only one eye was open, and he’s kind of just like slurring his words, and he approached the piano. It was a really nice piano in the middle of South America, like this balcony overlooking the water, and all this.
“And he flipped the piano lid up real hard and I was like, ‘oh no, this is going to be a mess.’ And he sat down and with one eye, he starts playing, and he starts playing some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard from a piano and he’s just smashed, just destroyed. And I actually remember I told someone at the table, ‘do you know what? I’m done. I’m done competing with him.
“He’s just… I’m just going to compete with myself because when you’re a [WWE] Hall Of Famer’s son and you don’t have to work very hard to get the gig, it becomes a matter of once you get the gig, you have to work incredibly hard to even get in your own discussion.”
You can listen to Rhodes’ interview on the E&C Pod Of Awesomeness by clicking this link here.
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions