Cody Rhodes was an EVP of All Elite Wrestling before exiting the promotion earlier this year. He spent nine years with WWE before being released from the company in 2016.

The former TNT Champion returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38. He was former WWE CEO Vince McMahon’s handpicked opponent for Seth “Freakin” Rollins.

The American Nightmare went on to defeat The Visionary three times in a row but was injured ahead of their match at Hell in a Cell. Cody entered the steel structure with a torn pectoral muscle and left a legend amongst WWE fans.

• WWE Crown Jewel 2022 Preview

Former WWE Superstar Rene Dupree on Cody Rhodes

Rene Dupree recently discussed Cody Rhodes on his Cafe de Rene podcast. The former WWE Superstar claimed that The American Nightmare was entitled early in his career. Rene recalled Cody getting hired by the company despite having little experience and trying to be an actor at the time.

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H/T: Sportskeeda Wrestling

When Will Cody Rhodes Return to WWE?

Cody Rhodes isn’t expected to return to action this year. Many have speculated that he will return at the Royal Rumble Premium Live Event but time will tell. The American Nightmare recently spoke to TMZ Sports and said that he hopes his return is a run fans remember. Cody added that his return before injury was the best three months of his life.

• Chris Jericho’s Best Gimmicks Ranked

Booker T is aware of Rene Dupree’s injury accusations hurled towards Goldberg.

Dupree had been signed with WWE from 2002 through 2007. He got called up from OVW in 2003. He had been on television during Goldberg’s first run with WWE. At some point, Dupree had a pretape with the former WCW Champion. During an appearance on That 90’s Wrestling Podcast, Dupree alleged that Goldberg broke his collarbone after several botched spots where he was hit with the French flag.

On a recent edition of his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T questioned why Dupree is all of sudden publicly airing out his issues with Goldberg.

“When I hear that kind of talk like that, as far as he broke my shoulder (collarbone) or whatever, the time to speak up about that collarbone thing was back then, and say, ‘What the hell are you doing? You’re about to hurt me. Hit me like that one more time and see what happens, we’re going to be in a fight.’

“I’m just saying, that’s what I would have said. I wouldn’t be talking 15 years later about how bad it hurt. We would have had to confront each other about something like that happening. I just hate to hear people talk about, ‘WWE is desperate.’ I’m sure he (Dupree) wished he was the person in that spot where still the company was ‘desperate’ but he was the guy in that spot.”

Booker T also brought up an infamous incident involving Dupree and Hardcore Holly. It’s been said that Holly put the boots to Dupree over failing to admit he racked up parking tickets after letting him borrow his car.

Do you agree with Booker T’s comments on Rene Dupree airing his grievances with Goldberg?

Former WWE star Rene Dupree recently appeared on the That 90’s Wrestling podcast where he talked about a number of things. He also detailed his experience of wrestling with Goldberg.

The former Universal champion has a reputation for being an unsafe worker. He has injured many stars during his career which includes the infamous injury that ended the career of Bret Hart.

Dupree also recalled one such time when he was having a match with Goldberg. According to him, the former champion dislocated his collarbone:

“Yeah he dislocated my collarbone, we (La Resistance) had a pre-tape in the back with Goldberg and he hit me with the French flag and we had to do 5 takes.

To this day, if I try to flex it, it still hurts. Yeah he’s the s***s. He’s horrible; many wrestlers will tell you that.”

• Rene Dupree Says He Suffered 25 Concussions In WWE, Bubba Ray Was Reckless

Rene Dupree then discussed Goldberg’s return to WWE programming in recent times. He said that the company must be really desperate to bring him back:

“To me they (WWE) must be desperate, that’s the only thing I can figure. They can’t create new stars or they don’t have confidence in the people they have.”

Apart from this, Rene also talked about things such as his WWE career from 2002 to 2007 and a potential return to the company in future.

The much anticipated Pro Wrestling World Cup has now officially begun.

If you have not yet heard of the tournament or are unaware of the format then check out the statement from WCPW below for full clarification:

“Run over ten separate dates beginning March 21st, the Pro Wrestling World Cup will see competitors from six continents compete in eight preliminary tournaments – to be held in several different countries.

The preliminaries will see eight men competing in a single fall elimination tournament. Each preliminary tournament will consist of competitors from a single country: Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Scotland, USA. A tournament will also be held for competitors from the Rest Of The World, with eight further countries represented. Two winners will proceed from each tournament.”

WCPW has now released the match ups for the Canadian leg of the Qualifying rounds in association with Smash Wrestling:

• Kyle O’Reilly vs Tyson Dux
• Rene Dupree vs Michael Elgin
• Harry Smith vs Frankie The Mobster
• Mike Bailey vs Brent Banks

And here are the qualifiers for the Canadian Leg of the @prowresworldcup by @WhatCulturePW !! Yours truly well represented!!! #WWE #SDLive pic.twitter.com/qBoBz70JfL

— Smash Wrestling (@smashwrestling) May 10, 2017

The English, Scottish and Mexican Qualifying legs have already taken place and you can check these out below for free on YouTube.

Former WWE World Tag Team Champion Rene Dupree has been outspoken in interviews as of late. It looks like his latest, on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, is no exception. Here are some of the key quotes they sent along:

On WWE’s work with Susan G. Komen for the Cure:

This thing with breast cancer awareness, this thing that is a big deal.  I read an article that CM Punk said that this whole deal with Susan G. Komen is a scam. In 2004 my mother got diagnosed with breast cancer and it was during the run with me and Cena. I went to Johnny Ace because he always said “well I’m your boss Rene and if you’ve got problems you’ve got to come to me”. So I went to him and said what was going on with me and is it possible for me to fly home once a month or once every couple of months just to be with her and he said they could look into it.

Well, asking for time off is like the kiss of death, especially during the biggest push of your career. I don’t know if you guys realize this but cancer doesn’t go away in a weekend, it’s a process. So, I never heard from him again and basically they don’t give a sh*t about what is going on in the wrestlers personal lives. You are there to work and make them money and that’s all they care about. It makes them look good because they are a publicly traded company and if it makes them look good well whatever then. Good luck to them is all I have to say.

Does he think he should have gone directly to Vince McMahon?

That’s what I should have done. I should have went to Vince or Stephanie but then again Johnny tells you that “I’m your boss and you’ve got problems then you have to come to me because I’m Talent Relations” then that is what you do. You go to your boss. Sometimes Vince has a lot on his plate so looking back if I could and this goes out to the talent out there if you have issues go to the f*cking horse’s head not the horse’s ass.

JBL still working for WWE in light of his reputation as a bully in the past:

They do business a certain way there. I think that the office for certain people such as him (JBL) puts him in those positions to test how far they can push them and see how far they can take it before they snap. I think it’s all a part of the game. Hopefully that has changed and I haven’t been there for nine years so hopefully it’s better and it should be the greatest place in the world to work and it is a lot of people’s dreams to be on TV and to do this for a living.

But it kind of sours you when you have to work with assholes and it is such a competitive atmosphere because there is no place else to go. Hopefully it’s changed but he’s still there, good for him. It was probably worse, because I’ve heard stories from before I was there about the bullsh*t people went through which was even worse. Hopefully it’s changed and hopefully the guys have a lot better experiences than I did.

Working with CM Punk and Paul Heyman in OVW:

Paul Heyman was in OVW and I was on one of my leaves and I would still go to OVW to train and keep myself in ring shape. He would have these meetings and say “guys I’ll be backstage at 10pm and anyone is welcome to come”. Well nobody showed up except me and Punk. We were the only two guys that ever showed up because I wanted to pick Paul Heyman’s “genius”. He asked us what makes a great promo and I said it’s simple. All you have to do is shoot and take whatever they give you and you just shoot on it from the heart. Well, what got Punk so over? When he started shooting. Maybe he knew it before I did or maybe he didn’t but I know he was deep in thought when I said that. Paul Heyman looked at me and started laughing. So take that as you will. That term (“genius”) is thrown around way too loosely.

In the full interview, Dupree also talks about his theories on Chris Benoit, Christian being forced into retirement by WWE, additional comments on concussions, WWE creative “stealing ideas,” and more.

Former WWE Superstar Rene Dupree recently appeared on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast and made some controversial statements about concussions in wrestling and. Dupree, a former WWE tag team champion, says his “brains being scrambled” due to suffering 25 concussions while working for WWE – and called out Bubba Ray Dudley for being reckless in the ring. Here are some highlights of what he said about:

Concussions Ending His Wrestling Career:

“I’m pretty much done with the whole wrestling game. I’d like to do the convention circuit so I don’t have to take any bumps because my brains are so scrambled from throughout the years that it’s starting to affect me and starting to affect my daily life. Now that I am getting older, it started when I was around 27, I started forgetting stuff, I had twenty-five concussions just within WWE. You think about well I have so many, not really when you work a full time schedule and I was there for 5 1/2 years and when you wrestle what 150- 250 matches a year to have four or five concussions a year do you think that’s highly unlikely? No, that’s normal. ”

Did The Dudley Boyz Take “Liberties” In The Ring?

“Does a bear sh*t in the woods? Oh my God. I’ve had so many concussions from Bubba Ray Dudley it’s not even funny. You know Chris Nowinski had to retire because of Bubba Ray giving him concussions right? Devon, it’s universal everyone likes Devon because he’s a pro, but Bubba can be difficult to work with. ”

What he thinks led to The Dudleyz leaving WWE in 2005:

“One time in the ring, Sly screwed up a spot and then Bubba punched him in the face and bloodied his nose and Sly asked him why backstage and Bubba went off and punched him in the face again. Sylvan was very good friends with Pat Patterson and they weren’t around shortly thereafter. The WWE Developmental process and the Performance Center: Who have they developed since they’ve had that Performance Center? The ones that will become stars are the ones that will prove themselves elsewhere. Quite frankly there is not too many place to go and learn but the ones that show the heart and determination and the love for it, not some f*cking ex-football player that twisted his ankle in camp and can’t play in the NFL anymore, not some underwear model or some bodybuilder. The ones that will make it and will get over and will put up with their bullsh*t quite frankly are the guys that love it.”

Former WWE Superstars suing WWE for negligence in relation to injuries:

“I don’t know anything of it but I can tell you from experience that, yeah there is definitely or at least there was. I don’t know about now, I think they are trying to cover their tracks. I have no opinion of it. What happens, happens and I just want to stay clear from that place.”

WWE’s spotty track record with the health of wrestlers:

“I personally got knocked out one night. I was wrestling Rob Van Dam and he hit me with a spin kick and I was out for five hours. I was out on my feet for five and half hours! I didn’t get no concussions tests. I didn’t even go to a doctor. After a concussion you are not supposed to go to sleep, well I woke up in my bed and Sylvan called me up and said you got kicked in the head and don’t worry about it. You know how long I waited until I got back in the ring? I was back in the next night. Remember the Bob Holly Incident? I got kicked about fifth-teen or twenty times in the f*cking head with a wrestling boot. You know how hard the sole of a wrestling boot is? It’s like a steel-toed boot. Did I go get a concussion test. No. Did I go to a doctor? Yes, but just to see if anything was broken around my eye.”

– Solomon Crowe, who recently debuted a character where he utlizes a tablet computer to seize control of the lights in the arena, laid waste to another victim Saturday night in Crystal River, Florida.

The former Sami Callihan remarked on Twitter, “The first time you hear the sirens you should run… #NXTCrystalRiver & @KnucklesMadsen just got infected… #InfectedCrowe #SongsOfSolomon.”

– Chris Jericho will be interviewing WWE Hall of Edge this week for his Talk Is Jericho podcast (available on PodcastOne.com).

– Former WWE Superstar Rene Dupree, who won the defunct World Tag Team Championship at the age of 19, turns 30-years-old on Sunday.

– The official website of 62nd Airlift Wing has published an article on last Wednesday’s Tribute to the Troops taping at McChord Field in Pierce County, Washington. The article features an aerial shot of the venue.

– Online technology news website Wired.com published an article today criticizing WWE’s storytelling ability, but more specifically, John Cena. To writer Chris Sims, nobody embodies the problem more than “The Champ,” whose character is often promoted at the expense of others.

On the Dec. 3 Raw, WWE chief Vince McMahon had authority figure Vickie Guerrero add the stipulation of Dolph Ziggler putting his World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank contract on the line in his match against Cena at WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs. For this disregard of storylines, Sims ripped WWE, writing, “It’s the most blatant example of pulling strings to give him an endless amount of chances, and to make matters worse, it’s a pointless storytelling move. It doesn’t matter what the outcome is; if he loses, it doesn’t mean anything because it’s become evident that he’ll just be given another chance. If he wins, he doesn’t really gain anything because he’s in the exact same spot that he always is, and Ziggler loses some of his legitimacy to fix something that ain’t broken.”

The full article is available here.

– In a Too Cool reunion, Rikishi, Brian Christopher and Scotty 2 Hotty appear at the Franks & Son Collectible Show 19649 San Jose Ave. City of Industry, California, today from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Event Information)

– Former WWE star Rene Dupree turns 29-years-old today. After competing in Japan and Europe following his 2007 departure from WWE, the French Canadian wrestler returned to North America last month at an independent show.

– Speaking to Inside Wrestling, Booker T was asked for comment on the late Chris Benoit after working closely with him for a number of years. The SmackDown General Manager is asked how he separates Benoit’s wrestling accomplishments and friendship with him from the horrible event that occurred in 2007.

“I separate them because I have to,” said Booker. “You can’t put the two together. I think of the Chris I knew on the road and in Japan, eating the frickin’ noodles, traveling and working together for years. I can’t put those two people together because I really think the two were different people at the time. We’ll never know what happened, and that’s the thing: We don’t know. The brain is a fragile machine, because you can live with a person for 30 years and then they kill you one day.”

– After recently returning to North America, Rene Dupree competed in his first match in the United States since leaving WWE on Saturday in Rahway, New Jersey for Pro Wrestling Syndicate. He lost a Four-Way match, which also featured Dan Maff, Devon Moore and the winner, The Dynamic Sensation.

Dupree competed in Japan and Europe during his time away from North America. Though still muscular, he has since lost a considerable amount of weight.

– The Prime Time Players, Darren Young and Titus O’Neil, appear at Cricket Communications in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday beginning at 4:00 p.m.

– This week on “WWE Inbox,” Superstars comment on whether they’ve ever been caught picking their nose while driving.

“I really don’t care because if you have a booger up there, you have to pick it,” says WWE Tag Team Champion Kofi Kingston. “I pick my nose quite a bit.”

WWE Divas Champion Layla says, “It’s normal. It’s what you do in the car, right?” She continues, “You think nobody’s looking at you, you start picking your nose and then you’re like, “Oh God, that person just saw me.”

Derrick Bateman, however, doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him picking his nose.

“It’s not so much that caught picking my nose, it’s that I choose to pick my nose in public because I do not care what people think of my sanitary habits,” he says.

Superstars also reveal their favorite restaurants and what they stock their fridges with.

– Bill Behrens is currently accepting U.S. independent bookings on behalf of former WWE Superstar Rene Dupree through SBIBookings.com. Dupree now resides in New Brunswick, Canada after primarily competing in Japan and Europe since departing from WWE in 2007.