The 2023 Royal Rumble winner said playing the character opposite his wife Brandi was ‘one of the hardest things’, and it helped him realize he had to leave the company
Cody Rhodes is coming off one of the biggest moments of his career – and preparing for the possibility of an even bigger one at WrestleMania 39 in two months’ time. It was his last stop on after the bell To speak to Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick.
During their conversation, Rhodes shared an anecdote to illustrate how frustrated he was at not being able to crack as a big man during his first run in WWE (from 2007 to 2016):
“I’m at the TV Hotel. It’s a smaller market. We’re at the Best Western, which shockingly was the TV Hotel. And I don’t bring up our Best Strangers. But anyway, I’m at this Best Western, and I’m sitting in the rental car with Brandy.” [his wife]. It’s freezing because we were in Scranton [Pennsylvania] – It’s frozen, frozen. We were off the bus, the crew bus was right in front of us. It had The Rock with a picture of John Cena from the second Mania on it [29]. We actually saw this bus over a year ago now, but this story was really covering two years.
“This story — the John vs Rock story, was great. But when you’re on the card, you’re nowhere near that — and at my level, I’ve been chipping in a little bit. Brass rings here and there, but I haven’t cut it by any means. I just got sick of seeing their dangling faces.” I love John. He’s been my role model in the business. He’s a guy who rents cars with me until he gets a bus. But as far as I did, I was getting really upset. I told her “I can’t keep looking at the same people.” I can’t.’
I got out of the car and threw my Yoo-hoo glass bottle at Dwayne Johnson’s pretty face. Maybe someone was sleeping on that crew bus for all I know. He crashed all over the place and I stared at him, as if I wanted to fight that giant head on the side. This bus. I remember saying to her, ‘You marry a wrestler, you marry a female wrestler. Even though that sucks, it’s part of it. I have to get her out, and getting her out for me will eventually cause me to leave was the only way I could get her out. It was Suppressed. She’s been repressed for a long time.”
“You know, today you have a medical team in WWE that includes mental health services. I’m not saying I’ve been down the rabbit hole, but talking to someone is still very helpful. I only had other wrestlers to talk to, and I talk to them.
“You never want to go down in front of the one you love, in front of your wife. One of the hardest things for me was being stardust in front of Brandy. That was tough. When Brandi married Cody Rhodes, he was the Intercontinental Champion. He wrestled Randy Orton every night, and we were We totally rip knuckles in. Next thing you know, I’m running around in this alien outfit trying to get the most out of it, but I was so dead inside.
“We were near critical mass because I remember the next conversation was, ‘This is what needs to happen. And what I said what should happen next, everyone told me not to. But we must bet ourselves wherever we are, and I needed to.
“To this day too, I don’t know why I was drinking Yoo-hoo.”
It sure looks like he made the right bet. And based on the abs he’s been shaking these days, I bet this was one of Cody’s last Yoo-hoos.
Listen to Rhodes’ full chat with Graves & KP here.
