In skilled wrestling, nothing is extra vital than the story. And the storyline surrounding Cody Rhodes over the previous eight years has been probably the most compelling and all-encompassing in wrestling historical past. He was raised below the shadow of his late hall-of-fame father, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, and the longtime WWE star lengthy struggled to determine learn how to embrace his household legacy.
After a 10-year run with the corporate, Rhodes shockingly walked away from WWE lower than a 12 months following his dad’s sudden demise in 2015. Rhodes launched into a six-year journey to rediscover himself, the enjoyment of professional wrestling, and his misplaced connection along with his dad by rejoining the unbiased scene. Dubbed “The American Nightmare,” Rhodes wrestled in all places from grade college gymnasiums in Kentucky and Minnesota to a offered out Tokyo Dome in Japan. And shortly, the second-generation professional wrestler parlayed his personal success into forming All Elite Wrestling, the largest WWE competitor since WCW fell within the early 2000s.
“The very first thing you study in wrestling is one thing that it took me some time to rediscover once more: it’s totally enjoyable,” Rhodes instructed GQ Sports activities just lately. “It’s very, very, very enjoyable.” And as Rhodes’ rediscovered the “leisure” facet of what Vince McMahon famously referred to as the “sports-entertainment” enterprise, he maybe unknowingly set himself up for one in all wrestling’s best comeback tales: returning to WWE in early 2022 and proclaiming he’d come again to win the world title his dad was by no means in a position to seize. He spent the remainder of the 2022 chasing down Roman Reigns to upend his record-long world title run, as soon as wrestling by way of a gruesome pectoral tear, however in the end got here up inches quick at WrestleMania 39 this previous April.
This storyline, which has blended real-life trauma with just a few sneak peaks behind the scenes in WWE, is the topic of a brand new documentary about Rhodes’ return to the corporate, The American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes, which premiered on Peacock this week. Now constructing himself again up once more to probably face Reigns as soon as extra at subsequent 12 months’s WrestleMania 40, GQ Sports activities caught up with Rhodes to speak in regards to the doc, his world title chase, and his grudge match with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam this Saturday at Ford Discipline in Detroit—the most recent hurdle in Rhodes’ entry in professional wrestling’s historical past books.
GQ: Ever because you got here again to WWE, you’ve mentioned it’s your objective to “end the story” and win the undisputed world title in your dad. So, the place are we at in your story now?
Cody Rhodes: I’d say we’re on the most difficult half, by far. The torn pec final 12 months at Hell in a Cell was an unimaginable problem for me as an athlete and entertainer, however Brock Lesnar—three matches with Brock Lesnar—is difficult.
The opposite a part of the problem is rising a reference to the viewers. It’s wonderful and I am so grateful to have it, however I believe a part of you is at all times scared. What if it goes? What in the event you lose it? Since you had this and so they rode with you to WrestleMania. Are you able to get again there? These two phrases are actually the entire thing: “get again.”
Wrestling legends like Triple H, Randy Orton, and Hulk Hogan are interviewed in your new documentary, and so they say you found a newfound confidence once you first left WWE. How a lot change do you are feeling now that you just’re again?
I believe essentially the most assured you may be is once you do all of it with your individual arms. There are such a lot of issues that got to me: my final title, my lineage. I really like that the brand new documentary is subtitled “Changing into Cody Rhodes,” as a result of I used to be already Cody Rhodes, however I fully get what it means. What does that function actually really feel like once you step into it? And I did not step into that function till just lately. It is all issues that have been constructed by hand in a way of how I needed to look, how I wish to be within the ring, how the music goes to be. Each little piece of it needed to come collectively. And for me, I’ve by no means been extra assured in how I’m within the ring.
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