Cody Rhodes recently spoke with Brian Soscia of Mix 106.1 Philadelphia and said that he believes he will reach the top of WWE because he has the dedication and commitment level that many don’t. Rhodes said that he got his best career advice from Shawn Michaels, who said that getting over and staying over is a full-time job, before saying, “I guarantee you I’m going to make it to the top of this job because I don’t think many people here do that any more. Actually, there’s very few.”
Rhodes elaborated, saying that many within the company are content with coasting through in order to achieve a “good life,” but that he plans to achieve more than that.
Rhodes also noted that his mindset is to make his character different from others. He said that he didn’t wear kneepads in order to avoid looking like his father Dusty, but began wearing them due to the pressure being put on his knees. He also felt that using the tactic to annoy people “wasn’t a money-making way to get heat.”
Rhodes discussed working with his mask, which he felt saved his life in the ring at one point after he took a kick form Randy Orton so hard that it cracked the mask straight down the middle. He said the mask was given to WWE for a potential future physical WWE Hall of Fame. He added that the mask helped him “learn more about myself than any other point in my career” and that when he removed it he felt like there was something wrong with his face.
He also said the classic white Intercontinental Title belt was “100 percent my idea” and that it took a “great deal of selling and pestering” to get it brought back. He said that though he enjoyed WCW more as a kid, he paid attention to the classic Intercontinental Title belt in the WWF and wanted to both connect the 1990s lineage of the title to his run and pay homage to Shawn Michaels.
Check out the full interview below:
