During the scrum following WrestleMania 38 (Night One), Cody Rhodes told the wrestling media that he wants to be the most “fearless” version of himself heading into his second run with WWE. He said,
“If anything, I want to present myself without fear. When I was here (before), I was a kid, I was scared. Look around, there is 50 people monitoring this interview, there is the chairman himself. There are guys like Hunter. There is Stephanie. There are these dynamic figures. Nick Khan. When you’re a kid, that’s scary. I was a kid. To be able to come here and knowing what works for me and keeping the disruptive things that I do.
“No matter, this was my place for so long, but I’m an outsider in this moment. I don’t know that many people. To work and compete without fear. Here’s what happens; if you do something that’s off color or not what your producer or boss wanted, you come back and they yell at you.
“What’s the worst that can happen? The alternative is, you go out there and you blow it because you’re trying to play it safe, which happened to me so much in the first ten years. I would rather live and die by what I do. I told everyone who helped court me into this, ‘I have to do me.’ I’m not going to be rude to anybody, but I can’t wait until the first writer comes up to me.
“I can’t wait. I’m not going to be rude, but I’ll probably just lie to your face. ‘Sounds great.’ I mean no disrespect. Suspension of disbelief in wrestling. There is nothing fake about what I do. That’s one of the hardest things about being me. The heat stays on. There is no gimmick. American Nightmare is a name, but it’s just me. I have to do me. That doesn’t mean not listening to these individuals who know and have the knowledge, but to work and compete without fear. The worst thing that happens is you say, ‘I’m sorry, won’t happen again.’ If your segment doesn’t work, nobody backstage gets credited for how it doesn’t work. It’s you who sucks. I learned that the hard way.”
You can check out the press conference featuring Cody Rhodes below:
