Joining Jimmy Traina on the S.I. Media podcast, Cody Rhodes discussed a plethora of topics ahead of the biggest night of his life, as he prepares to face the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, Roman Reigns, in the main event of WrestleMania 39 and fulfill his family’s destiny.
Having discussed being jealous of “Dusty’s kids” in a recent interview with the Associated Press, Rhodes further delved into detail on the subject on the podcast. He said,
“I think the jealously was more intense than I even want to admit. It started even before he [Dusty] passed when NXT was down the street from my house, where they first started doing their TakeOver shows. I wanted the sort of experience they were getting, I wanted to be in Dusty’s promo classes and wanted to know what he was sharing with them. We had never had that [sort of] interaction. When he was a writer for WWE, and I was being brought up on the road, he asked to be taken off the road and he went to Florida and started that [NXT] job. So, we never were truly a coach and a player. It was intense jealousy, it only furthered when I had slipped myself down the card. The ones who were particularly hard to watch were Charlotte, Roman, Seth, Mox, Kevin, Sami, Sasha Banks, Bayley — those were very tough to watch.”
The American Nightmare also revealed that he frequently lashed out during the time, even on Triple H, who constantly referred to the aforementioned wrestlers as “Dusty’s kids.”
“I definitely lashed out. I lashed out at Hunter, too, because he was the one constantly referring to them as Dusty’s Kids. My sister Teal and I hated that. But we also couldn’t say that aloud because they [Dusty’s Kids] were doing so great, representing him better than even I was.”
On never having had a mentor-pupil relationship with his legendary dad, Cody said,
“He was such an active father for me, and the absolute perfect dad. I think that’s what his bandwidth was for — it wasn’t to teach me how to do a hip toss, a body slam, or what to do if the crowd goes off the rails in the middle of an interview. It wasn’t that. It was to teach me to be a functioning adult. It’s why I said in his 2007 Hall of Fame induction that he wasn’t afraid of me failing [as a wrestler].”
In the same interview, Rhodes also made it crystal clear that he feels like he is already the face of WWE. You can check that out here.
Cody Rhodes is set to challenge Roman Reigns for his Undisputed Championship just a few hours from now. Can The American Nightmare finish the story?
