Sam Roberts talks to Cody Rhodes at the premiere of his new WWE Doc American Nightmare - Becoming Cody Rhodes about getting to the main event of Wrestlemania, losing to Roman Reigns, Vince McMahon flying to his house to sign him, the promo for MITB, the story behind his pec tear and why he regrets it, his last AEW promo, Arn Anderson’s Glock, Matt Cardona being a pecker checker, his Peacock documentary, and more, on Notsam Wrestling.

Cody Rhodes, somebody that I've spoken to when you had a mustache.

I've spoken to when you had a giant star painted on your face.

I've spoken to when you had left the WWE and you were paving your own path.

I've spoken to you once you had paved that path and now we're here as you're not only telling that story but the chapter that I think nobody predicted would be coming as quickly as it came which is you coming back to WWE in the highest spot imaginable.

For you, why is now the time to tell your story?

that's a really, you asked a really big question, right?

You know what's, when you were saying everything about We did this interview and we did that interview.

I forget how significant the post WWE interview was.

And a big lesson for me in that was, you can't just say, you have to be a little more careful.

At the time, man, I was just flying off the handle.

And what I was saying is what I believed and what was true and things of that nature.

But it just had a big, I remember at that time when it came out, I realized that there's a movement happening, the independent movement is happening without me, but I am part of said movement.

But there's a movement happening ever since I put that list out about following what I'm doing, just because they cling so much to the words that you and I had and I thought that was a top notch, top notch interview which will be very hard to top here.

But kick back to your question as far as why is now the time?

I think likely the reason now is the best time is WWE's audience, the WWE Universe.

Sometimes the pockets are different, the circles are different.

There's not as much crossover as we think.

Like you're a long time fan, you can tell me about the mega powers and you can tell me about a bash at the beach and you can walk me through that.

There's a lot of fans who come to these shows today.

There's actually a lot of people in the locker room who are on these shows today, who might not know about any of that.

And that's why I think now is the perfect time from the perspective of WWE.

Because it really does inform everybody as to what all took place.

They think they might know the journey, he came back in Dallas And Corey Graves said from undesirable to undeniable and all the prodigal son, all that awesome stuff that Graves put on it, the soundtrack essentially to The Return.

But what I love about the documentary is It's the full story.

We remember we're talking about finishing the story, which I now hate saying it.

It's a meme, but if you wanna know the story we're talking about, it's in this documentary.

Yeah, and I also think that it drives home how real this whole thing is.

And I think that that's why people have connected to it.

And you talk about connection and how that's kind of where you value professional wrestling to an extent.

That's what makes you and your mind the best is your ability to connect with an audience.

Was it tough for you right before you got to WWE?

It felt like you were starting to lose that connection with the audience in the promotion that you helped create.

Why do you think when you got to WWE that connection came right back?

Because, I mean, we were talking about this before you got here, but 1 of the things that I think makes this era so special, and you being at the top of it and the position that you're in, is that I don't remember the last time good guys got cheered.

Oh, well, I mean, Hats off to all the good guys who are out there because for a for a hot minute They were endangered species.

I mean all from the insider Perspective the baby face was an endangered species and now just look at the landscape.

There's Sami Zayn Kevin Owens and there's people popping up left and right in terms of It's not so endangered anymore, I I think at the end at AW, I was talking to my students about this the other day, it's just a case of I've never underestimated our audience in a sense that that's why I use a lot of big words and promos and people will say oh he's talking down to them no they're not they're not down like these people some of them are doctors some of them are lawyers some of them are in industrial work it doesn't matter It doesn't mean they're not educated like the wrestling audience is as educated as any audience, but at AEW I think Trying to do what I was doing there at the end was just a bit too meta Hey, The thing we want is you to turn heel.

So for me to do that, to turn heel, is by saying verbally, out loud, I'm not gonna do it, which is being a

But that's not, it didn't work in a sense, And it did because some of the, I had a really fun match with Ethan Page where crowd was just going nuts and I loved the polarized crowds, the split crowds.

I love the polarized split crowds because obviously I'm part of the Sina era of our industry, so I loved it, but it might have just been over the heads of people, but everything was going in such a unique direction, so you know, multiple shows, and money was through the roof in the industry, it was really wonderful.

The reason I think that the WWE audience took to it in a completely different way, it's as if they dismissed whatever was happening.

And this is just my hope and belief could be wrong I think it's because they knew what was what you were seeing was real there's always that gray matter and that you know suspension of disbelief but I think they knew oh his return is is more than just a individual returning This is somebody who's been away for, I think, 6 or 7 years at the time.

This is somebody whose song is almost a rallying cry against WWE almost.

I think maybe at its core most people can understand a lot of what you'll see in the doc is you can be most talented, you can not be talented at all, all these things but betting on yourself.

Maybe that's what they saw is, is, is yeah, he was this guy and helped create a promotion.

And yes, they smashed the throne and all this, but also bet on himself.

It led us to a really beautiful segment at a beautiful show.

I also think that the risky moves draw people to you, right?

That was 1 of the first things, when that list came out, it wasn't just that you did that list, it was, I think people underestimate now how risky it was then because they look at you not the way they looked at you.

You were a WWE guy and that hadn't been done before.

I think the riskiest thing you could have done in that situation was not be 1 of the top guys in your own promotion and go back to WWE and prove like no, no, no, no, no.

Like I can be a top guy in their promotion, in the top promotion.

A question that I was curious about because I think people again take it for granted because your journey has been so organic.

That when you got to the main event of WrestleMania, it just felt right.

Every single person in that building was like, yeah, this is what the main event of WrestleMania

But the more I thought about it, the more I was like, look, I'm, I mean, I remember how I looked at Roman 5 or 6 years ago.

I remember how I looked at the Usos 5 or 6 years ago.

Sammy and KO, Seth Rollins, you look at them differently and it's the same for you.

But you're still the same human being, Except now you can answer, what does it feel like to main event WrestleMania?

I think there's this natural high that you get from doing what we do.

You go out, thousands of people, they screaming, cheering, booing, whatever it might be.

But then there's a next level euphoria that we can only ever hope to get to.

And the only way you can get to it is the most selective moment in what we do is the main event of WrestleMania.

I was telling my my mom I was like you know it's it's like getting elected president in the business to know you've got the match.

You've got the match that is going to main event the year of sports entertainment, also the year of pro wrestling.

And this year there was a whole other feeling about, there was a real excitement.

I'm not knocking any previous main events, but I mean if you were there and so fine, even at home you could feel it.

It's a tough question to answer because as beautiful and amazing and that whole week I was just very zen and chill and talked even quieter than I'm talking now.

And just was so geared up and amped up and ready and every community appearance and everything I did, it was just even with long hours, it was genuinely just a blessing.

But it's very bittersweet because it's great to main event WrestleMania, right?

Unbelievable, it's again like being elected president and what we do.

You main evented WrestleMania, something that no 1 in my family had ever done.

However, after having done it, you have to win at WrestleMania.

And I think that's why I didn't come out swinging the next day in terms of whining or moaning.

There's a part of the documentary where they got me coming right through the curtain after.

I remember feeling like I had been hit with a hammer right in the chest.

And just like the color even had left my body by the time I got to the gorilla, the go position.

And I don't know if it's sadness or disappointment or shock, shock of like, this really happened.

Because then sitting there in the ring, I knew that I knew I was being filmed and it was being shot.

And I knew how sad I looked and I was thinking you gotta get up in my mind.

And I was looking out at the crowd and I saw my own family and thinking, okay, they can handle this.

They've seen everything, they can handle this.

But looking out and seeing just our fans just hurt and disappointed at the show they're not supposed to be hurt and disappointed at was really, I was waiting for a tomato to hit me in the side of the head.

I was just like, this is the worst case scenario.

So as exciting as it is to have my name there as the guy who main evented WrestleMania, which happened to be the most profitable WrestleMania of all time.

It's still, it's still, I don't know, I would love to hopefully 5 years from now, ask me a different question.

Were you surprised at how disappointed fans really were?

They did not take that loss as, I guess this is just a chapter in the story and it didn't go the way I thought it was gonna go.

There were people that said, I gotta stop watching.

There were people that said, whoever was in trouble.

If Triple H was running the show before Vince is back, if Vince was running the show, it's gotta be Triple H.

Maybe this is revenge for smashing the throne.

Part of what we do is how happy they get and sometimes how furious they get.

I was more surprised with the biggest task that came after.

I have, they have to still buy, they have to believe in me.

I just lost in front of them, they have to still believe.

And I thought, that's a tough, I've done some tough things.

Like in the doc, there's so much of it is in there.

They hear some things that were said could not be done, and oh, we went and did them.

The task though of, can I get them to be on board even more after having seen that, after having some of them invested, flown out, traveled, brought people?

I remember seeing a guy in the crowd who had every piece of my merch on, every piece, and he was just staring at me.

And it was a grown man, hand on his hips, and I looked at him, I caught eyes, and I couldn't break, and he literally just went like this.

And I had just said, I just told him, I'm sorry, but I felt that was the part that surprised me the most is every place we go to and and you know knock on wood that this Continues to happen, but every place we go to it just seems like More excitement.

I don't want to buy into anybody like, oh, that's what I knew it.

And a thing I noticed even last night was fans are bringing signs back a lot more these days.

And I've had to make a point out of acknowledge, try and acknowledge each 1 of these because they made these, you know?

And then I mentioned this in the press conference I did after Money in the Bank.

But I think we're on pace to do something very, very special but everything I do, even this interview, everything I do is so fragile.

It feels like It's just fragile, which all great things are.

They're not, like the story of Cody Rhodes is not a lock.

Like this guy from Radio Row that you interviewed as Stardust, this guy's a main eventer of WrestleMania.

But getting where I'd like to get, getting back, and that's kind of as far as I word it I think it's fragile but I try to make it a lock

you know you speaking of money in the bank this is something again I've always been curious about now I have the opportunity a year ago Before the money in the bank pay-per-view before you tore your pec You did a commercial In a stadium For the money in the bank pay-per-view and you said into the camera the money in the bank winner main events WrestleMania and all of us went what are you talking about that's not a thing I've ever I mean theoretically they could

Theoretically which makes it accurate But here's what happened talking here Mike An amateur what makes it accurate And I will say this about that shoot, that shoot fell apart because we didn't run that Allegiant Stadium, correct?

We didn't eventually go there, so it's a piece of history.

It was fun, I got the tour, stood in the middle, had a good time with the team.

And as high up as you can go, we double confirmed language.

So I think the thought process was the theoretical.

The person who's holding the money in the bank is obviously gonna be the undisputed WWE champion at some point, which obviously means they would main event WrestleMania.

The Royal Rumble is the thing we were describing.

We did Double check, I said it, I won't blame anybody else.

I said it, it's me saying it, it's technically right, technically.

considering- No, cuz if you cash in the same night, then you lose it before WrestleMania, you gotta win the Royal Rumble.

So better put, it technically can be right.

And that's a piece of history in terms of Just I don't know where you send wrestling videos like that for things that don't happen and yeah

You had to know, and the reason, yeah, if I'm doing my math right, you weren't at the Money in the Bank pay-per-views because you tore your pec and their big reveal at Hell in a Cell.

You talk on the documentary about being embarrassed by it, which I can understand.

You don't want to get an injury like that 3 months into your big return.

Have you heard the full how it really went down.

I feel like I might have said this at some point in media, but maybe didn't.

I walked into the gym, and this should already indicate where, why I shouldn't have been in the gym.

Super high, I'd say like Cesaro level high shorts for whatever reason, tank top, open cup of coffee, open cup of coffee, like I'm 80 years old.

And it's just I'm used to going to the gym every day.

You're a wrestler, you go to the gym every day.

But I didn't really have a plan that day.

There's another dude in the gym, mean mugging me hard, an older cat, and he's doing everything.

There's 2 of us in the weight room and he's taking up like 5 different spots.

So I thought, in looking at him, I remember thinking like, I'm gonna blow this guy away.

I'm gonna blow this guy away, I'm gonna blow this guy away, right?

So I put 295 on the bar, and at the time was probably benching like 305, 315, which you warm up to.

I'm not a naturally gifted lifter, don't have that type of just random strength like combine where you're busting out 225 So I put you to 95 on the bar.

I did stretch a bit sip some of this coffee looked him dead in the eyes He was looking at me sweating It was really uncomfortable really tense and as soon as I took the bar off As soon as I took the bar off, as soon as I took the bar off, that's when I tore my pec.

My pec on the right side completely is, and they say, oh, did you hear a pop?

I didn't hear a pop, it felt like Velcro.

And then it's like, so imagine the bars here.

You feel you losing, like where you have no strength, you feel it.

I never put the deals on the side for this reason because this is going to happen to somebody or you're just gonna have too much weight.

That dude came running over to me and was the nicest human being ever.

After all the staring and sweating and all this mean mugging that was going on, I remember, I knew too, I was like, oh no, oh no.

Like if you put your hand right there, there's nothing there anymore.

I mean, safest way to put it is like a boob.

And then they make you plank to see if it falls.

I planked and just fall, like why do we need to go get an MRI?

And I was just, that's why I was embarrassed.

I shouldn't have been lifting that heavy, which I did lift heavy and I did stretch, but I wasn't hydrated, no aminos, no plan.

That's before I'd really taken on a trainer full time.

Just thinking you're still legacy-aged Cody, that you can just do this stuff.

So- But you did have to know when you said, okay, you're leaving voice notes going, you gotta let me wrestle, you gotta let

When you went in there for the match, right?

And you take the jacket off, you have to know as somebody that is so entrenched in this business, this is a forever moment.

This match, this moment is a forever moment, and this match, almost regardless of how it comes out, it happens to have come out in a way that I don't think anybody could predict at how good it was gonna be.

But you had to know going in, embarrassing as it may be, this singular moment, this is a forever.

From you hearing it, so I think like you, because we're of, I think, what are you?

I'm glad you're a year older than me so you're same age, so I am of the I am of a different thought when it comes to wrestling.

And that thought is, if your legs are working, you are wrestling.

I didn't know we were having a forever moment because the modern generation, and this is not a knock on them, I've learned this at my own school, talking to them, listening to them.

The younger kids, there's nothing cool about what I did.

They're the type that I kept seeing, I remember seeing on Twitter the other day that people were taking off of shows because they were sick and that was being advertised, like such and such is sick.

I would cut my hand off if I took a show off because I was sick.

I'm not it's a it's probably not the correct mindset though.

Like it is probably toxic it is probably alpha all those things you hear whatever it's but I can't break it It's the mindset I came up with.

So when I was out there, my fear was not that I was gaining any fans.

My fear was that the very ardent fans watch this and love it so much and are just deeply intrinsic in it are going to be swayed by the TikTokers of the world who think this is a very bad example.

I can tell you right now, it's a bad example.

I tell my own kids, like the students at the school, you can always work hurt, never work injured.

It's a bit now when I say it because I worked completely severely injured.

I didn't I was not gonna not have the match I walked into the Allstate that morning and my body like my I was the the poster So see the poster in the stands and I see the poster on the chairs and the guy said of the chair goes Is this you yeah, it was all that's so cool.

This was my first opportunity at the main event so I wasn't I mean those voice notes are rough I've listened to him back a few times the director Matt Brain had me listen to him back man just I didn't know how else to do it.

So you think all forever moment, you know, you saw Jordan with the flu, right?

but you know what, to this day, yeah, you can go to the store and buy flu game Jordans, and they're gonna be 1 of the hottest selling shoes right?

Bill McKinno went right to work to make a Cody Rhodes torn peg action figure.

I think there's a plenty of people who appreciate it, respect it, and they get it.

And I wanted them to see I do have a really high tolerance for pain.

I don't know if that's a cool thing or not.

I just, I wanted them to see and give them something to remember by.

And the whole thing is confusing when I think about it.

But then in that moment, I didn't know it was a forever moment.

I felt, I can't tell what it is because there's a big divide today.

So I tend to lean towards the Gen Z0I got a cough.

Yeah, I'm not going to say no Because you take care of each other more than perhaps us idiots do, but I would rather still be an idiot.

Although this is the attitude that I've heard about in promos in the past.

Speaking of the attitudes that older generations took,

you surprised when you stood in a wrestling ring and Arne Anderson informed you that should he need to, he'd take out his Glock?

Did you know that Arne Anderson was going to make himself famous yet again?

I didn't know and 1 of the best things about it, Tony Khan can tell you his version of this is the same version but Tony and I were standing there and Arne said hey, you want me to tell you what I'm gonna say and I told him no all good.

And Lee Johnson, who's a child, who we're developing and is going to be a big old star 1 day, whatever, he's in the ring.

That to me is the best part about it, is he saw it live, in person, because when Arn mimed or pantomimed that he was going to quote, blow my brains out with his fictional thing, I thought that's it.

That one's it, this is not gonna be on primetime.

That's it That's and I thought I thought it so much in the moment.

I'm standing there I think the colors like leaving my face I immediately came to the bank and I was told please text Sam Linsky.

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