Cody Rhodes Admits He Took His Creative Freedom Too Far Outside WWE

Written by Craig Ballantyne • Published Sep 09, 2023 11:39 EDT
Cody Rhodes in AEW ring

Cody Rhodes believes he took creative freedom a bit too far when he had bears accompany him to signings in Ring of Honor.

After leaving WWE in 2016, Rhodes found himself with the kind of freedom some wrestlers would dream of. However, it was a steep learning curve for The American Nightmare, and he admits he made some mistakes along the way.

During an appearance on The Dale Jr Download, Rhodes looked back on that time of his life, saying he would get “in his own way” when it came to creative.

One of the ideas he thinks is emblematic of this was the creation of ‘Burnard The Business Bear’ and ‘Bury The Drug-Free Bear,’ portrayed by two people in giant bear suits.

The two mascots were first introduced on The Young Bucks‘ Being The Elite web series before making their way to Ring of Honor shows and even signings.

“Whether right, wrong, or indifferent, I was doing it my way. There are a lot of incidents in that run that are not right. ‘This is what we’re doing here folks, this is it.’

“Sometimes I get in my own way when it comes to my own creative. There is a prime example. When I was in Ring of Honor, they just let me do whatever. ‘WWE guy, people are coming to see him, they were smaller crowds, big autograph line.’

“One of the things I did was, I had two mascots, they were people in bear suits. It didn’t make a lick of sense and they’d be at the signing, standing with me. One was a business bear, one was a drug-free bear. It was all this non-sensical, it stemmed off a YouTube series [Being The Elite], it had roots, but if I look at the photos and you see me with these two bears, that’s what creative freedom gone too far looks like.”

Despite the misses, Cody “loved” the creative freedom, but he would have liked more guidance in what he was doing, even when he was an EVP in AEW.

“I loved it, but very much, even my time at AEW as the Executive Vice President, also in my way a little bit. Someone else make a decision for me here because at that point, I made all these decisions and was doing it my way. You need guidance and you need those people who have been there and done it. I had some big home runs and some big misses.”

What happened to Cody Rhodes’ bear mascots?

Although they were popular among fans, Cody retired the bears in late 2018, joking that it turned out Burnard knew too much about business and held him up for money outside Philadelphia.

“The bears have been retired for now. The business one knew a bit too much about business…the dude playing Burnard* held me up for money outside of Philly. He was paid and fired at the same time. Stranger than fiction man.”

H/T to Fightful for the above transcription