When Cody Rhodes returned to WWE in 2022, he was determined to bring every aspect of The American Nightmare with him.
Rhodes left the company under a cloud of frustration in 2016, having portrayed the face-painted Stardust character for some time. When he made his comeback, though, it was a very different Cody that greeted the WWE audience as he appeared with the full ‘American Nightmare’ persona he had developed on the independent scene and in AEW.
During a recent appearance on Chris Van Vliet’s Insight podcast, Rhodes revealed that he fought to keep his theme song, ‘Kingdom’ by Downstait, the same as well as it was a key part of the whole character.
“The one thing I was really clear about of all things, the music has to stay the same. And the reason the music had to stay the same was the music wasn’t just at AEW. The music was at Ring of Honor, New Japan, every independent I could possibly go to all over the world.
“That was the music, including the line that I recorded on my iMac in my living room, gosh knows when, the wrestling has more than one royal family. For sure they were going to take that out, for sure. No way, somehow, someway, we’ll get there and it says sports entertainment. Like we’ll be dubbed over the wrestling but no, they kept it let it be.”
Rhodes sats there was a different version that was given to him as an option, but he thought his fans would be “mad” if it was changed.
“And there was a version of my song if I can find it, I’ll send it to you. There was a version of my song that was different, that was an option. And I just thought I think the audience would be really mad. Kingdom is I’ll follow you to the end. We can’t discredit that. We have to, we have to have it.
“So that was probably the most important piece of, okay, we’re gonna bring the Nightmare brand as it is, the most important piece is that song. I didn’t know it, but I was fighting for it.”
Cody Rhodes was “burned out” by part of his AEW role
Alongside Tony Khan and The Young Bucks, Rhodes was one of the key people behind the formation of All Elite Wrestling in 2019 and while there was both a wrestler and an Executive Vice President.
During the same interview with Chris Van Vliet, the star admitted that the EVP side of things “burned him out” as he was afraid to pitch his creative ideas to anybody. In WWE, though, he is happy being able to just go out and perform.
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