Since returning to WWE at WrestleMania 38 in 2022, Cody Rhodes has made it clear that he has one goal, and that is to do what his father, Dusty Rhodes, could never do and capture the WWE Championship.
By winning the 2023 Royal Rumble, The American Nightmare got one step closer to achieving his dream as he will now go on to face either Roman Reigns or Sami Zayn for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 39.
Cody Rhodes reduced Paul Heyman to tears
With Rhodes likely to be facing his Tribal Chief on the Grandest Stage Of Them All, Paul Heyman confronted the star on a recent edition of Raw, only for Rhodes to tell a story about the Wise Man helping out his father in 2000 when the Rhodes family were down on their luck.
The memory reduced Heyman to tears, but he came back with a story of his own about how Dusty trained many of the top stars in the company, but not Cody himself.
Cody ended the segment by making it clear that while Heyman wouldn;t pay for making things so personal, Reigns would when he takes his titles.
With Dusty being so prominent in Cody’s story right now, he has revealed that he has one rule for who can mention his father in promos.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA hour, he explained that, while it’s not a hard and fast rule, he doesn’t think people should mention The American Dream if they didn’t work with him in some capacity.
“One thing that’s burnt into my brain is, I forget if it was Eddie Guerrero — I was watching WWE with my dad, and he told me, ‘When people say, ‘He would have loved this,’ don’t ever let anyone say that about me.’ That’s burned into my brain.”
“There’s a rule. It’s my rule. It’s not a big, serious rule. If you don’t know Dusty, like if he didn’t train you in NXT, if he didn’t work with you, if you’re going for some cheap heat. You can’t use him.
“He’s not coming out here making the bionic elbow. He’s not with us, right? In the case of what I’m doing now, I’m playing on the other team, and it’s like, my dad is the head coach of the other team. Bayley, Kevin [Owens], Sami [Zayn], Seth [Rollins], particularly Seth, Roman [Reigns], all these people he helped. He didn’t train me. Paul’s not lying.”
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription