While Cody Rhodes is considered one of the top stars in wrestling today, he wasn’t as successful during his first run with WWE. While he managed to accrue a number of championship reigns, he was never considered a main event talent, and was released from the company in 2016 after his run as Stardust, which he famously did not enjoy.
One man who worked with Rhodes during his first WWE run is current SmackDown commentator Wade Barrett, who himself was regularly relegated to the midcard despite winning the first season of NXT and seemingly having all the characteristics of a main event WWE Superstar. According to Barrett on a recent episode of Out of Character, Cody Rhodes was known for telling tall tales in the locker room, and used to tell joke about Barrett’s age. For reference, Wade Barrett is currently 42 while Cody Rhodes is 37 years old.
“Cody for a couple of years had been telling stories about how I was this really old guy. Cody is a real BS’er in the locker room. He’d be telling stories to everyone how he’d watch me when he was a kid and I was on TV wrestling Hard Boiled Haggerty, and I would just come out and give out bad news, I was called Bad News Barrett. I don’t know where or how he got this from.”
Wade Barrett Says Cody Rhodes Is A Creative Genius
Continuing, Barrett explained that he hasn’t had a chance to work with Rhodes since the second generation star returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38. While he was moved to SmackDown a few weeks back, Wade Barrett previously served as a commentator on WWE NXT alongside Vic Joseph, and he was working with NXT at the time of Rhodes’ pectoral injury that has kept him sidelined since June.
“We haven’t crossed paths, obviously with his injury, he’s rehabbing at the moment. Looking forward to catching up with him at some point. But yeah, he’s a creative genius, as you would expect from the son of the American Dream Dusty Rhodes – one of my mentors, one of my coaches during my career. Great man, and Cody’s definitely inherited some of that genius when it comes to the zany ideas in his head.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Wade Barrett revealed that he hasn’t ruled out a return to in-ring competition.
h/t Sportskeeda