Cody Rhodes On Why He Was Resistant To Bleaching His Hair In The Past

Best of New Orleans recently interviewed former ROH world champion Cody Rhodes. Here are the highlights:

Bleaching his hair:

“Well, I never thought much of it. I think I was always so resistant to coloring my hair because you know, when my dad was still alive, it’s so easy for a second or third generation wrestler to just copy their predecessor. The hardest thing you can do is try and carve out your own legacy. I mean, hats off to [Cody’s brother] Dustin. When people online say, ‘Oh, he should be Dustin,’ I can tell you, he doesn’t want to be Dustin. For one night, yes. In honor of Pop, of course. But his career he carved out is Goldust. That’s his identity.

So I always steered away from the blond hair because you know — if I go out there and do a bionic elbow, all it means is Dusty is over, not me. But you know, there are exceptions to everything in wrestling. There’s no law. So, I did it. I haven’t felt anything from it, but people seem to really like it. Marty told me the other day, he said ‘Man, this change in your hair has changed everything.’ I just laughed. He decided to double down on it, said ‘Yeah, I looked at some pictures of you before, and you were kind of just boring.’ I don’t know why that is, but now I’m pretty hell-bent on keeping it, for a while at least.”

Kenny Omega dressing up as Bury the Bear:

“Well I think Kenny— again, if you ask people today kind of who is the best wrestler in the world, especially wrestling fans, they’re very likely going to tell you you either Kenny Omega or [Kazuchika] Okada. I think Kenny is carving out a reputation as an unbelievable wrestler. But I’ve said this before — that’s easy to do when you barely ever wrestle, when you pretty much take a month off, do one match, take another month off.

I work full-time, whether it’s on ALL IN, my own show, whether it’s Ring of Honor, whether it’s New Japan, I make every show. Whereas Kenny, I was actually surprised by him even coming to Vegas. I think Kenny is now aware he can’t just be an underground band that everybody says is really good but they don’t know any of the names of the songs. He actually is going to have to deliver at the highest stage with the entire wrestling world in one spot, that being New Orleans. I think he sees that. As for ruining Bury the Drug-Free Bear … Hey, there goes $1,200 on a bear suit. Thing is, there’s another mascot who I’m bringing into the fold. He’s all business and I’m very excited. He’ll be appearing on Ring of Honor TV very soon, and he’ll also be at Supercard of Honor.”