Top WWE star and 2025 King of the Ring winner, “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, appeared on First We Feast’s Hot Ones to discuss various topics, including his perspective on those who look down on the wrestling industry.
Rhodes said, “Well, I actually think, so a lot of times fans outside our world might underestimate the intelligence of our audience. That’s kind of a low hanging fruit in terms of who watches sports entertainment? Who watches wrestling? And then I feel like it’s always a mistake because you’ll get out there and realize it’s such a wide variety. From the kids, you know I think I’m a bit of a kids act myself, but then there’s these people who’ve grown up with it and it’s this performance theater that is one of a kind. People might look down, a little bit down at our industry and think there’s nothing artistic about what we do. When really, I mean, gosh. We get to go out there and physically- I do something to you, you do something to me that makes them go up, makes them go down, that makes them upset, that makes them happy. And, as a no pun intended, a white meat babyface, as I am labeled, it can be some of the most fun ever and some of the biggest challenges. Because again the audience is sophisticated, as well as the performers.”
On Dusty teaching him to cut promos at a grocery store:
“He’d be like hey look at that lettuce over there. Look at it looking at you. What are you gonna tell that lettuce? He never really put me on the spot. He’d just get into it. Oh yeah. Lettuce, over there by the tomato. And that’s why people like you. But they don’t like lettuce. He’d get into this whole thing, I’m like what? And you’d see other people like what is this man? But yeah, he’d always make the produce jealous of one another. My wife Miss Shelly told me I gotta come get the lettuce but I don’t want it. Yeah, it was a whole thing. If you can cut a promo on the produce section, he’d say you’d be pretty well off.”
On what parts he would use to build the ultimate pro wrestler:
“Look. I’m going to make a super controversial choice. People right now, you’re going to hear the collective groan of wrestling social media and the IWC. Look, I’m going with a young guy, Austin Theory. When you check the box of oh, he looks great, we could teach him. Mic skills, they need edge. Yeah, they need 8 Mile. They need you to bring it down. And you have to be sharper than that person. I’d probably say, a combination, and you can pick either or, of a John Cena, who will never allow someone to top him, or a Mr. Heyman. Because that’s a different level of thought. Everything you’re saying is mattering in this moment. He’s judging you. He’s also enjoying it. He’s also planning for you. By the time I’m done with this sentence, he’s got a path for me. And I’m either with him or against him. Technical wrestling, probably Bret Hart. It wasn’t just the moves. It was the punches, the forearms. The best finishing move. I’d say it’s probably a tossup between Stone Cold Stunner and Hogan’s leg drop.”
On believing his WrestleMania 40 match against Roman Reigns to be one of his best:
“The first one we watch is Sting versus Ric Flair from The Great American Bash. And the second one is we watch Bret Hart versus Mr. Perfect from SummerSlam. Yeah, those two. I might say the WrestleMania 40, which I’m in. I went from being the guy who was away from there, trash talking it, started a whole ’nother thing and to come in, earn my place back and then them say hey, it’s all yours. Like literally, like how? How? Yeah, so it might be 40.”
You can check out Rhodes’ comments in the video below.
