Undisputed WWE Champion “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes recently discussed various topics on an episode of his podcast, “What Do You Want To Talk About.” During the episode, he revealed who came up with his signature catchphrase, “What Do You Want To Talk About.”
Rhodes said, “‘What do you wanna talk about?’ The whole, ‘Hey town, what do you wanna talk about?’ An individual backstage, whom I heavily seek advice from. I consider him a super genius and have the utmost respect for him because he was incredibly helpful to my family.”
He continued, “He told me that I should always say, ‘Atlanta, what do you wanna talk about?’ And that the story, promo, whatever I do, should follow suit and not just appear. He told me, ‘You’d make a great governor.’ The person thought, ‘Don’t be that. We know you can put something good together and we know you can tell us a story. Try your best to present this as happening in the moment. What do we want to talk about?’ Then it just flows and goes.”
Rhodes added, “Sometimes it is, ‘I hope I hit this and hit that, and I need to cover this,’ but the way he said it I thought, ‘Yeah, that should always be it.’ It actually unhinges me when I do it. It makes me remember, ‘I have 50 things I’m supposed to cover and I’m supposed to hit this, but now I’m just talking’.”
He went on to reveal that Paul Heyman encouraged him to use the line.
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
