Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, known as “The American Nightmare,” appeared on the Bertcast to discuss various topics, including how pro wrestling influences pop culture.
Rhodes said, “I was talking last night with somebody about the job. And my dad was always pretty — he’d always like to remind you to humble the job down a little bit. And he’d break it down and be like, ‘Hey, it’s not rocket science here.’ But he also looked at it the same way I look at it, where the service of pro wrestling — which is the service of entertainment — I feel is very important in this current just generally divided society. You want to do something that everyone enjoys. And I don’t know, I felt more of a responsibility to it than ever in terms of our storytelling. You’re talking about it being important. When wrestling’s really good, storytelling is absurdly nuanced. It’s absurdly sophisticated. Now, when it’s really bad, it’s the wrestling you think of. It’s like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ But when it’s really good, it can yank at the heartstrings in a way that makes you a fan forever. You might fall out, you might come back, you might always go to WrestleMania, whatever it is.”
On the most valuable thing they still have of his father, the late great “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes:
“We have trunks, we have boots, we have robes. Probably the most valuable thing we have — my sister’s kind of the custodian of all the goods. We have his booking journals. Which, it would be like if you kept a journal on tour and said, ‘This was the house in Des Moines. And this was the advance, and this was the merch… his handwriting was super unique. To see like, ‘Andre, battle royal. Advertise next time Ric Flair, Blackjack Mulligan,’ and see some of these numbers they were doing. This is a territory business, they’re wrestling seven days a week essentially. And it’s the Florida territory, then there’s the Crockett territory. From a wrestling historian standpoint, that’s the most valuable thing we have. Because you could see his mindset on who was here last time, who’s coming next time. And then you’d see when they did double shots, things of that nature. His booking journals — if you’re not a wrestling person, they’re not a sexy thing to look at. But to me, they’re the most valuable thing.”
On the items Dusty sold:
“We lost a lot of his — and I don’t want it back. There’s all these people always try to sell me my dad stuff back. It’s yours. If he sold it to you, it’s yours. But he when he hit hard times, no pun intended, when I was in high school and didn’t want us to know. And we had a safe full of good old cowboy guns and cash, it was from selling his things. And this is well documented, he was just sitting in the living room. It’s like a whole day went by where he just sold so many of his treasures off because, two kids. Didn’t want us — we lived a high level of life. And he didn’t want us to know we were essentially broke, and we weren’t because he made it so. So we we have some things, I wish we had more. Often when I see someone has something, I feel like it’s in the right hands with that person. Actually, you were meant to have it.”
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(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
