WWE star “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes appeared on the Heyman Hustle Roundtable, discussing various topics, including his perspective on being perceived as a “nepo baby.”
Rhodes said, “Well, you kind of hit this wall, and I imagine everyone here would probably say this… But you kind of hit this wall where you’re like, ‘Hey, f**k ’em.’ You kind of hit this wall where you’re literally like, ‘F**k ’em.’ And I mean that about like — because what I find that people don’t understand is, I’m not working hard because Dusty Rhodes told me to work hard. And I’m not even working hard — it’s unrelated to him. Now, it’s put out there as like, ‘Oh, you got the boots to fill, the shadow, like all that.’ And it does make sense, and I do understand it. And I respect when people come at it from that element of it.
On pushing back on the criticisms:
“But I would make this guess and seem — I’d say it’s an educated guess. These parents [Dusty, Ric Flair, Ice Cube, Paul Heyman] are all celebrity parents, right? They’re performers, they’re storytellers, right? These parents. But above all not to get sappy — they’re very, very clearly good parents. That’s why I work hard. And you get in that moment. It’s like, ‘Oh, you know, you’re Dusty’s kid. You know, you’re Cube’s kid. You know, you’re Ric’s kid. You’re Paul’s kid. You’ve got to do more than everybody else.’ Motherf**ker, I was already going to do more than everybody else. But sure, I’ll tell you that’s why. I’m not trying to like — but I hit the ‘F ’em’ wall real quick with people.”
On where his work ethic comes from:
“You know, my work ethic doesn’t come from my father. It comes from my mom. She don’t get no credit, you know what I mean? And like, we all got two parents. Like, we’re always talking about them. But to me, I hit that wall quickly. People will tell you work twice as hard, and I understand it. But I think everyone here already knows, there’s certain people that were already going to work twice as hard. And maybe it’s just a safe outlook for someone who is not second or third generation to go, ‘Hey, you got to do that. Hey, you got to do this. It’s like — man, this is 2000-whatever, ’26, ’27. Like, we got to do this anyways.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
