Cody Rhodes opened up about the ongoing debate between being a heel or babyface in pro wrestling during a recent appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast (watch below).
The reigning Undisputed WWE Championship contender shared his personal thoughts on the matter, pushing back on the popular belief that playing the villain is more fun. “Everyone’s going to tell you ‘bad guy,’ but I think that’s because they haven’t experienced what a good guy can really be,” Cody said.
He continued, “Bad guy is fun — you can fall on your face and make a spot out of it. You can stumble on your words in a promo and make a moment out of it. Traditionally, the bad guy leads the match. So yeah, bad guy is fun. But a good guy — or good girl — that fans are truly invested in? That they came to see, wearing your shirt, holding your sign? That’s special.”
Cody also addressed the recurring chatter about whether he’ll eventually turn heel in WWE — and he didn’t hold back. “There’s always this argument: ‘Oh, Cody should turn heel. Will he turn?’ I don’t think so. They can boo all they want. If certain people decide, ‘Yeah, Cody’s a heel to me,’ that’s fine. But I don’t think I’d ever turn, because there’s just too much of a connection with the people who were on board with me from the beginning.”
Cody pointed out how modern wrestling fandom and social media have tilted the playing field. “Every heel out there now has the best social media, the best one-liners, and most babyfaces are left standing there like, ‘Well… what do I do?’ To be a really good babyface, you have to rise above all of that — and that’s very hard.”
He praised one of WWE’s top stars for pulling it off: “Jey Uso is a great example. He’s so, so popular. But it’s not easy. It’s not easy to make that connection with the audience — and it’s even harder to keep it. Babyfaces get beat up a lot on TV. To me, it’s such a gift.”
Stay with PWMania.com for continued SummerSlam coverage and all the latest on Cody Rhodes ahead of his blockbuster clash with John Cena.
