WWE star “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes appeared on the show “Good Hang” with Amy Poehler to discuss various topics.
He shared his excitement about how 17-time World Champion John Cena was thrilled to turn heel on him in the lead-up to WrestleMania 41 during Elimination Chamber 2025.
Rhodes said, “With John — particularly when John, if you’ve ever seen it, the moment where he hugs me and his face changes, he was so excited. And I was more trepidatious in terms of, he had never done that and he had — it didn’t even make sense to do it at this point. He had never gone rogue, gone bad. So I just didn’t want to screw that massive moment up, right?… He is the [ultimate babyface] — even after what he did to me, they were still cheering him and booing me. So it was like, ‘All right. Okay, thanks guys.”
On Cena calling the spots:
“John is pretty great at the magic, except for one area that is widely known to wrestling fans and wrestlers. John will not talk low or ‘in carnie,’ as we would say… but John yells everything that is going to happen in the ring as loud as he can possibly yell it. He calls it for the first four rows, an interactive experience.”
On Cena yelling at him At WWE SummerSlam:
“The last match I had with him at SummerSlam, he’s about to slam me with his big finishing move, which is the Attitude Adjustment, from a table to another table. So, it’s highly dangerous; it’s going to hurt. We’re going to do it the safest way we can. But you can hear him yelling at me while I’m on his shoulders that he can’t see because my arm is over his eyes. I never spoke back to John, I never wanted to speak back, he’s a mentor to me. But it was one of those moments where I thought, ‘Buddy, I’m the one doing it. I don’t give a — just throw me.’”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
