Undisputed WWE Champion “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes recently appeared on the podcast All The Smoke. During the episode, he discussed a variety of topics, including his father, Dusty Rhodes, as well as The Rock, Triple H, and John Cena. He shared the reasons behind his choices for these four wrestlers being on his Mount Rushmore of WWE.
Rhodes said, “That is not a quick hitter. That is like — I wonder if I can qualify it further. Because my Mt. Rushmore — if anyone’s watches my series of interviews, they often think I just have told a different story each time.“
On Dusty being on the list:
“My Mt. Rushmore. I think a lot of it has to do with — so I was talking to my buddy who’s another wrestler this morning. And I was saying that your legacy a lot of times depends on your last chapter, and not always your active chapter. Did you offer anything after you left. So I put my dad on Mt. Rushmore because his final chapter in the business is hilarious. Half the NXT guys, including Roman and Seth, were under his tutelage. WarGames is still a show that we do to this day. The Rhodes name is still on in the business and currently has the game’s number one title. He just had an unreal ‘from the grave’ chapter. He threw another jumper from the grave. Uh, so he’s on there Mt. Rushmore-wise.”
On The Rock being on the list:
“I think the Rock is on there Mt. Rushmore-wise. He came back to a very tumultuous WWE a year or so ago. And decided, ‘Nope, I’m not going to deal with that. I’m instead going to create a new character, even though I’m already one of the greatest characters ever.’ That being the final boss. And we’ve just scratched the surface on the final boss. Like there’s something incredibly special there. So, The Rock is on uh my Mt. Rushmore.”
On Triple H being on his Mount Rushmore:
“Again, final chapters that you still are — I would put Triple H on there. Because he’s put the entire WWE on his back. And if the guy with the title or the girl with the title can’t carry the load, he’s there even as an executive, carrying the load. and looking to expand our industry.”
On Cena being on his Mount Rushmore:
“We got to put the Five Knuckle Shuffle. We got to put John on there, Cena on there. Because again, last chapter if you’re a young wrestler and you go up to John at his final show in [Washington] DC on Saturday Night’s Main Event and say, ‘Hey John I, want to be a wrestler.’ He’s going to give you 30 minutes plus of his time. That’s just an insane bandwidth. Like, my nephews walked up to them and they got the greatest lesson they’ve ever got in their life. And he didn’t need to do that. ‘Hello’ is good. You shook his hand, you know? Move on. No man, he’s just giving his — he’ll go down as the hardest-working superstar ever. So that’s a great four-headed Mt. Rushmore”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
