WWE superstar Cody Rhodes recently joined the Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Dale Jr. Download for an in-depth conversation about his father, Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes, and how their promos differ from each other. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Talks Dusty’s famous Hard Times promo:
There are so many great wrestling matches, I love going back and watching full matches. Most of the time, the memories and moments we’re connected to, aren’t an actual match. Dusty, for example, Hard Times, the promo he did, that’s typically what most people will bring up and talk about and get into. They’re not actually talking about the match that it referenced. I remember, but a good chunk of fans connected to the promo.
How Dusty taught promo class at NXT:
My dad used to teach promos at NXT, he never called it promos, he called it communications class. I got what he meant years in doing it. His idea of communicating was connecting. You can do something really cool, a high spot, flips and crazy athleticism, but if they don’t care about you, it’s like watching fireworks. You did it, we’ve seen it. He had the ability to make them care about him or at least dislike their opponent. That’s the most important thing. I have a wrestling school now, and that’s my favorite day. That’s so important, and a lot of people today don’t want to work on it. I understand. You see what you see on TV and guys doing this athletic stuff, but it’s not something people want to work on all that much. I have gotten into the habit where I overwork on promos.
Says his promos lack the soul his dad’s did, but that’s okay to him:
In WWE, there is a lot of structure and brain trust. There’s a writer, a voice memo, and we go back and forth. Then there are legends backstage who will chime in and have an idea. I’ve been very lucky that people like these interviews and moments. They’re very different from Dusty’s. There’s not the ‘soul’ that Dusty presented, they’re almost a political campaign element to how I do an interview. They have to be. I can’t be him.
Elsewhere in the interview, Cody spoke about the Stardust gimmick given to him during his previous WWE run and how much he disliked it. You can read about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
