Cody Rhodes has been on a journey to win the WWE world championship ever since he returned to the company one year ago. This Sunday at WrestleMania 39, he gets his chance.
The American Nightmare spoke on this topic during a recent interview with Bleacher Report, where he opened up about how large the stakes are for his main event showdown against the Undisputed Universal Champion, Roman Reigns.
To begin, Rhodes talks about his mom, sister, wife, and daughter, four people he thinks about every time he steps foot into the squared circle.
The four people I think about when I go out there are my mom, my wife, my sister and my daughter. This is so fun what I get to do, but they’ve got the last name, and I just want to make sure that they’re held in the highest regards. I want to make sure my decisions reflect well on them.
The 37-year-old superstar later looks back on his early days as an amateur wrestler, something he excelled at very quickly even if he did still feel like he was lacking in other areas.
The story of how great I was as an amateur wrestler is really fun, but I didn’t have Dustin’s athleticism, I didn’t have Dusty’s interview [skills], I didn’t have my sister [Teil’s] acting chops. I felt like I was always behind somebody, and when you feel that way, it drives you.
The biggest topic Rhode talked about what his father, the late great Dusty Rhodes, and how he is constantly brought up in interviews. Rhodes adds that for this run in WWE he felt like it was other people bringing him up more than he normally would.
People will say, ‘Why does Cody always talk about his dad?’ or they’ll bring that up that it’s a regular thing in interviews or how emotional I am over it all. And it’s always fun to see and it’s never gotten under my skin. But what I noticed with this [WWE run] is it’s not always me who’s bringing him up. It’s everybody else. But for me to be able to finish the story right at the biggest event in the history of wrestling absolutely means the next story is about just me. It isn’t tied to anything else. I feel the stakes going into WrestleMania this year. I’m not buckling beneath them. I’m trying to use them to embolden me and strengthen me.
Rhodes and Reigns face-off on night two of WrestleMania 39 this Sunday. They are set to have one final face-to-face on this evening’s go-home edition of SmackDown.
