One of the most ingrained beliefs among wrestling fans is that veterans are supposed to teach younger talent how to control a crowd. The assumption is simple: if you have experience, you guide the next generation through the mechanics of getting reactions. But that idea starts to get shaky when a newer star has never needed those tricks in the first place.
That tension surfaced when Cody Rhodes opened up about an in ring moment with Solo Sikoa that forced him to rethink everything he thought he knew about crowd psychology. Rhodes described a tag match where his instincts as a seasoned performer kicked in, only to be met with unexpected resistance.
“There was a tag match where he’s in there beating up my partner, and I jump down on the floor and start banging the mat,” Rhodes recalled, explaining that he was trying to pull the audience deeper into the action. What happened next caught him completely off guard. “He looked at me like he was going to rip my head off. He never ever looks at me that way.”
Backstage, Solo addressed it directly. According to Rhodes, the conversation was calm but firm. “He goes, ‘I don’t really like begging for the cheers. They’ll come,’” Rhodes said. The comment landed harder the more Rhodes thought about it. Solo had entered WWE television attached to the Bloodline, working alongside Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso, and Jey Uso. “You’re right, because you’ve only ever been in tag matches with Jimmy, Jey, Roman,” Rhodes admitted he told him in the moment.
Rhodes initially pushed back internally, framing it as a lesson Solo would eventually need. “There’s going to be a night when you’re in there with your Generic Guy A and I’m Generic Guy 4,” he joked to himself, imagining the scenario where crowd coaxing becomes necessary. Then the realization hit. “No, there might not be,” Rhodes said. “Solo may never encounter this moment.”
That realization created an uncomfortable pause. Rhodes went home questioning his role as a locker room leader. “I went home and text my inner circle like, ‘Man, have I… Solo doesn’t respect me?’” he admitted. The doubt lingered until a conversation with Triple H reframed it. “It was Hunter who I was like, ‘Yeah, no, he’s not wrong,’” Rhodes said, acknowledging that Solo’s experience had been fundamentally different from past generations.
From a broader perspective, the story highlights how WWE’s developmental and booking philosophies have shifted. Not every performer now comes up grinding through cold crowds or learning how to manufacture reactions from scratch. Some are introduced already positioned, already protected, and already credible, which changes the skill set they need to prioritize.
As WWE continues to build stars in different ways, moments like this underline a quiet evolution in the business. The old rules still matter, but they are no longer universal. For some talent, the crowd work comes later, or not at all, because their path to credibility has already rewritten the playbook.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Wrestling Headlines and the What Do You Want To Talk About podcast with Cody Rhodes.
