By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Good Karma Wrestling with guest Cody Rhodes
Hosts: ESPN Chicago’s Jonathan Hood, ESPN Milwaukee’s Gabe Neitzel, and ESPN West Palm’s Brian Rowitz
Twitter: @gkw_wrestling
Interview available at Spotify.com
What does “from undesirable to undeniable” mean to him on a personal level: “I think selfishly a question a lot of people ask is ‘I wonder if people will follow him from perhaps AEW, I wonder if they will follow?’ The way I kind of look at it is, I don’t think anyone can necessarily follow the path exactly because my story was so ridiculously all over the road unique. And there was a point in it where it was absolutely out of the cards. Like out of the question that this could be a thing that was happening. At 20 something years old, I would have been so arrogant and just so braggart and bold and all I keep thinking now is just that I am beyond lucky, beyond blessed.
“Yeah, we worked really hard and I say we because it was a great amount of people and I shared my career with so many people including a wonderful independent fan base that’s followed me, a fan base that has welcomed me back. We worked so hard but also we are so lucky to be here but truly, I think a lot about wrestlers when I say ‘undesirable to undeniable’ because wrestlers get so down on themselves about ‘there’s no way I could come back from this, there’s no way.’
“If you are watching what is currently happening, there’s a way, it’s called hard work but its also a great amount of luck. Finding the right people and also probably the biggest thing is being bold. Knowing when to roll the dice. More than anything, I was trying to explain that to Roman (Reigns) the other night on Smackdown. More than anything, that’s what I do, when someone says, “oh that can’t be done”, we’re going all in, here’s the full bet. I’ve been very lucky with my gambles and hopefully WrestleMania is the biggest payoff of all time.”
How proud does it make him to see guys like Ricky Starks, Julia Hart making their own paths: “I’m very proud of Julia because Julia came from the Nightmare Factory camps. So that is like the question that anybody is going to ask, ‘Hey, how’s your school, has anyone done anything?’ We can name a few people that had experience already but really she came from camp two, did the thing with Varsity Blonds. She just took advantage of every opportunity she found, she was just hitting home runs and just maximizing her minutes in even small segments, big segments, whatever it might be. Just very proud. I keep an eye on her and Lee from a distance.”
On Matt Cardona who he says is competing with QT Marshall for the No. 1 friend spot but falling down the rankings due to him being unavailable to Cody: “I’m really proud of him, he’s out there doing the indie guy thing with the Indiana Jones hats. Everything’s Matt doing, Matt has been king of the indies now, this is going on year two, you usually only get one run in that role, he’s going on year two. What Matt does next is huge. If he goes to AEW that would be cool but if he comes back to WWE, that’s what I want, it would be off the charts. I think he’s a huge get, a huge free agent, he’s the best he’s ever been.”
On a meeting that he saw Matt Cardona had with management of a company: “I have this story about Matt, which I’m going to tell eventually about watching his first meeting with a certain member of management somewhere and how he tanked this meeting. Right in front of me. And the one big line he hit in the meeting, that I’ll never forget. This is one of my real-life friends. He said, ‘I just want to make it clear; I’m never putting on a Nightmare Family jacket or associating myself with him on screen.’ I got you the meeting, under the bus right away.”
On the career path of Dustin Rhodes: “I think I had the benefit and luxury of I came after Dusty had moved on in the industry. I think Dustin had much harder of a battle. I was almost a novelty being so much younger, 16 years younger than Dustin, Dad was 39 when he had me. I think he just had to fight something that is probably insurmountable. I’m very proud of him, Hall of Fame career. Still going, it’s one of those things where I know he’s said he doesn’t have much time left but I don’t see him slowing down either so I’m very curious where Dustin ends up. I think about Dustin very often heading into this just because he’s the family I have.”
Watching AEW Revolution: “I only saw some highlights from Ricky, I had a pirated feed, which I probably should have just figured out how to get the right feed. Not going to tell you who sent me that. I thought Ricky did great, really proud of him. Chris Jericho is an absolute legend, he’s more than a legend, he’s Chris Jericho. For Ricky to be able to deal with that and handle that in the way he did, very proud of Ricky. Very proud of Julia, proud of Malaki (Black) actually because he was somebody that I loved our interactions with and I wanted to see more of that Malaki and it’s been a minute. And then all my other kids, I’m not going to name them because I’m not going to put him over. All my other kids, one of them was out there in the main event, we don’t have to be best friends or anything but just very proud of their growth and their continued growth.”
Cody also spoke of Dallas Page is a guy he still goes to for advice, wrestlers outside of Dusty that impacted his career, how he is feeling right now, and his house show too sweet with Good Brothers, and Dusty impersonators.
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