Cody Rhodes just revealed the origin of the Cross Rhodes, and Jamie Noble played a key role in helping him lock it in as his finisher.
While speaking to ESPN, Cody Rhodes explained that the Cross Rhodes move had existed before under names like Roll of the Dice, but he needed something reliable during his Legacy run.
“I needed something I could hit a lot of people with. It used to be called Roll of the Dice—it had a couple of other names—and other guys did Cross Rhodes before me.”
Cody said the move came together during a busy WWE schedule when he, Ted DiBiase, and Randy Orton were working constantly as Legacy. There wasn’t much time to experiment, so Noble suggested trying the move that night.
“I needed something I could hit on a lot of people with, and I think I was in a pinch because we had Legacy at the time. They wanted us to do more stuff, and we were running Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. You were kind of doing what you did on TV, and there wasn’t a lot of exploratory time. So I got some time in the ring with Jamie Noble, and he said, ‘Why don’t we just do this tonight and see if it works?’ And once we did it and it worked, I didn’t want to turn my back on it. So it became a thing.”
The Undisputed WWE Champion also explained why he sometimes hits three Cross Rhodes in a row. He said it was never originally about needing three finishers to beat someone, but about playing off the crowd’s energy.
“Why I started doing three isn’t for the reasons people think. I started doing three based on the energy of the crowd. There’s something fun about hitting one, then them thinking, ‘Oh, he’s going to hit another,’ and then hitting another, and then, ‘Oh man, one more.’”
Rhodes admitted that some opponents do require more than one Cross Rhodes, but he credited Noble for helping him make the move his own.
“It had less to do with needing three to beat anyone—although you do need three to beat some people—but yeah, Jamie Noble passed that on to me, and I stuck with it.”
The Cross Rhodes has since become one of the most recognizable finishers in modern WWE, especially during Cody’s rise as one of the company’s top stars. Now, fans know it started as a practical choice during a busy Legacy schedule before turning into one of the signature moves of his career.
Do you think Cross Rhodes is one of WWE’s best modern finishers? Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think.
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