Cody Rhodes knows people think he needs a break, but he does not sound like someone ready to vanish from WWE anytime soon. The American Nightmare made it clear that being present is part of the job he signed up for.
Rhodes talked about his schedule during an interview with Ariel Helwani, who brought up AJ Styles saying Cody needs a break because he is doing so much. Cody said he had not heard AJ say that, but he immediately praised Styles for helping him after WrestleMania 40.
“I actually didn’t know AJ said that. That’s uh I mean he uh I think it’s okay to say now when I wrestled AJ after Wrestlemania 40 I I jumped into a program with AJ Styles. We wrestled at Backlash in front of wrestling’s greatest crowd and then we had another one uh in Scotland. Just AJ Styles was incredibly generous and he wasn’t even on the way out. incredibly generous on his kind of his final tours that he was doing with me and what I needed to be doing.”
Cody said AJ helped him with the things nobody else could really teach unless they had already been in that spot. Cody admitted that from the outside, it is easy to say he should take time off. He also said he has been told that by more than one person.
“Should I be at the monitor? Should I be giving a speech at the end of the shows? All the things that no one could teach me other than someone who had been there before. And that was AJ. So I AJ very much fills a big brother role.”
“I think it’s safe to say from the outside Cody should take a break. Uh, it’s been advised across the board.”
Then Cody explained why he does not view his role that way. He said some top stars take breaks, and he does not blame them for it, but that creates a different responsibility for him.
“But also, let me put it to you this way, Ariel. There are guys who do take breaks, and I’m not mad at anyone who takes breaks, and they get to go and, you know, get in incredible shape or go do a project or get healthy, whatever, whatever the heck it is that they’re doing. they get to do that and they come back and they’re fresh and that that they get that big reaction on the first night, but then it settles back into what it was.”
Cody said Bobby Roode gave him a way to look at it, and that advice stuck with him. Cody admitted that being around all the time can make things feel expected, but he does not see that as a bad thing.
“If others are doing that, and I heard this from Bobby Roode, and I hope he doesn’t mind his name being mentioned here, well, then it’s my job to be the guy who’s always here, then it’s my job to be the one who doesn’t leave you.”
“And if that means that things can get a bit stale on occasion, or maybe a better way to put it, not stale, if that means things can get a bit uh expected, then that’s still a safe place to be. And I liked his outlook on it, and that’s really been my outlook the same is I need to be the one who’s here all the time until someone else uh steps into those boots.”
Helwani then asked Cody if a limited schedule could ever appeal to him. Cody did not completely shut that door, but he said that is not where his head is right now.
“Maybe it is. And I don’t know. I’m not trying to be um Yeah. No, I I right now I just don’t think of it that way. I I think very much of the business that we’re in. And I mean WWE is doing things it’s never done before and Triple H and Nick Khan have led it into a brand new sphere of crossover and the the largest, you know, you hear the three Rs, the ratings, the relevancy, the revenue. I want to be part of all that.”
Cody then admitted he does not think he will be wrestling forever. In fact, he said he does not see himself still going bell-to-bell in 10 years.
“So I don’t think too much about a limited schedule, but you said 10 years. Uh, I don’t think in 10 years I’ll still be uh I I do think it does take a toll at a certain point. And I don’t think in 10 years I’ll still be going. I think there’ll be another another QB1 of of WWE at that point.”
When Helwani asked about five years, Cody gave an interesting answer.
“I think five years would be a, you know, um, five years sounds good. Five years, five, five years sound good. Like if I was to sign a new contract, maybe it would be for five years.”
Cody also said Brandi Rhodes knows better than to believe some fake end date, because she knows the wrestling world too well. Cody said Brandi knows he is hooked on the business, and he even told Gunther that in the ring.
“I think my wife is a little too smart for me to try and give her that uh that hey, but once I do this, I’m out. or by X I’m out. I think she knows the nature of the game and knows perhaps what are some of the goals still left in me to do and not just goals that are self- serving as much as there’s so much I’d like my my my girls to see um of of this world and uh what we’ve been able to do.”
“So, I can’t fool her with a, hey, I know we’ll be done by X. But the best is she she was a ring announcer. She was a chief brand officer. She knows this world. So, she knows she knows. I said it to Gunther in the ring the other night. She knows I’m addicted and uh it’s a good addiction to have.”
Cody is not trashing anyone who takes time off. He gets it. Stars need to heal, do projects, and come back fresh. That just is not the role he wants right now. For Cody, being the guy means showing up when others do not. That might make him a little too familiar to some fans, but he clearly sees that as better than leaving people behind.
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