Undisputed WWE Champion “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes spoke with Complex on a number of topics, including what he would tell his younger self.
Rhodes said, “People ask all the time, what would you tell your younger self? I wouldn’t tell my younger self a damn thing. Make every mistake you can make.”
On understanding why his first WWE run went the way it did:
“I learned so much from being a way of what I was just missing, flat out. All the ‘Dusty Kids’ (wrestlers trained in NXT by his father, such as Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Bayley to name a few) that I was jealous of and mad at, well, they were probably better than I was at the time. There were things that I wasn’t doing correctly.”
On changing his physical stature during his time away:
“It might feel alpha, it might feel toxic, but wrestling is still a heavyweight industry. When you’re standing across from a Drew McIntyre or a Roman Reigns, and you’re suspending the disbelief of this battle, this contest, being a heavyweight has helped me considerably. At 6 ‘1, to try and stay genuinely around 220 [pounds] is exactly where I need to be and then continue to push it and do it in a healthy way. Now [in WWE] we have access to nutritionists, dietitian … being a heavyweight moving forward, [I’m] putting on that weight safely.”
On how he modeled much of his own career path on John Cena to get to where he is today:
“I modeled a lot of my career after the man who was the lead dog when I was here initially, and that being John Cena. Hey, if you want the spot, if you want the ball, you have to work to my level’, was something you’d hear him say in interviews, and it was very real, very, and there was nobody who could match it at the time. In terms of being WWE Champion, you have to represent WWE at all times.”
