Posted on 3/13/126 by Colin Vassallo
Cody Rhodes sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Atlanta,
Georgia to discuss winning the WWE Championship for a third
time, welcoming his new daughter Leilani Ella, reacting to
hearing boos from fans, his WrestleMania 42 match against
Randy Orton, not being the fan favorite at WrestleMania 41
in his match with John Cena, the Codyvator spot in their
SummerSlam rematch, being slapped by Travis Scott, how the
infamous Cody Splash came to be, that tables match with The
Big Show, and more!
So if the story leading into WrestleMania 40 is doing what
your dad never did, finishing the story. What was the story
the year after and the story now?
“Well, the biggest thing the year after that I wanted to do
was it was more of I had talked a lot about what a WWE
Championship reign with me looks like. Hey, we’re gonna
bring back the Winged Eagle. That took a lot, and thanks to
Triple H for saying sure.”
That came back for a night. Was there talk of making that
the belt?
“I don’t think there was ever talk of making it the belt,
but it was definitely only supposed to be there for one
single night. Then the next thing you know, it’s hanging
above the ring at the Royal Rumble, and there’s figures with
it, which you know you’ve done something good there. Kevin
Owens was carrying it into HQ, so I was really glad we got
that. Also, you know, this wasn’t a knock on the previous
run, but it was hey, there’s going to be a lot of bell-to-
bell wrestling here. I want to be defending this more
frequently, and I want the matches to be a little bit less
entertainment, a little bit more sports. Definitely both
sports entertainment, but skew to the left. So here we go to
France. We’ve got AJ Styles out of the gate. That’s a prime
example of what I wanted it to look like, in terms of what
that first reign would be. Somebody has asked me a question
recently, ‘What is this one? What is number three for you?’
I wish I had an answer, but I think every wrestler, and it’s
fun if you watch people who come on your podcast, who talk
to you so frequently, do they find their identity? Do they
change? Are you talking to different characters? I think for
me, at this point, the prime of my career, I’d like it to
really define who I am. I’m not so much worried about
defining what the belt is to me. I’d like myself to be fully
formed and fully defined. I think I’m there as far as the
American Nightmare, what that is, and how I feel, but I’ll
tell you an area that’s changing is I was never a polarizing
wrestler. Now I’m a polarizing wrestler.”
How does that make you feel?
“That’s the thing. I’m honored by it. I’m honored by the
passion of both sides of the coin. What I would like to do
and to honor those who are so excited and those who are so
not, however you’d put it, is I want to make sure that I’m
not gotten to by it. I think with everything I’ve been
through and everything in the business, you hear people say
you got thick skin. I can definitely say I have thick skin
now, because I used to not have thick skin.”
How did you guys come up with the Codyvator with John Cena
coming up at SummerSlam?
“I don’t want to tell you whose idea it was, but I can say
this, there’s a guy backstage who runs Gorilla. Shout out to
him, Temarrio. He does not like the Codyvator. I like that
he calls it the Codyvator, because we could easily just call
it a lift like it’s denoted in a production budget. But he
doesn’t like the Codyvator, because the Codyvator is pretty
expensive, and if we’re only going to use it for me to come
up, and I prefer it’s only me. But I joke with him a lot
that, hey, look, dude, we’re getting bang for your buck
here, two uses of the Codyvator, and it made him feel better
about the use of it that night. So yeah, I’ll go ahead and
credit Triple H for that one, easiest one to credit for it,
but that was fun. Also, you can tell how strong a man really
is when you’re going at a tiny, incremental pace and the
floor is lifting you, and still had me, and I think wanted
to carry me 70 yards, but didn’t need to. I can fall off
your shoulders at a certain point. He’s still got it. John,
certainly, all the functional strength, and you’ve seen all
the hard knocks videos and all that, that’s never gonna go
away.”
So, what’s the story behind the Cody splash?
“Well, a couple of things. People love to watch the table
get broken. There’s only so many ways you can break a table.
I don’t like setting the table up in the corner. I think
that’s lame. You got to break the table. You got to break
the actual table. Legs need to be down. We were scrambling
for something to do in a contract signing at some point in
my career, and I thought, hey, why don’t I just splash you
off the top rope and keep the pen and the contract in my
hand? There’s something fun about that. Plus, people love a
table breaking. They’re chanting, ‘We want tables.’ By God,
give them the tables. Then what would come of it is on the
live events, which are no longer intimate and just for that
crowd, because people will film something they saw that
night and it’s out there. My splash from the live event
started to make it out, and that is just a prime example of
you don’t always see your age, and then maybe you see your
age. So I think I’m at the prime of my career. I think I’m
psychologically the best I’ve ever been. As an athlete,
believe it or not, even with that splash, I feel like I’m
the best I’ve ever been. However, I have committed to the
idea of the Splash is a non-jump splash, it’s a fall splash.
I like to get straight as a board. I like to really get out
like a tree frog being flung from a tree. The one overseas,
in Germany, was so high up. The idea that I would jump is
insane. So now we just call it at TV lovingly, the New Jack
splash, where I just fall. So there’s no splash involved.
It’s just going to be a fall. But yeah, it started as the
idea people love a table, let’s do this at this contract
signing. What could we do? Oh, we could do this, and then we
could grab your hand, and it would be a thing, but it’s
developed into the New Jack splash, and I have no shame with
it at all, because people do seem to enjoy it. They do. That
is not a showcase of my athleticism. That’s not the one I
would put my hat on athleticism over, this is just my splash
and how I do it, and it’s become part of my repertoire now.
So you know if I go up there, don’t expect me to jump. I’ll
be falling.”
How badly were you hurt after Elimination Chamber last year
in Toronto? How badly did Travis Scott hurt you?
“Travis Scott did not hurt me. It looks like he hurt me. I
took a photo with Travis Scott at the OBB studio event, and
I never saw that photo. I like Travis Scott. I think it’s
safe to say at this point, I like Travis Scott. I like that
he lended us his time and that we had moments with him. I
mean, he took a Cross Rhodes. Most people just remember the
slap, and I’m going to be on this side of history with it. I
know it wasn’t everyone’s favorite thing. That is not the
hardest I’ve ever been slapped. That’s number three. That’s
number three. I’ll give you the list of slaps. Number two,
Bob Holly in London. He says, ‘Fire up out there, kid.’ I
don’t want to say something nefarious that gets anyone in
trouble. I think someone told him to try and knock me out,
because the way he slapped me was trying to knock a man out,
it didn’t. I have a decent little jaw. So I took said slap.
The number one might shock you, but I felt it in both of my
heels. I felt it in my feet. I had to plant my feet. It was
so hard. Nattie Neidhart hit me. It felt like an MLB batter
swinging the bat, and I walked into it. She leveled me. So
Nattie is one, Hardcore Holly two, Travis Scott, I’d say
maybe three.”
But was that a legit black eye from Travis Scott?
“I’m gonna say that John Cena and The Rock gave me the black
eye, and Travis Scott was there as well. So the three of
them gave me the black eye and the perforated eardrum. Also,
it runs, if you get anything up here, right? So if I like,
dot you up here, it’s gonna run. Some people are quick
healers too. I’m like, a real yellowy, gross healer, where
it just takes forever. So, yeah, it was not the worst slap I
ever got, and he took a great Cross Rhodes.”