Cody Rhodes Reveals the 'Greatest Regret' of His Life

The American Nightmare gimmick Cody Rhodes adopted after leaving WWE in 2016 helped him become a household name and a WrestleMania main-event talent.

Rhodes adopted the gimmick as an ode to his father, Dusty Rhodes, who was the American Dream. But Rhodes carved out his own legacy with the act, and he honed it across multiple promotions, including Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and TNA.

The American Nightmare was pivotal in the creation of AEW, and Tony Khan's company likely wouldn't exist today had it not been for Rhodes in that role.

So, the American Nightmare changed Cody Rhodes' life and arguably helped change the pro wrestling business. It's pretty important.

In early 2020, Rhodes got a an American Nightmare logo tattooed ahead of a major PPV match against MJF in AEW. A tattoo on a wrestler isn't news, but this was because of where Rhodes got it. On the side of his neck.

Cody Rhodes admits his neck tattoo is his greatest regret

Since then, Rhodes has literally been branded as the American Nightmare, and WWE adopted the character and the art featured in the tattoo when he returned to the company with a vengeance in 2022.

Though it changed his life, Rhodes regrets the tattoo. A lot.

During an appearance with Santino Marella on his What Do You Wanna Talk About podcast, Rhodes declared definitively that the tattoo was the biggest regret of his life. Rhodes also noted that his father would have hated it.

"I stand by the fact that I think the work is great and the artist is great," Rhodes said. "I also will reveal, as I think I’ve revealed on this pod before, the neck tattoo I would widely consider the greatest regret of my life. And you know what? I'll live with it. I ain’t trying to get it removed, and we’re gonna rock this until the very end.

"If my dad came back to life, he would not say, ‘Congrats.’ He would lose his s---. 'You’ve ruined yourself.'"

The tattoo hasn't slowed Rhodes down at all. In WWE, he's wrestled in the main event of four straight WrestleManias and has been the world champion multiple times.

Rhodes lost a world title match to CM Punk at SummerSlam, but much of the loss had to do with the return of Randy Orton. Orton interfered in the match and hit Rhodes with an RKO. Now, both men are on a collision course and will continue their feud that began ahead of this year's WrestleMania.

There, Rhodes defeated Orton, but the match was widely panned because of Pat McAfee's involvement.

Add us as a preferred source on Google