WWE's Cody Rhodes on WrestleMania, Pat McAfee, Politics & More

All right.

Joining me now, he's become a regular.

I love it in person.

This is crazy.

WrestleMania Week, WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas.

You'll be in one of the main events against Randy Horton.

He is the WWE undisputed champion and the American nightmare.

Cody Rhodes.

Cody, how are you?

I'm good.

You like this in person, right?

This is cool.

This is cool.

I mean, I've seen you in person once before.

We didn't do a podcast, but, um.

I do love the fact that like I have a busted lip that we're and we're doing this in person like I want people to just get it out of the way.

It's gross.

You went right to it, huh?

Yeah, get it out of the way early.

No, that's all right.

Yeah, I actually prefer and WWE I think has now culture changed because I prefer to do everything in person.

I do not like the, uh, we've spoken via.

Zoom or what I do not like the video conference and even worse than that, I do not like when I see my peers in their car doing it.

Now why don't you like doing it on Zoom anymore?

I think that WWE now and Nick Conn coming in and paying everyone what wrestlers often for many, many years deserved incredible.

Guaranteed contracts, you can make a trip.

You can have a sense of occasion.

You have a very, very large sports audience and you have huge fans in the WWE comms department.

We're talking very inside baseball at this point, but like they love you.

Why can't I make a trip?

So I like because you're very busy.

That's, that would be, you know, and you're the champion and you got a lot to do.

But that's part of being the champion.

And you grew up in the, whether it was Vince Senior or whether it was Eddie Graham or Vince or, or Bill Watts or I mentioned Paul Bosch on TV.

Part of the championship role was a lot of what you did outside the ring.

If you look at Backland, if you look at Broome.

Oh my God, it was all what do you do outside of the ring, which doesn't mean you should be because you do it, but you need to do it.

The funny thing, if you want to go inside baseball is the whole Zoom podcast thing started because of COVID, because before COVID, I did my pods with someone on the phone.

Forget on Zoom.

It was like old school talk radio, and then COVID came along.

Everyone was trapped in their houses, and that's when everyone.

Turn to Zoom and that's when, and I get, I get frustrated with everyone, even you.

I probably am frustrated that you call your show a podcast.

Yours, your, you do a TV show.

I don't consider yours the, the, what, what do you want to talk about like that is a full, I mean it runs with podcasts.

It's, it's a full-blown TV show.

There is production elements to it, yes.

Do you like doing that?

Well, I wanted, you said inside baseball, we should point out that you got two of the greatest baseball players.

Players on the cover of this SI right here, right?

This is, this is Judge and Otani, the greatest.

I'm a Yankee fan.

You're my family's a diehard Yankees fan.

Have we talked about this?

I don't think we've ever.

No, so my family is diehard Yankees fans.

I am not, I'm not a Yankees fan, but I'm not, I don't have a team.

You're not a Braves fan growing up in Georgia.

Braves is a great team growing up in Georgia, you know, you can root for UGA as far as college, and you can root for the Braves.

Plus the Braves play in Cobb County now, so everyone loves that.

So that is a great field, great everything about it, great experience, uh, the freeze doing the run, just a great, they're gonna have a winning season.

There's great history.

So Braves is a great, my, uh, nephew Kellen, he grew up in Georgia.

He's all about the Braves, but his mama, uh, my sister, they're Yankees.

That was the bond that Teal and My dad had was all Yankees and how did they become Yankees fans in, in Tampa, Florida?

Little Yankee Stadium.

All the training, all the big, you know, people living there.

Uh, my dad just was obsessed with Yankees baseball so much so that he did a show on Turner Classics or Turner South for the Braves pre-show, and his biggest fear was they were gonna find out.

That he liked the Braves.

He loved Glavin, uh, Glavin and Maddox, and he loved them, but the Yankees guy, he was afraid they were gonna find out.

They never did.

So he was a Yankee big time, yeah, um, Steinbrenner wrote the, uh, forward to his book, yeah, and it's not, it's a good nugget, right.

Yeah, this book is, yeah, yeah, I don't know if it really encompassed who he was when he wrote it and how he wrote it, but that was his, his one and only book.

So yeah, are you gonna write a book?

I wish I think I've forgotten most stuff now.

You'll write.

How could you not write a book?

So you know, Sam Roberts.

Sam Roberts brought up the fact he really gave me some props about something I had done for the Indies and And he said what the reason he was doing it, he goes, I think most fans have forgotten this.

And what I almost said is, I think I've forgotten it.

Yeah, I, this role I'm in now, I, I, I don't mean to, I need to write a book, otherwise this stuff is gonna go so.

Whoever wants to write that book, I'll just sit there and talk to you.

I'm definitely not writing it , but, but also, so much of it, it's like print the legend stuff now.

What was real, what wasn't.

Oh, that's, I mean, and you're in the middle of that now.

Uh, how much is hyperbole?

Who helped, you know, he, everyone always speaks on their behalf, but I'd want to give as honest a take as I could.

I should write a book.

You could do a book.

I mean, listen.

You've been in this business your whole life, dusty.

You leave, you come back, you finish the story.

But like you could do a book just based on backstage of what happened with WrestleMania 40 and what's happening with this WrestleMania.

Well, go ahead and let's, if you're gonna get to it, you know.

Oh, I know everyone's like everyone right now who's watching this is like, why is it?

Let's get to the McAfee stuff.

Get to the Mac, get to TKO.

Let's go.

Let's go.

I think the thing that I am most proud of, and maybe my dad would look at it and go, wow, he really did get the spot.

Was WrestleMania 40.

I'm supposed to just straight up wrestle against Roman Reigns, and that happens.

Magic comes out of it though.

We got the final boss.

We got a match.

I mean, magic.

Rosemania 41, Cena goes rogue, Travis Scott, final boss there again.

A lot of unique elements, ancillary outside, huge elements.

I mean, Travis Scott's one of the greatest artists in the world and was a fan of our business and still WrestleMania 42 walking in again to Allegiant Stadium is the champion.

Now I'm looking at the billboard on the outside of the stadium and Pat McAfee.

Pat McAfee is on it next to Randy.

That is not what I envisioned, but I definitely think I'm meant to be the one to handle it.

I don't know what that means.

So I don't know.

Like, you know, I listen, this is, it's always weird for me to be in these positions with the WWE people because you have a show to do backstage.

The internet's gone crazy with all this, so I don't want to ask you anything you don't want to answer, but.

I've got you're a Haman guy, so you can ask me anything.

Well, let me, you know that, let me just say how far this has gotten.

I, I, I, I texted a friend of mine who and told him we were doing this in person today, former colleague of mine, Andy Gray, and this is what he writes back, right?

Just no.

As Cody a leading question so he can trash McAfee.

Like, should a kicker even consider himself an NFL player?

He loves to shit on McAfee, and then everyone picks it up.

So let's start with that.

Is a kicker an NFL player?

Are you watching NFL today?

Yes, a kicker is a huge.

Look at them.

They're making massive differences.

They're the hidden bombs, kickers, punters, every college NFL, and I have been kicked by Pat McAfee.

If I could say one nice thing about Pat McAfee, that's a trained foot.

He knows how to kick.

He knows how to, he knows how to.

He knows how to do a promo too, so does he?

He's standing there doing fart jokes and WrestleMania catchphrases, yelling what at a bunch of kids who don't even remember what.

And he was talking about the attitude error like it was 30 years ago, 30 years ago, I would have been 10.

Yeah, what are we, what we did, we got them.

They had a great run.

I, you know what, when he did that, I started getting, I was mad .

There was a, I'll not say who, but we had a partner with WWE who did merch for us, and they did all attitude era merch, and I remember going and being like kind of disgusted.

And that's again, I'm, I'm speaking on my behalf of my generation.

I loved the attitude era, but I thought we did all this work.

WWE is on ESPN now, Netflix.

Uh, WrestleMania 39 broke all these records.

WrestleMania 40 broke those records.

WrestleMania 40.

At what point do you want to shine a little, right?

Like I'll tell you something, Lil Yachty, right?

But don't you think wrestling overall.

Nostalgia is always a part of it.

Like, I mean, I, I love the attitude era, but I also go back to, I, I may have said this to you maybe in one of the interviews, when I was little, getting into wrestling, 6789 years old.

Everyone was WWE back then.

It was Hulk Hogan.

I was into Dusty and Georgia wrestling on TBS at at 6 o'clock.

So nostalgia, thank you.

I always thought that was so much better than WWE back then.

It, you know.

It was different.

It was different.

That's what it, well, they were the real, they were the grit.

It was different.

WWE is going heavy on the marketing.

I, I wanted to bring them up because I said him right before we started.

Little Yachty, you mentioned nostalgia, and Little Yachty's working with WWE right now.

I couldn't ask for a better peer.

And a better partner just, and I'm not interacting with him on screen at all.

He's, I'm not gonna give it away, but he's doing some collab stuff and he thought of not just nostalgia, but modern in his collab efforts and that, that's, that's what I want.

I loved the attitude era, but put them together.

Like where are we now?

We show where we were then and I like the I like combining the two.

Nostalgia, great.

History, respect, great.

But are you a Star Wars fan?

We've had this conversation.

I'm not, I'm not a sci-fi guy.

I know, we, we could probably never really get close.

No, but there's Star Wars is a great example of there was, I understand a fan that loves that and wants that to come back because there was a movie where they specifically assumed Mark Hamill, I think this is in his 60s maybe, was gonna have like an 8 pack and be like he was in Return of the Jedi, and he was an older dude and he played an older dude.

Older dudes had a life, made some mistakes.

I like when our legends come in and they're legends.

My dad, we used to joke, old man wrestlers, there's something fun when you get to be an old man wrestler.

Don't come in and dye your hair, you know, like you're not 25, you know, I now I've moved way off from my attic, but this, I want you as an older person, like, great example when you grew up in this area, Grilla Monsoon.

I didn't know he was such a kickass wrestler.

You know him as an announcer an announcer.

Then I knew him as the, the, the president, and he's in there with Vader.

And over the course of time I learned about how great he was as a wrestler, but I, I got him as that gorilla, and I like, same with Harley Raing WCW.

Harley as a manager.

Like it would have been different had Harley been trying to run out there as a seven-time NWA champion.

Wrestling sting, you know, that's what I mean by anti-nostalgia, I suppose.

Yeah.

All right, so WrestleMania is this weekend you're facing Randy Orton.

Mm Uh, let me start with this.

How much do you pay attention to the online reaction?

Because I don't think.

You can get around the fact that this has not been well received with McAfee being put in this situation.

How do you deal with that as someone who's got to carry this and be part of it and deal with it?

I'll further that.

This is the most ill-received thing in the history of wrestling.

Gobblerly Gooker was one.

Shock master was up there, but that was kind of funny.

This is.

The entire fandom, every, your fandom, my fandom, um, independent wrestling fans, uh, casual fans, cinema fans, all the one, every single fan who ever said wrestling has received this with, huh, what?

OK.

So worst received thing in the history of wrestling.

But I want to say something on the bright side because I have to be an optimist in general.

On the bright side of this, Pat McAfee is a huge star.

And Pat McAfee is part of, he's one of the faces, if not the face of ESPN.

His college game day stuff is a legendary and a great athlete, and he loves wrestling.

He's just trying to help our party out.

So I respect him and.

I respect that On the other side of it.

I am attuned to the online audience, but it's not just the online audience, every bit of the audience.

And I think one time I made a mistake saying every wrestler looks right at their phone.

I didn't mean every wrestler immediately, but we all see it.

I look at that and ask myself, kind of like when I was doing Stardust or when I was getting a bone here and there on my way up, I look at that and ask myself, how can we make this something.

And why I'm not worried about it at all is because Randy Orton is the guy I'm wrestling.

Randy Orden is arguably the best he's ever been.

Uh, the last year before even Randy turned on me, there were crowds that were reacting to Randy in such an insanely positive way because they were feeling the love.

It was a respect thing.

They, they saw John go.

Randy's not going yet, but you could tell he's the hottest he's ever been, and he might be wrestler-wise.

I watched him wrestle Undertaker the other day where he's wrestled so differently.

He might be the best he's ever been.

That's, that to me means I know bell to bell, we're gonna be, we're gonna be just fine.

Now, Pat.

Where that fits in, I, uh, I am like you.

And I'm excited to stand at the plate and, you know, we're talking about these guys.

If you want that spot, that's it.

There's others who run from that and no, no, no, that, uh, John Cena dealt with this for years and years and years and I'm dealing with it too.

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All right, so here's where I'm at with it as a fan, not as somebody following you.

Yeah, I know it's your house.

I know.

You sure you don't wanna get it positive, believe me, believe me, um.

Here's where I stand with it as a fan.

So when Pat did the first smackdown and got introduced into the storyline.

He, he kept using the line save the business.

And as a fan, I said I don't understand what that's supposed to mean because I know the business is booming.

Then there was this massive backlash to it.

Did the second promo last weekend, and now I feel like.

It's working out the way the WWE would want it to work out, and now I feel like we're all being worked, and this is because.

This attention is good, not bad for the company.

All attention is good, right?

Hate saying that.

You know, how people say go away heat.

There hasn't been anyone who has go away heat.

I remember there, it's like any time this is what I, when people ask me a lot about turning heel, we get into these arguments and they don't realize that.

I'm not trying to ever discourage, the fans have all the knowledge.

I'm never knocking their knowledge, but if you are putting energy into something, that's not go-away heat.

If you're booing it, you are buying in.

The only type of go-away heat is where you literally turn the channel, where you leave the arena, where you go to the bathroom.

That's true go-away heat.

Most 9 out of 10 people who have been accused of having it in the last 10 years have not had it.

They've had heat.

That's meant to make you mad, right?

That, that might get, yeah, like people seem like they're pissed, but I would say to those people, you're gonna watch it now Saturday to see what ends up happening because that's, and that's the goal, isn't it?

I, I don't know.

I don't want to dispute any of Pat's, um.

Circle And, and, uh, how what he brings to the table, he brings a lot to the table.

WrestleMania is a unique table to come to though.

Wrestling fans are already coming.

They're there.

This is our biggest thing we do.

It's, we, this is where we have our moment.

This is our Super Bowl.

This is the thing we do.

It's all week and you know, it's not just WWB.

Everyone's in town.

Everything about wrestling and what we do is there.

It's a beautiful experience for a wrestling fan.

So not the play I would have made.

But again he's trying to add people to the party.

Respect that, um, attention like you said, energy, noise as Ca would put it, there's noise, respect that and people thinking, OK, now we're being worked or we weren't being worked or this is a shoot, this isn't.

You will never, I will, I'll try never to be dishonest with you, but.

This is, uh, any real magician is not gonna show what's what we've got.

I can tell you as a wrestling fan, you're watching something beautiful unfold because it is organically happening.

It is hard to call and it's a 3rd WrestleMania in a row where Thought it was just gonna be me and that guy straight up but no and I, uh I think I live for it yeah I mean.

I think what also has captured people are the, the reports that like TKO did this and not Triple H.

And again, in my head I go back to, OK, what was like the greatest feud in the history of wrestling, Mr.

McMahon versus Steve Austin, because you have The Office versus The Wrestler.

So I think it, I think fans would be short-sighted to just think like, This isn't maybe the way it's supposed to play out, but we'll see what happens on Saturday.

We will, and I'll see it, and then we'll be able to talk and see where we, where we land.

Wrestling.

I just did when I was talking over at ESPN, one of the things they asked, what's different about WrestleMania?

And I said, for me it's real.

That's the best way to put it.

There's elements of it, sure, if you're a suspension of disbelief person or if you're.

Adamant about pointing out the fabricated elements of what we do.

Great, before WrestleMania season for me, this is as real as it gets.

Having to explain to Brandy, for example.

Here's what's happening.

Here's what I've been tasked with.

OK, we're walking into that.

Yep, we're walking into that, that it's real.

So that's when it's the best at the, I mean, chasing the championship, the title that Dusty never got, it's a real thing.

Ended up being the best moment of my career, um, so when it's real, it's at its best, and this is real, yeah, yeah.

And I, but if, but here's the thing, so what gives me a little pause is like.

So like there's been a several WWE superstars this week have come out and like blasted the McAfee insertion like Damien Priest, priest, yeah, Charlotte, Charlotte flared it and blasted.

She gave it no comment and I know in this business no comment what that means, um.

That's what makes me think, OK, they got, I mean, uh, let me ask you this, when they tell you McAfee's getting put in this.

Can you push back and try to change it, or do you have to just do what they tell you?

Cause it would seem to me you have earned the right to be able to push back.

That's an interesting question.

All right, we could leave it at that.

Yeah, I, I'd say that's an interesting question.

Yep, I'll just leave it at that.

Yeah, fair enough.

That's a fair question.

I think I've covered it all for the people on the internet.

Yeah, I didn't know the boys were out there.

Priests, though, I love that.

That's funny.

He's a good egg.

I had a wrestler yesterday.

I'll go ahead and say who, who basically told me, whispered in my ear like it was 1980s and someone was gonna, we were getting into a fight.

Uh, I'm gonna shout him out.

Royce Keys told me, I got your back no matter what.

And I was in the middle of signing my weight belts.

Like we're, we're good.

We're, it's OK.

But now I know that.

So that made me feel real good.

I thought, oh man, the respect to your peers can't beat that.

I think, uh, the other thing I find, you've touched on this too is it's not like they put someone in there who doesn't know what he's doing in terms of the mic.

Like, I, I think Pat did a great job on the mic, at least.

There you go.

You said something nice about him.

Well, I, I like Pat.

I've had him on the podcast.

I've in person we've interacted.

I, I, I like Pat as the sports guy on ESPN.

He's great at, uh, college game day.

I didn't like him kicking you in the balls.

I mean, you know.

No titles on.

He took the title too.

I was gonna say it would have been.

I've never seen you do an interview without the, without the, without the.

I was disappointed because when WWB told me that we were gonna be speaking, I thought that's a bummer.

I would have liked to have had the belt.

Yeah, yeah.

You would you really though if that's not a pain in the ass to carry around 24/7.

If it is , it's the greatest complaint ever.

It's like the collectors.

If I hear one more wrestler go off at the airport collectors, buddy, be worried when they're not there.

Be worried when they're not there.

Yes, it's annoying.

Yes, some of them don't even come to the show, but your lightness helps make their livelihood reel it in.

Have you ever had a, a bad fan fan interaction away, away from wrestle, like you said, airport restaurant?

I'm positive I have, yeah, I'm sure I have at some point, um.

I can't think of one.

OK, well, that, that couldn't have been that.

Yeah, I'm no, I've, I mean, I, I've done it long enough.

Like I'm saying, I should write this book because I'm starting to forget.

I'm positive I've had probably multiple bad, but to me, I, I also grew up under the impression that.

Everything I have is because of them, even the ones who boo or don't like me, or so I, I do always try to at least.

You know, have a moment, uh, because when they're not there, that's when you worry.

Yeah, I, I didn't realize you had such heat with my podcast.

Would you feel that way if you came on it?

I, uh, no, no, I just, here's the, what was the one, there was one recently that really pissed me off.

It was.

God, I can't think now of who it was, but someone, they said they were giving someone a podcast.

It was gonna be on Netflix.

I'm not gonna ask you to trash Netflix.

I know it was on there, but it's gonna be Netflix only, no audio, just like an interview show on Netflix.

That's not a podcast.

I forgot who the hell it was now, but anyway, I, I'm.

It's definitely evolved from what was a podcast.

It's now we're just doing a big full scale productions.

The audio podcast portion of it maybe not as prominent.

I try with my own to run audio the day before to give the fans something to hang on to and actually the fans who like listening to podcasts to plug in with them.

And then the next day we run the video, but the video tends to be the one.

So I wanna ask you about your pod because I feel like we're like.

We do the same thing now that you host a podcast.

Let me ask you this.

Do you love doing it?

Do you like doing it?

How do you feel about it?

What don't you like about it?

So it's love-hate.

Yes it is.

It's love-hate.

I, uh, never wanted to do a podcast and a lot of wrestlers were doing podcasts and I, it's hard to talk about stuff that's happening here and now in wrestling when you're still actively doing it.

I was a little afraid it would take some bandwidth away again, 40, so if I'm gonna be a great wrestler, really need to focus on the wrestling, uh, but when I do it, I fall in love with it because I learned something.

Um, I had Brian Koppelman, the creator of Billions on that one's coming.

Bruce Pritchard, when he came on, was a lesson in how to be what you're supposed to be.

Triple H just the other day.

That's what I wanted to ask you about was what did it, what was it like interviewing your boss.

That's, that conversation ended up being like the conversations we have on the corporate jet when I go on it.

It's not about the stories you all think of Sean or DX.

It's literally, tell me about Blackjack Lanza and how he influenced you.

Tell me about Pat's Finnish style and how that, you know, lent to what you did and what do you think about fitness and wrestling modern day?

Are you still, because you being such a, all that's just, I, I know he doesn't and does like when they put me on the jet because I just want to talk about wrestling.

We don't get the car time anymore, so I.

That I'm, I'm very much admire what uh some of the producers are doing right now as, as they circle him.

and it's not just yes, Manning, they're circling him and trying to learn because as we figure out who's the next, everything, who's the next big star?

Sure, who's the next big producer to the stars?

Right now, Michael Hayes has been producing some of the greatest moments you've seen on television.

In years and he could do it as long as he wants to do it, but I'm sure he's thinking of when he passes that on.

I mean, really, that's a guy that you should have on your podcast putting together some of the most unbelievable moments, but then maintaining an element of magic to it, and he still has unbelievable and then you have Mr.

Hayman who's Aware of any time someone is doing your pod is very ear to the ground on the New York scene and um Mr.

Del Frisco's right, right, uh, they're there and they're not going anywhere yet, but we do need to think about that same way as WrestleMania.

I'm so excited because, oh great, the WrestleMania Main event.

I'm blessed that I get to be in another one.

You've got Roman and Punk.

You've got me and Randy.

Everyone's had a WrestleMania Main event.

Now they're having another amazing.

Uh, Pat's there, sure, but you also have Oba and Trick, guys who are breaking on Javon, breaking on the scene.

I love that.

Makes me want to work harder, but also this is their first.

You know , you get a little bit of an easier night, you're gonna go on a little earlier, the crowd's really hot, own it, steal it.

Leave nothing for me when I get out there and then my job is to try and get it back.

And, and tell a great story, but we need to do that with our producers and our wrestlers and seeing those guys orbit them.

That's my point.

I liked, I like being in that orbit because I'm not sure what I do after this.

Well, I was gonna ask, you right, I know you've, I, I'm pretty sure you've said many times in interviews, you, you have a fairly young age you wanna retire at.

You, you don't wanna, or you have a plan.

Would you ever post retirement wanna be in creative?

I think when I go to the office, the new HQ.

That it feels really.

I feel at home.

I even, you know, I told Brandy the last time I went and did the rounds, because I don't just like to do the car wash.

Let's do the rounds for real.

Tell me something real.

I've been here before.

Tell me something real.

Tell me an area we're weak.

So what's something I can help you with, whether it's CPG or our production.

Team and Lee fitting gave me the real info, not the surface stuff.

Let me get in with that knowledge.

I want to do more.

Uh, Stephanie McMahon, what she did with the community department, I looked at that and thought that's an area where I'd like to jump into something with Matt Altman who currently does it and Nick Fooster and pediatric cancer, what we do for our troops.

All these are real.

Um, when a wrestler comes in and says that though, you often think they want to be the poster boy for it.

I don't have to be.

I, I put me.

I, I wanna, or I'd like to organize and facilitate, but when I go there, I feel at home.

I think there's, I, I was talking about it the other day.

I'm so lucky with what's happened in wrestling.

I think there's something funny and ironic about a Rhodes.

Finding his way into the WWE corporate structure the same way I found my way into being WWE champion, that's a road that seems very obvious because I love wrestling.

I wouldn't know what life is like without it, even if I get mad at it sometimes.

I love wrestling, but then also the idea of doing, telling these stories, I like Batista's doing, like Dwayne's doing, John's doing, they're telling stories, but in TV and film.

They're doing movies.

They're, you know, and I got my taste of that with Street Fighter, and all I wanted was to, I, oh, what do we do next, uh, and then there's obviously the most unpopular choice, and that's what does the political world look like, uh, you know, in Georgia there's, there's a lot of open political positions.

What does that look like?

And I think that would intrigue you very much so, really, yeah, I grew up, I grew up.

I grew up loving political theater, which should not be your answer for why you wanna be in policy, but I feel like I grew up in a time where people with a modicum of fame or influence surrounded themselves with really smart people, someone who's got a green initiative, someone who is actually looking at the planet now, surrounded themselves with smart people, and they were just the face of it.

They had a great team, a great cabinet, and they look back at Arnold in California, I think we.

Didn't realize that that was fairly good, yeah, uh, in terms of policy compared to now, right, it's difficult and now everything is, that's why I say it's an unpopular choice.

Everything is so divided and negative.

Oh, I missed a day where on the debate stage the guy would say, oh, congratulations on your anniversary.

It's just wildly volatile, which is why it's an unpopular.

Don't talk about it often.

But it's very intriguing to me.

Uh, my brain is, I have so many things I wanna say, but I don't wanna say .

We already got all the Pat TKO stuff out.

I mean, I just, there's such a good joke here about like if you're a politician in Georgia and someone called you and asked you to find 11,000 votes, what would you do?

But we don't have to, right?

I thought, well, I thought I, somebody called me a politician in WWEE, right, and, uh.

What I thought was great about that is I thought I don't take it as an insult.

Thank you.

OK, yeah, isn't everyone at their job a politician?

Every WWE wrestler is a politician, but what?

Who's your party?

And to me it's a cop-out answer, but it's the real answer.

My party is the wrestling fan.

So if I am trying to get them to have a good time at WrestleMania 42.

Yes, I am politicking for them to have a good time at the biggest event that they're supposed to have a good time at.

But there's also nothing wrong with you politicking for yourself.

That's what people do at work.

I'm not, but I'm not, so I'm, uh, my way of politicking and wrestling, you hear about all the time.

Most of it's on the surface.

And it's bad politicking.

I should be because this will help this guy when it clearly is not gonna help that guy.

My way of politicking is more of a so inside baseball the person's gonna watch this interview and blown away, but my way of politicking is more what I learned from.

And John And that was just do good work.

Good work, great work gets you in the conversation already because the problem with wrestlers who politic, they politic for the match in the spot, and then they go out and they blow it.

So then what that you, you didn't, if you're gonna be a politician, you're gonna say, hey, I should be the one Deli.

Well, there's also there's different, I think.

Being a poli politician in that sense, there's different layers to it.

There's what you're saying.

There's promoting yourself, trying to get yourself.

That's all part of it too, yeah.

Again, it's we're, if you're here in the entertainment business where you're supposed to sell tickets and get people to watch you and, and connect with them more than anything, that the, the most organic thing is connect with them, then you have a party and you are a politician that doesn't.

I always looked at it as a positive.

Let me ask you, so if you, if you got into politics, what would be one or two things that you would absolutely want to do right off the bat?

I said it earlier, and I, it's really important to me as a green initiative.

If you look around in some of the lightning rod issues we talk about , which is stuff that was settled when we were growing up.

How those, how those become debate questions still literally to me that's a next talk about something accurate, talk about something, talk about something real and then societal infrastructure where you grew up you probably had a great teacher, uh, a great coach we're, we're losing that.

And that's so so much informing who you are.

We're losing that because we're not paying them enough, you know .

So those are two really out of the gate, and those are easy ones, you know, our government services and then obviously, uh, the largest service we have, keep this place going, leave it better than you found it, and that being a really great green initiative too.

You touched on it because you said, I, I, I don't think how anyone could dispute what the, what side you're on.

The division right now is so bad, but also I feel like.

There's also just on both sides again just such a lack of common sense.

It sounds like you would just wanna like just can we have some common sense like you said we need good teachers.

We need a green initiative like it that should not be a radical thought.

I think common sense and I think also a little class.

people are getting awarded for being rude to one another now.

I, I do that for a living.

I do that for a living.

So in the, in real world, I'm not gonna because you feel differently.

That's crazy.

That's, this is America.

That's what we came up on is disagreement and the fact that we have a not an absolute binding contract but an evolving.

You know, way we, the, the framers and the founders put this together that we're always gonna evolve and grow very wild and very hard in the South to have opinions, uh, but also the South is growing and Georgia changes.

It's been blue.

It's been, so , you know, I just, if you do a debate, you gotta come out to the music and do the whoa right on the debate stage.

Set the tone for your opponent right there.

I'll tell you this, if I ever do a debate, I'll give my opponent a hint.

You will not gain any points by making fun of wrestling.

I think that's gonna be their go to make a fake comment.

Do you think that's still a big thing?

Shockingly, yes, yeah, that's shockingly.

I think that's still, um, Tom Brady, the greatest football player of all time, but wasn't that shtick with, I don't know, but you're, you're calling what we do cute while you're promoting a flag football game.

That's me running around grabbing my buddy's butt with a flag on it.

What are we talking about?

Is Tom gonna be at WrestleMania?

I would love if Tom's at WrestleMania.

I met Tom, uh, at Vegas, the Raiders.

It all makes sense.

I met him at the OBB Fnatics, uh, studio event, and I only had a moment with him, but I told him, and I don't think, I'm sure he hears this all the time.

I said, You're my hero.

And he just, well, thank you, and then he kind of kept going on.

I was like, well, I told him he's kind of robotic.

Well, hey, you gotta be a little bit.

I've been trying to get him on this.

I had him on once, but it was only for 10 minutes, and the PR people were, I love, I love, I love Tom because of the story, and I felt even though having nepotism and second gen, all that, I felt being the worst of the combine, for example, and 4th, and then finally getting in.

I just love his story.

I went to that COVID super.

Bowl just to watch him throw a touchdown like for Tampa Bay.

So you were there.

Oh, I was in it, yeah, yeah.

I, I was there next to he's 4 cardboard cutouts.

He's my favorite player to watch NFL all time.

What a competitor, ruthless, ruthless, but with class, you know.

Can I tell you the two problems with doing this in person for me?

Maybe you can help me out as the punt.

Like, one, I've no, I have no idea how long we've gone, so I have no idea how say something, and he hasn't even moved.

All right, so we can do, I, it looks like we've got like 1015 more minutes.

And then like when we're on Zoom, I don't feel like it's rude if I glance at my notes in person.

I feel like it's rude if I glance at.

I don't care.

You're doing a podcast, bro.

So I'll just, I look at my notes in front of people, but I put my fake glasses on when I do it.

Let me see if I got them.

You do you.

How much time do you spend prepping?

I thought your Chalamet one was phenomenal.

Chalame, I prepped a lot because I, out of respect for wanting to make sure I saw his movie.

Yeah, I put on my, my hair because he was tremendous on game day.

See, in my little, this is what I do , and then I do this, but they're fake.

I was just, I'm just trying something out, you know, and it makes sense.

It makes sense.

It makes sense.

I like it.

Um, all right, I wanna because I am always, listen, I've been interviewing WWE people for so many years and nothing will change the fact that I'm always blown away by the travel.

So I want people to know you were in where Sacramento Monday night for Sacramento yesterday for Monday night for Raw.

I went to do not just raw but every partner message we have because I don't have the time this week, so I offered them Monday.

Meaning to, we're selling at Superstore and Allegiant Stadium and SmackDown.

That's a lot of weight belts and 8 by 10s, and I didn't want to disrespect them or what John taught me, so I went yesterday and did all of that and then got on a flight to come here.

All right, so Monday in I was gonna say San Jose, not San Jose, Sacramento, Tuesday at, at 9 a.m. you were on ESPN in New York City.

Now we're here at 120 in New York City.

Where do you go now from here when this is over?

I'm gonna make a mystery stop.

When's this air?

This will air Thursday morning.

No, no.

When will this air?

Actually, maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Wednesday.

All right, well then, I won't say where I'm gonna make a mystery stop.

Maybe in the middle of the country somewhere for 2 hours, maybe 3.

I think I can figure out.

And then I'm gonna head to Vegas.

And when I land in Vegas, my trainer is waiting there because we're in the final last days of.

Getting your lifts in so I'll meet dead and do my little session and then Vegas.

So when you're in Vegas for obviously this is the big one, WrestleMania, but will you get any time at all where you, no, no pool, no craps table?

No, but I see it all.

So that's not, so I, my daughter is there.

She loves WrestleMania.

She has literally known her father as a WrestleMania Mainventor, meaning this is the truth.

Company treats her like.

Princess, that huge to me.

It makes you want to keep it going.

So I see her go to the pool.

He and Brandy go do stuff, but Brandy's doing like WWE World this year.

She's, so she's got all her family there.

My youngest daughter's never been before.

She's a little 7 month old little baby.

But for her to see it, but I see all the fun they're having, and actually I organize it.

Um , my sister Teal can tell you this, the Yankees fan, she's in, she's the party captain.

They have sprinter vans.

They wear matching, but you have to be left alone.

I, they can't text you like, Oh, Cody, this person is gonna be late.

Do not text me or you were cut from the box the next year.

Tell me about what happened, who got into a fight, who got too drunk, whatever.

Tell me.

Me after I have to, I usually see them right before the day of the match.

So I'll tell the WWE people and Brandy who can talk to you for the next 3 days.

Nobody, or is that it ?

Um, obviously, uh, I'll, I'll, I get, I'm close with Bobby Rood.

He's kind of wrestling.

Michael Hayes, Bobby Ruood wrestling gurus for me.

Mr.

Hayman is usually next door to me.

I, I have access to, I need access to him and have access to him.

Triple H, although the.

The team, the, the team that's going, I mean, outside of those people, you don't want to hear from people, not a soul.

Yeah, I'll see you on the other side, and then it'll be fun, but I gotta get through it first, and it, and it's all set up to where we have that.

They have all the fun in the world.

Yeah, I think some wrestlers stress themselves out by bringing the fam.

Don't realize that's the time to get the babysitter, get the, get the family , get them all in so they can enjoy.

Problem is it's in Vegas, so like.

You'd be better off in a city that doesn't have anything going on.

Like, I, I, you know, yeah, well, I, I think Libby will go see Jabbawockies.

I mean, you know, there's, there's, it's Vegas.

There's, there's stuff.

I know since the last time we did a pod, you had a second child.

How, how is having two now?

Compared to one, how much of a change is it for you and Brandy?

Well, Leilani looks just like me, which is really fun.

Uh, I don't know, I feel some, you know, all babies, I feel like look like me, and then they don't, and, but she looks like she's gonna retain a bit of me, uh, which is really fun.

I, I'm thinking, why didn't we do this sooner?

It's the greatest gift ever because it like cuts out all the BS.

You do it for a reason.

And if your reason is I wanna be the greatest wrestler, I wanna get this for my dad, that is a great reason, but it's self-serving versus the idea of, oh, I gotta make sure these kids are set and overset, in my opinion, run this score up to where, you know, I didn't have that growing up.

I had a great, I had great parents, and that's really all you need is a love, but I also, Libby, Libby's already flying on like private jets, you know, I wanna.

See if I can uphold that as long as I can and set a standard for her too that's on, you know, real hard for anyone to match.

So but it's, it's been the absolute best.

When, when are you home with this schedule?

Like what days are you home with the family usually, um.

Middle of the week, usually every week a couple of days, yeah, usually, I usually 2 or 3, we go in spurts now because I like to go everywhere and be everywhere.

I believe in that to represent the company.

Usually have the belt with me.

Apologies, um, but no, the live events not having as much anymore.

I do always get time home.

Yeah.

All right, I'm gonna, I wrote down some totally random questions, I'm very curious about your and then we can get you out of here because you gotta go to a secret place that people will be interested in.

All right.

We talked about nostalgia and the and the attitude era and all that stuff, but if you could bring back something from old school wrestling that we don't have today, what would you want to bring back time limits.

That's a good one.

Yeah, I'd bring time limits back because time limits , say you have a cold match, right?

Say, and I mean cold match by there's no previous heat or anything of that nature.

Say you just had, uh, Dom Mysterio versus, um, anybody, name him, new guy, Ricky Saints, NXT.

He had that match, and they have no previous equity, no storyline.

There's a natural stakes when you first hear 5 minutes gone, 10 remaining, or 10 minutes.

There's a natural stakes.

There's a clock.

Jim Ross taught me that and he was really accurate about it.

You can give a match stakes that didn't really have because crowds are the most important engagement we have for this.

We do not just do this for ourselves.

So if they're involved with a 5 to go, or as you see sometimes in New Japan, when they say 15 minutes gone, you start to feel the crowd.

Come up.

It's getting serious.

We're getting in the deeper waters here, you know.

These warriors are going.

I love time limits.

I like that.

They will never come back, unlike unlikely, but I love them.

My answer is managers, but that's a great answer.

Well, you got one.

Pat McAfee is showing up as a manager.

I still, I'm holding out hope for one day where we see you and Mr.

Hayman as a, as a team there one day, you know.

Don't disappoint me.

Well, no, I, I'd say, I'd say this is I, I was really absolute in the past about saying I'm never gonna turn heel.

I'm never gonna be a bad guy.

If you've been around me lately, uh, 3 manias in a row, that can, that can start to chomping at the bit, start to shift you a bit, you know, like, what do, what do you want your legacy to be?

And then also you find yourself going the other way.

No, I wanna make sure I make the right calls, right decisions as I move, uh.

But creatively as a performer, I would think the itch to be healed might be there just to do something different because you, yeah, yeah, there's a cha there's a challenge in it, new, it's fresh, it's something, uh, I would try to actually get heat, which is online.

I can already tell you if they're saying it's bad online, then I know I'm doing my job, uh, but the other side, there's a challenge to being who I am.

The other night I told Stephanie McMahon, I got two words for you, and I just said thank you instead of suck it, and they wanted the other thing.

And I thought I still have the ability to make that choice.

I had the ability to make that choice and get booed, but maintain the character, and that, that was an important, important choice.

Yeah, I'm waiting for heal Cody with Hayman.

Just, just throwing it out there just as a request.

That's all, um.

Are you a, are you an Instagram reels or TikTok scroller in, in any little downtime you get?

I had a social media guy who was, uh, contracted to come here today, and he literally missed his alarm.

So he was in charge, but you don't have your own phone where you can.

I have, and I'm on, uh, Instagram is my question.

The reason I ask it is, do you, are you ever scrolling through reels of TikTok and you, and old dusty stuff comes up all the time?

And what is that like for you?

Super weird.

Yeah, yeah, AI dusty is the weirdest thing ever, but then you like, they'll make a nice picture.

Oh, the AI stuff, AI stuff, so yeah, it's so bad.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, but.

I, I think I enjoy when I come across something I didn't know about or something lesser known him on WCW Saturday night, some crazy commentary something like that, um, I, I, you know, I don't want to see hard times or any of the ones I'm.

I asked it because I was scrolling through TikTok last night and an old school dusty came up.

I think he won the TV title from on Anderson, and I was like, and I'm thinking in my head I'm interviewing you the next day.

I'm like imagine Cody scrolling and that that it was so they're very validating and typically I'll, uh , I'll, I'll get them from some of the guys we were talking about earlier.

We're all in a circle of texting each other.

There's a crazy one I saw Gary Hart, and it's probably, so I'm super petty.

So petty.

It's, it's dangerous, man.

One of the reasons I use the Gary Hart video as a reason, it's Gary Hart talking about how my dad was treated .

At Crockett's and what happened after it fell out and his description.

Of how no one was loyal to him and everyone changed the story and they were, you know, wearing, wearing Louis Vuittons and driving Mercedes when that's not how they showed up.

His, that is literally .

My biggest nightmare and the biggest thing I try to preemptively, so that is one that hit me and has been my go to.

I'm not gonna let this story be rewritten for me, and I preemptively wanna pick people around me who are gonna stay in, you know, I don't want to make a mistake.

Uh, everyone gets a nightmare family jacket, and I was it like when you scroll and you come up.

That's weird, right?

I don't wanna see me.

Well, usually it's a matter of where I was at body-wise, which is super vain and superficial, but it's, hey, I was shredded here or I was super soft here or those tights, where'd they go?

It's, it's more a superficial.

Well, it's looking, you know, because one of the questions here, topics here I said.

So when I was doing the research for the pod, you Google search Cody Rhodes, and everything comes up as Pat McAfee, WrestleMania, Randy Orton, and all that stuff.

And then if you dig, it's Cody Rhodes wants to start showing his ass more from a podcast that was Nicky and Pretty.

What is that about?

Uh, well, so sometimes you say something in jest on a podcast, and then you know how, uh, our, our aggregate sites and the, the headlines were literally like Cody Rose wants to start showing his ass more and the scary thing about that is there are certain people who think that wrestling is on X for real, and they, they comment like, oh, when is this guy gonna stop talking?

They, it's, they don't realize they're fully, they're, they're being roped in, um, the aggregate stuff is working.

I did mean what I said though, because my glutes had like really been pronounced in the suits I've been wearing so I figured I'd draw some more attention to it.

That's all I meant.

And, uh, it went further than that.

I, I thought, hey, these other wrestlers are, uh, promoting their greater assets, no pun intended.

I'm gonna see if I can.

You know, get that out there a little bit, you know, like Cardi B, I was, uh, there were some folks on X call me Cody B, and I liked it, you know, but then also I've trimmed way down for mania, and I think it kind of went, yeah, it usually comes from face, hips, butt, yeah, so yeah, I mean, I know you mentioned about, you know, harping back to the attitude here, but can you believe there was a wrestler called Mr.

S for a while.

Yeah, Billy, yeah, like it just like Mr.

Ass was his name.

Billy's, uh, he's at the Nightmare Factory always.

He's a special, special athlete.

I could tell his name was Mr.

Ass.

You're like a good podcast host because you keep leading me into my next questions because you said, you said you wanted to show the buttocks because of the suits.

I don't know if you want to answer this.

You don't have to, but I am curious.

Because the suits are such a big part of you, how much is the average Cody Rhodes suit cost, because they are really, you know, this is not JC Penney off the rack.

I'm gonna say the guy might be surge pricing me a bit.

Um They started at 3 for a suit, shirt tie.

I have noticed that it's getting a little higher and higher and higher, and I'm a frequent user and also I love Anthony Mason who does my suits, you know, like all the details, everything.

I mean, there's nightmares.

That's what I'm saying under the collar, the detail is all, all functional buttons.

I don't like putting a suit together.

I don't want to pick out pearl buttons.

I don't want to pick out fabrics.

I really want the artist to make it.

I'm a bit more conservative on the suit side.

Yeah, I typically don't like to go too crazy.

Really, they look pretty well.

TV, you want to give it your more, your more colorful ones, um , but I also, so I have Anthony Mason and Roswell phenomenal.

Um, it might not be surge pricing.

It might be just I'm getting more expensive fabric.

Well, everything's gone up.

Everything has also gone up.

So 3 is where it started, and I think the tariffs, the tariffs are tariffs are getting me suit tariffs are getting me.

Uh, David Allen is making me a suit which is finally because he makes all John's suits and came and measured me.

And now how do you rotate the suits?

Like, do you get rid of them every year and bring in new ones?

What is the bus driver wishes?

We have a huge problem on the bus.

It is right.

That's, I was so cluttered with suits.

So the suits are on the bus.

Almost every suit's on the bus.

A whole bunk was made into a, a suit rung.

Oh, this is a problem.

It's a problem.

It is.

And what I'd like to do.

The best thing you can do with these suits is give them away, and there's a lot of these are great suits, and they have fun moments.

Fanatics, I'm sure will want to sell a couple of suits, but I like the idea of maybe just giving them away at one point and letting them be.

But also have a garage full of suits.

We wear a lot of suits, um, that I would think you have so many that you gotta like get rid of them to bring in the new ones.

Well, you don't like to reap.

Repeat a lot.

You don't want to repeat.

And the other thing is red lighting treatment for Monday Night Raw.

So you want to go blue-ish hue-ish.

You don't want to go straight red, but then SmackDown's a blue lighting grid, so you want to switch to something that's not blue.

It's, it's a pain.

Then you don't want to be like doing this interview.

I was, uh, in New York a week ago.

In a green suit that I absolutely wanted to wear again, remembered I just was in that suit even though that suit is still brand new and looks for you wanna kind of keep it player style fresh and that's not a good habit because there that money, it adds up.

Yeah, that's what I wanted to know, um, but I bought some super cheap suits too like I bought recently, no, I bought a suit once before off Amazon.

And I took it over to the seamstresses of WWE.

I said, Can you steam this and just make it look presentable?

And it looked like a very good scene.

So it's all in the fit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.

Our last random one.

I've been asking all my guests this recently because I can give you the backstory, but what is your daily coffee intake?

I, I think you wouldn't believe me.

Good.

Uh, that's what I wanna hear, probably.

3 espressos, probably 6 coffees every day, every day.

Is it, is it usually Starbucks or anywhere?

No, so right now, I may typically I'm Americano and I'm just black coffee in general .

When I get a little spicy, it's like a science-filled zero sugar creamer, um.

It's, it's too much.

3 espressos and 6 coffees.

It's every day.

I not, I mean 6 might be.

How do you drink the coffee?

Black, black.

That's the thing.

And it's, so it's just boring.

How are you so calm sitting here and not bouncing off the walls?

Probably because my adrenal system is used to it, is used to it, which is not good.

Iran did a full , uh, health check recently.

I mean, everything.

I got my kidneys checked out.

I'm operating at peak efficiency, so the coffees aren't hurting me.

But it is too much coffee and my wife doesn't drink coffee, really, and I find that insane.

It is insane to run two businesses, 2 children.

And be doing your now your YouTube series again.

How?

Oh, is she doing the YouTube series?

Yeah, she's doing a, a shot of Brandy.

I think she's doing a couple in Vegas.

My niece, who's a big fan of yours, was a big shot of Brandy fan, and I remember watching episodes back in the day with her just to check them out.

And that's a you would always be crashing, and always, yeah, they're filming it in my house, and they're just having a good time.

Just, just getting lit up, making some weird thing, and then they, I need to get to the fridge or I crashed that show quite a bit.

I'm not allowed to anymore.

Yeah, Liberty crashed it the other day, and I kind of was proud of her.

Like, there you go.

So does she drink tea, Brandy?

No, she'll get.

So if I, if she finally relents and get a coffee, it'll be a, uh, some nonsense, something that you hear ordered and know that's gonna take 20 minutes.

Uh, like a velvet foam, you know, oatmeal, just, just coffee, just get coffee, so you're black 30 my God, yeah, the espressos are new because I got these little espresso cups at home, so they're not on the road.

So maybe I'm less on the road.

Like today I'll, I'll say probably 6 coffees.

Yeah.

All right, so let's, uh, let's put a bow on it.

Put a WrestleMania.

Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton for the WWE undisputed championship.

There's a lot of history there with Randy Orton, obviously.

So Pat, he's not like officially part of the mat.

Like, is he officially at ringside?

The billboard at Allegiant Stadium has Pat's face behind Randy Orton and one of the greatest ribs in the wrestling.

I never would have thought the guy I had my first match with and who helped train me and I watched when Royal Rumbles and go into WrestleMania Main events, I'd be on a billboard with him.

And ESPN's Pat McAfee.

It is, well, did you ever think WWE would be with ESPN?

That's been quite a part.

That's one too that if my dad, if I could tell him anything to explain, hey.

Netflix, ESPN, he, uh, it would be, it's like I was telling you about my mom, it's too much.

My mom doesn't comprehend the level that the business has gotten to.

She just, she remembers it for what it was.

She doesn't comprehend it, and I think there's no way you'd have to be there every step of the way to realize, oh, this is blowing up.

Well, not to kiss the ass of the WWEPR team, but I've always say, like when it's this week, it is amazing.

How you guys are everywhere for the whole every show imaginable.

You can't, you know, it's hard to, and I, I have to say as someone who covers sports media and covers ESPN daily and all that, I even I've been a little surprised how much they have you guys on there.

They have not, I mean, I would think WWE loves partnership, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I mean that you're, you guys are on there all the time.

I think if you go on there though, you have to respect their house and, and also they want a little.

I've noticed they want the energy that is wrestling, but also they want it.

You, you gotta respect their audience as well, which is the pro, you know, sports fans.

They may not be looking forward to that, but also sports fans aren't sports general.

They're wanting to hear about basketball.

They're wanting to hear about MLB.

They're not, they, they may not have to sit on a topic for a while that not be their favorite, and that's a moment to do exactly what we're supposed to do.

Hey, this guy, who's, I like him.

I like her.

That's my guy.

I'm gonna watch this, uh, and if it, if Pat does a little of that, you know, great, I'll say this, I I want to shout out.

Our coms team is great.

Our talent relations team is great.

Triple H told me years ago before I ever kind of found myself in this role, is, he was explaining how he has his week carved out, including workout, including his, you know, chiro and massage, all the athlete stuff.

Today, talent relations has done that for me to where that's the schedule I send to my family.

I don't even look at it, so they know, oh, he's.

He's got this.

He's doing his thing so that you can be there on Saturday and not just have gotten through it, but you're ready.

Super Bowl.

Like you're ready and great, great team.

Well, despite everyone being pissed off, everyone's gonna watch on Saturday.

There's no doubt about it.

There's no doubt about it because people wanna see now what happens.

I mean, listen, Pat kicked you in the balls.

You have to, there has to be some sort of revenge now.

Right now I'm not allowed to touch Pat McAfee courtesy of, uh, TKO.

That's a non-working.

How do you feel about that?

Well, I'm wrestling Randy Orton, so that's good.

If I was wrestling Pat McAfee, then there'd be some issues in this.

TKO doesn't want you to touch Pat McAfee until I would assume WrestleMania you're allowed to touch him.

I don't know.

I, uh, so he's allowed to kick you in the balls.

I know you're not allowed to think I am working in this moment.

I don't know.

I will find out with everybody else.

Like I said, being a Cody Rhodes fan around WrestleMania, you gotta live for this.

We, we deal with it.

My family literally has a saying about all kinds of random stuff, but almost every mania, it's, well, that's a curveball, curveball here, you know.

I, I should have went a little deeper at the top, but let me, I, I'll just, how, how much do you pay attention to the internet like .

When, let me ask you this, when you're done with that segment on SmackDown on Friday night , do you go to your phone and check, or you have someone tell you what the reaction is?

How do you get, get the reaction?

I'd say a normal millennial amount.

I definitely look at it, but it's, I will say at the speed we're going, I like that because I don't have that long to look at it.

I don't want to let it take root.

There's a wrestler I know, uh, who's phenomenal but is way too into their social, and I can tell when just one many, but I can tell this one when I've been many canceled.

Because they'll contact me like, hey, how you doing?

And I always tell them I'm not on X.

What did I say?

Like this interview right now, I'm positive something I've said a day cancellation, which is not a real cancellation because we didn't actually do anything wrong.

But when you can get to that point where you know that you can look at the stuff and be OK with it.

You really can, uh, it's, it's all fun.

They're talking.

It's engagement.

It's wrestling.

If we didn't have this, what would we argue about.

Argue let's all argue about certain things and who's better and who's QB1 blah blah.

But then also we can all agree on Pat McAfee, uh, shouldn't be involved in WrestleMania.

Hopefully he won't be high when he has to perform it.

Well, hey, I made that crack and, uh, and, uh, I noticed there was a little bit of a boo because it's 2026.

People are like, hey, don't go back when you run.

That's the thing we have when you run for office, that might come back to haunt you.

People like, Oh, Cody wants to be senator.

He's anti-weed, so you know I can, I can already.

There's so many dumb things I've said that will absolutely, and I'll have to face them.

Cody wants to show his ass as a senator.

Yeah, I'll have to, I'll have to face them.

And a smart guy, if he's the other guy running, a smart woman who's ever running against me, take a look, deep dive that career.

You'll, you'll have something, yeah.

Well, the career will continue Saturday at WrestleMania 42 Las Vegas , ESPN Unlimited, the app Cody Rhodes.

Against Randy Orton with Pat McAfee there.

Cody, I appreciate you coming in to do this.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Until the next time.

All right, yeah, I appreciate it.

Thank you.