Cody Rhodes on Current WWE “Stories” Better than Rock at WM, Ricky Starks, Dustin Rhodes, Dusty Tag Classic

The Daily Mail held a recent interview with Cody Rhodes. One of the topics discussed included Rhodes’ thoughts on why he thinks WWE’s current storylines are better than having Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson return for WrestleMania 39.

“I love that you bring it up that these stories are running parallel, I think sometimes wrestling fans think it’s got to one or it’s got to me the other, whereas I subscribe – and I’m not in charge – I subscribe to give them everything. That’s where it really takes smart planners and creative individuals on how you layer it, but it’s very important and this is something I learned when I was away, is that if someone’s doing great, and they are entertaining and helping move that ship forward – and I would say Seth Rollins is another example on Raw was another when I was gone who’s really changed and continued to carry Raw on his back. I was fully expecting these things to converge, and I’m still expecting them to converge just because we have these wonderful options.

With all the respect in the world to one of the GOATs The Rock, it looks like the options we have here within the roster are even better because of the stories that are happening. One story about finishing something that started in 1978 – seven years before I was even born – and another story of really the tragedy of being welcomed into the Bloodline and then what you saw unfolds. I think with the amount of time between now and WrestleMania, it’s important I keep my eyes squarely fixed on WrestleMania, squarely wrestling for the WWE Undisputed Championship and as you hinted that may not be against Roman Reigns. Now I don’t know if anyone can beat Roman Reigns, I truly don’t, but for me, it’s about picking up the chip. I love the melodrama,I love the heaviness in these stories that develop in our industry, but I am very simply a man who’s looking for a belt. I’m looking for a championship title belt, the most important one in our world the biggest in all – not just in the WWE bubble but in all the bubbles – and be the first to say as a Rhodes I did it, and it wasn’t Dusty Rhodes and it wasn’t Dustin Rhodes it was Cody Rhodes.”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about AEW’s Ricky Starks being seen in public with him at WWE’s Royal Rumble 2023 event this past January in San Antonio, Texas.

“What an idiot though! The locker rooms do have crossovers, people are married to people in other locker rooms, people are friends. This is a kid I started on his journey at my former home and I obviously want to follow and see his journey, but I will say it’s probably best none of my friends visit me at the shows anymore.

We don’t need security cam footage of that poor dude, I hope he didn’t get into any trouble – and I don’t think he did. He was there to support a friend, who had been absolutely down and out with the pec injury.

Ricky was one of the guys that nursed me through it, and helped remind me of who I can be, so I was happy to have him there and I had some other friends there but the other friends stayed on the bus because they’re not crazy yayhoos.

Maybe we’ll just watch each other at a distance, I don’t want to cause any strife between any places. We all love the same thing, it’s a squared circle, it’s the wrestling industry. I always think I don’t have any rules, there are rules!”

In a separate interview with Inside The Ropes, Rhodes gave his thoughts on being hopeful that his brother Dustin Rhodes can be at ringside for his potential Undisputed WWE Universal Championship win against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania.

“Dustin (Rhodes) and I have a very unique relationship. Very unique. It’s almost like we’re at our optimum, at our peak as brothers when we’re together in the ring. I think we’ve both settled on the idea that, A, we never wanna tag team with each other ever again because as much fun as we had, we were at each other’s throats. We’re at a point where I love my brother so much and as I get closer to this, I think about him every day, I really do and that would be special, it would. It would take some people getting along to agree but, that also is very cart before horse because currently, what stands in front of me and I mean, there’s no hyperbole in what I say, is Roman Reigns. That’s currently what stands in front of me. As he refers to himself, of God tier. Buddy, this guy is the best of the best in terms of strength, in terms of conditioning. I mean 800-something days, can’t be argued. If you’re making a list and he (isn’t) number one, your list ain’t real. Can’t be argued and I’m not thinking about any type of victory lap or celebration other than I’m thinking about making sure I don’t get hit square in the mouth with a Superman Punch.”

Rhodes also gave his thoughts about being interested in the idea of presenting the trophy for this year’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournaments in NXT.

“For all things Dusty Rhodes, the A&E Biography that I was able to be the Executive Producer on, his story that is coming soon, hopefully before WrestleMania itself, to see the full story. Not to mention the Dusty Rhodes Classic. One of the things that was obviously very appealing for me is you’re never not your father or your mother’s son and it is important to me. He cannot be there to protect and explain and defend his legacy. So that was always a huge thing that was on the table that is obviously very appealing to me, being here and coming back to WWE so when it comes to the Dusty Rhodes Classic, I’d love to do anything involved. Obviously, it’s more NXT and that’s where we’re developing, like I was saying on Raw, tomorrow’s superstars today. You want to keep it in their wheelhouse but I’d be more than happy to hand a potentially Pretty Deadly that trophy or a different team because so much is going on that’s good down there. Shawn Michaels has done an incredible job and continues to do but I love all things Dusty. I just want to make sure he’s represented fairly because for a good time in the business, he wasn’t and WWE has done a really great job of letting you know what he did, how he did it and how it still affects what we do.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com 1 & 2