Cody Rhodes says a WWE head writer never warmed to him, and that he made it worse by using a nickname he had only ever heard his father use.
Rhodes was talking on What Do You Wanna Talk About about what he calls the sins of our parents, meaning the way people who knew your mother or father carry that into how they treat you. His example was a writer he refers to only as Brian.
“I learned very quickly that Brian, I knew I wasn’t my dad, I got that, but Brian did not like me like he liked my dad,” Rhodes said. “And I think I made the mistake of calling him that one time, and he got sharp with me.”
The nickname was one Dusty used.
“I don’t know why the old man called him that,” Rhodes said.
He was careful to say the feeling is one-directional.
“Brian, I would say, is not a fan of mine yet. I am a fan of Brian’s,” he said.
Rhodes’ theory is that the writer had a specific relationship with everyone else in his family and could not find one with him.
“I think Brian respected my dad, loved him, but also knew he’s not riding a format. He’s an idea guy. He’s actually going to ruin this format I wrote by dropping an idea,” Rhodes said. “And then I think he loved my brother, because my brother would go into a gas station and be Darth Vader.”
Then he got to himself.
“I think he met me and thought, this guy’s such a dick. He’s so vanilla,” Rhodes said. “You want to give him the, well, vanilla is a very popular flavour. But obviously that ain’t gonna land when he’s the head writer.”
He was measured about what that actually cost him.
“I definitely struggled under him. Not he, I was always in a good position, so I look at the struggle and go, was I really?” Rhodes said. “But I just never found a rapport.”
Simone Johnson’s response was that she was going to bring it up with him.
Rhodes did not give a surname. WWE’s head writer across most of his first run was Brian Gewirtz, who held the job from 1999 until 2012 and has worked with Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions since.
Rhodes’ first WWE run went from 2006 to 2016. His brother Dustin worked as Goldust across most of that period, and their father Dusty was on the creative side in developmental until his death in 2015.
He is on better terms with the man who tells him no now. Rhodes said on the same show that he wanted to come back wearing all black with a black cowboy hat for a return where he attacked John Cena and Logan Paul, and that Bruce Prichard killed it.
He first asked Johnson how she would feel about the character in a cowboy hat. Her answer was immediate. She would think of his father.
“Yes, right. Well, we were really close,” Rhodes said. I thought about wearing all black with a black cowboy hat. It definitely would have just been a quick look.”
His reasoning had a family logic to it.
“My dad quarter horsed there from Austin. I read this dumb horse book as a kid. I’m from Georgia,” Rhodes said. “I have some ownership of it.”
Most of the people he runs ideas past were in favour.
“You’d be surprised. Three out of the four guys that I speak to about everything gave me a thumbs up,” he said. “It was just one who said, you know, I don’t think that’s gonna work. I gotta be honest. I think that’s gonna be distracting.”
Asked who, Rhodes named him.
“The one who told me it was gonna be distracting and made the decision ultimately was Bruce Prichard,” he said.
Johnson sided with Prichard, pointing out that returning, attacking people and wearing a cowboy hat all at once is a lot to process. Rhodes agreed and used it to make a broader point about being edited.
“Everybody needs to be produced, and I’m so grateful to have the people I have in my life and in management to produce me,” Rhodes said. “Nine out of 10 of my ideas are bad. I’m good for a banger idea, but nine out of 10, or like the cowboy hat, would have been distracting. Who knows? But I’m good for an idea.”
Johnson suggested he introduce the hat gradually instead, starting with appearances and the podcast.
Prichard is WWE’s Senior Vice President of Talent Relations and has been a central creative figure in the company across four decades. He was criticised publicly this month by Bret Hart, who said WWE’s problems come from people telling wrestlers how to work who cannot work themselves and named Prichard among them. JBL and Jim Ross both defended him in response.
