On a recent episode of the “My World” podcast, co-host Conrad Thompson shared an anecdote that highlighted the widespread popularity of wrestler Cody Rhodes.
Thompson recounted a dinner he attended with his wife, Megan, and one of her colleagues. “I know nobody listening to this cares, but I gotta bring this up to you, because I know you like this sort of thing. Megan had a dinner with a lady she works with, and it was like a work dinner, kinda. And she said, ‘Hey, I want you to go.’ And I was like, ‘Okay,’ so I go,” Thompson explained. He then learned that the colleague’s husband was a fan of the podcast and a Marine, offering a “shout out to Danny, thank you for your service.”
Thompson described his surprise at the direction the conversation took. “But what I found was interesting is usually when I don’t know someone, they’re a stranger to me, but they know that I’m in the wrestling space, or what have you. Man, they always lead with the Ric Flair talk. Naturally, I get that, ‘Whoo!’ That was not the case. They led with the Cody talk,” he said. The conversation continued to revolve around Rhodes: “And then after that, we talked about Cody some more. And then after that, Cody some more, yep. And then Dusty, and then Ric, and then Rock. But we talked about four wrestlers.”
Thompson emphasized that this fan wasn’t deeply involved in online wrestling communities. “Because he’s not like, he’s not on the internet, like he’s not on Twitter, he’s not on Instagram, he’s not on message boards. This is just a guy who watches wrestling on TV and, while he’s at work, found our podcast on YouTube and listens to it. But he’s not like an Observer reader. You know what I mean? He’s not on Cagematch,” he clarified.
The fan’s age further surprised Thompson. “But he went on and on and on about Cody. And that was an ‘aha’ moment for me, because my man’s in his 40s, like 42 maybe—he’s like my age, I guess, yep. But he was all about Cody,” Thompson stated. He contrasted this with his previous assumption about Rhodes’ fanbase: “And I kind of thought Cody—like Cena before him, like Hogan before him—he’s all about the kids. So like the Cody superfans are going to, respectfully, be younger kids.” The encounter challenged that notion: “And the idea that I had a 40-something-year-old man, Cody, Cody, Cody. Not Flair, not CM Punk, not any of the other stuff, not Roman Reigns, not Drew McIntyre, none of that. Just Cody, Cody. It was an ‘aha’ moment for me.”
Jeff Jarrett offered his perspective on Rhodes’ rise to the top. “Time takes time. And so that is something. The Cena year coming up, it’s, it’s—I just, like, we can go through the iterations from the WWF ’80s, the Hogan, the literal passing of the baton sometimes happens,” Jarrett observed. He compared past transitions of star power, noting, “Sometimes it’s pretty, sometimes it’s not. Like Hogan to Bret was not a pretty handoff. Would you say? Bret to Shawn… You had Sting and Hulk…” Jarrett concluded by predicting a “magical” passing of the torch from John Cena to Cody Rhodes. “When you look right now and just kind of how things are transpiring, the Cena to Cody handoff, it’s going to be magical,” he said.
Within WWE, Cena vs. Rhodes is reportedly the match that has been heavily talked about for WrestleMania 41.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
