[soft dramatic music]
- WrestleMania 39--
it's the biggest thing anyone in my family has ever done.
I'm living the first dream I ever had,
and part of that is terrifying.
* *
- If your father came before you
and was a huge star, like Dusty Rhodes was...
- Get a dream, hold on to it, and shoot for the sky!
- To fill those shoes
is practically impossible.
* *
- You're already behind the eight ball
in trying to live up to the expectations people put on you
just because of your last name.
- When your dad is on the sports entertainment
Mount Rushmore,
you have to do everything in your power
to get their mind off of him
and get everything centered on you.
* *
- Stardust?
- Don't know what quite to make of this.
- [laughs maniacally]
- I felt pain for him through that period.
- Maddening.
[bleep] maddening.
- Frustration really sets in with Cody
more than anything I've ever done.
I see how talented he is.
What are they not seeing here?
- I knew I had...
to get out.
- He went off into the unknown for him.
- This business is all about betting on yourself.
all: [chanting] Cody, Cody, Cody!
- Cody went from being in WWE...
to being the star
of every single other promotion out there.
- Vince McMahon flew to his house to get him back.
I don't know how many people can say they did that.
- From undesirable to undeniable!
- In wrestling, things can change...
[snaps fingers] Like that.
- Cody tore his pec.
Then you have the uncertainty about coming back.
* *
- He did have a chip on his shoulder
because he had a lot to prove.
- The American Nightmare is here!
- Believing in himself-- that's his superpower.
- I have waited my whole life!
I will wait no more!
* *
[soft guitar music]
- I grew up...
God's country-- Marietta, Georgia.
- I remember us just looking at him,
thinking, "What are we gonna name him?"
And my husband said, "Well, what about Cody?"
And Cody was just a delight as a child.
He was easy.
He was a little shy, not like his sister,
who never had a shy day in her life.
- He always wanted to be like my dad.
You know, if your dad's Batman, you're not gonna want to be--
you know, work in a bank.
Looked up to him and wanted to be like him.
[wind whistling softly]
- Life is a journey.
Cody Rhodes is on a quest to fulfill his destiny.
The origins of this story are simple.
It's about a son and his legendary hero...
His father.
- Millions of American people
have that same dream Dusty Rhodes has built,
that same dream of being somebody.
- I was a spokesman for the common man.
Reaching for a dream
and becoming the American Dream,
that's my mission.
- Who's your favorite wrestler? - Dusty Rhodes!
- Dusty Rhodes, we're talking about John Wayne meets Elvis.
- Whoo!
Take it from Dusty Rhodes, the American Dream.
Make the Mello Yello move.
- Dusty could relate to the richest man,
and Dusty could relate to that guy
that was digging ditches every day.
- I have wined and dined with kings and queens,
and I've slept in alleys and dined on pork and beans.
- Look at that strut from the American Dream!
[cheers and applause]
- My first memory of my dad
is actually my first memory altogether.
I think people maybe think it's legend.
It's not. It's really my first memory.
It was him putting me down on the mat at WrestleMania.
And I'll never forget because I got to see
how tall the top rope was.
And the turnbuckle pad
had the gold and blue letters on it.
I actually initially assumed he was a movie star.
- You know, I'm here to show America
that justice does prevail.
You know, I'm just a... [laughs]
A common man.
- Then as I was able to learn how to work that VCR
and watch, even at a young age,
I was so proud that was my dad.
- For more than two decades, Dusty Rhodes
won just about every title in sports entertainment,
except one---
the WWE Championship.
- Superstar Billy Graham,
the reigning Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment
Heavyweight Champion.
- The year was 1977,
almost a decade before Cody was even born.
In New York City,
in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden,
Dusty battled for the WWE Championship.
- The referee's out there counting.
[bell dinging]
- Dusty Rhodes wins it!
- When I put the belt on around my waist,
that was huge.
- Threw the belt on for a second, held it up.
You know, we had that picture of him
on the mantel in the master bedroom.
- The winner, but not the new world champion,
Dusty Rhodes!
- A competitor cannot win the championship
when their opponent has been counted
outside the ring for ten seconds.
In this case, Dusty won due to a count-out.
- Because it was a count-out, title doesn't change hands.
And it was the one title that eluded
the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes,
throughout his career.
- Dusty would never get that close to winning
the WWE Championship ever again.
- First time I heard it, I was eight years old.
I believe I asked him,
"I didn't know you were champ like Hulk Hogan,"
which probably upset my dad.
But he didn't get upset when I asked.
He explained it to me.
The champ can't lose the title that way.
That was the big first goal I ever had.
I just want to win this championship
that he didn't win,
and I can bring it to him.
As time went on, I thought I can tell him,
you know, "Nobody can take it away from you now."
That was my whole purpose.
[crowd clamoring]
- 1995--
a young Cody was standing by his father's side
when he was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame,
marking the end of Dusty's in-ring career.
- I want to thank my two children,
Teil and Cody, Kristin,
and The Natural Dustin Rhodes
for standing behind me through all of this.
- Dusty mentioned all of his kids,
including Cody's older brother Dustin,
who debuted as WWE superstar Goldust
later that year.
- There are ten years
separating the two sets of kids.
And it was a different season in Dusty's life.
- With Teil Margaret and Cody, I was determined...
"I'm gonna be there. I'm not gonna miss a thing."
- Dusty was a great father.
He was just such a huge personality.
- Ho, ho, ho.
Hey, I'm watching "A Christmas Story," eh,
right here with my Santa Claus hat on.
- Cody was really close with my dad.
You know, they were little besties.
They did everything together.
- This guy drove me to school every day,
listening to '90s country.
I mean, this guy put the decals on our helmets.
He was there for everything.
He was just the perfect dad.
- When he was playing football,
one of the coaches for the junior football team
was a coach, wrestling coach.
He said, "You really should get him into wrestling."
Cody started wrestling. He was about nine years old.
- There was a lot of times when I would wrestle
in these tournaments--
a lot of the parents would kind of spotlight me
and focus on me because of Dusty.
And that was uncomfortable for him,
probably far more for me.
I remember I wrestled this kid from a place called Nicula.
And his dad was screaming,
"Beat Dusty! Beat Dusty!"
And even at nine, I wanted to, like, get up off the mat
and be like, "Hey, my name is not Dusty.
That's Dusty. I'm a child, sir."
I was initially terrible at it.
I was missing strength.
And I remember my dad took some weights.
He built me a whole gym in my garage.
Next thing you know,
I'm working out in that gym every day.
I just treated it like it was a profession.
- In 2001, Cody was a freshman at Lassiter High School
and was determined to be a star athlete.
- I was up at 5:00.
I went to school to run on the track,
participated in the classes the best I could.
I'd go to practice.
- He worked really hard.
And I remember there was this huge board in the garage
that had goals on it for him.
- Freshman year, he was unseeded.
He took on the number-one seed in the Cobb County tournament
as a freshman.
Cody beat him.
So, right from then on, everybody knew
he was going to be a factor in wrestling to come.
He basically had one move in the whole four years.
That was a double-leg takedown.
Start in the middle, shoot, and drive the guy
all the way to the out of bounds,
and then drag his toes to stay in.
- I'll never forget the time he said,
"My junior year, I'm gonna win the States."
I went, "Wow, that's a bold statement, young man."
- He was like a local sports celebrity, you know.
They were always coming to the house
to do, like, an interview.
He was always in the local newspaper.
- Cody and I were at rival high schools.
My goal was to wrestle Cody,
beat him in front of Dusty, and then Dusty would go,
"Oh, man, "I got to train you.
You're gonna be the best wrestler ever."
Like, that was what--
My teenage brain said that was my path.
That was how I was gonna make it to WWE.
- He was really, really frustrated.
It's one of the reasons why he always kind of sat up
in the furthest part of the stands to watch.
He didn't want to be down there
and take away from what I was doing.
Overall, in junior, senior year, I was 101-2,
so 101 wins, only 2 losses.
But, also, I think I'd only been taken down twice.
- State champ as a junior, senior.
- He was the best.
He was the best.
This is how smart he was,
'cause he knew the business was going to be his life.
In the final match, he walks out.
He comes out. He gave them a sheet of paper.
He wins the state title.
They made this announcement-- "The winner, Cody Rhodes."
- They billed me as Cody Rhodes
for the first time ever, not as Cody Runnels.
- And he made them do it.
- Just a time to be a little eclectic,
to live a little of your dream.
But, also, it was unsustainable.
In my last state tournament after I won,
I specifically remember taking a bow.
And the bow was, 100%, that's it.
I thought it was a little nicer
than throwing my shoes away.
But that's what I wanted to do,
was throw my amateur wrestling shoes away
because I'd given everything-- I'd missed dances.
I'd cut out a huge chunk of my social life.
I just-- This is what I wanted.
And I knew I'd be moving into the next juncture of my life.
* *
- I really thought Cody was gonna go to college.
- As much as my mom would have loved that,
I didn't want to go,
and I had no intentions on going.
- He kept saying,
"You know, Mom, college isn't for everybody."
And I said, "Well, how do you know?
How do you know? You hadn't been yet."
- At the time, I thought, "Well, I can do acting,
"learn the craft, and then plug myself into pro wrestling
and sports entertainment."
- He had joined the thespian society
and all of that in high school.
And I really thought, "Well, that's it.
That's what he wants to be."
- I had left college after two years
to pursue a career in acting,
and I think that he thought, "Well, I'll just go.
I'll just go with Teil."
- 2004-- Cody and his sister Teil
wanted to pursue an acting career in Hollywood.
But that would be challenging.
Their father, Dusty,
who had made millions of dollars in his career,
was struggling to pay the bills.
- The late '70s and '80s was boom time for me.
Nobody lives this way!
Nobody has crystal glass in the back seat
of their Chevrolet, Jack!
Overspending, got behind the IRS--
the thing you hear every day about athletes.
When it's all there, you think it's never gonna end.
- We were basically broke.
And you know, we had a lifestyle
that, you know, my dad wanted to keep up.
But it was getting brokebroke,
where it's not even about, you know, having nice things.
It's, can you keep food on the table?
- You know, one night the power goes out,
but there's no storm.
And my sister and I both knew he just hadn't paid the bill.
* *
And we didn't want to tell him we knew.
And we didn't. [chuckles]
- Dusty Rhodes is living on the end of a lightning bolt.
- Living on the edge of a lightning bolt--
that's what it looks like.
I've seen the glorious side of what it looks like,
but then there's another side.
It was just--he tried to shield us from it,
but I know when you're doing a car commercial
and you're not getting paid, you're doing the car commercial
so that you can keep your truck,
I know things aren't great.
- Best of all, there's no credit check, no hassle.
- When we had made the decision to go to LA,
that's a big decision, and he wanted to support it.
He gave both my sister and I--
we went together-- $10,000 cash each,
just wrapped in a rubber band.
Gave it to us at the kitchen table.
It felt like the Mafia or something.
And I would find out later...
that he had sold his--
pawned his Rolex.
And I always thought I would get that Rolex.
[clicks tongue]
So that was...
He was willing to go to great lengths
to keep us whole
and to let us live our dreams.
We wanted to go to the Howard Fine Acting Studio,
which Howard Fine is a name that carries a lot of weight.
- Cody came to the studio in 2004.
He started in the foundation course,
and he worked his way up to scene study.
He also took a course called emotional range,
which teaches people
how to use their own life as source.
He's brave in that way.
He's willing to tap into some very personal things.
- I loved the Howard Fine Acting Studio.
It was so cathartic and therapeutic.
But that's two, three days a week.
- That year he spent in California,
he just hadn't seemed himself.
- We didn't have a lot of money.
You know, you can't get in anywhere.
He did not love the West Coast life.
- Being 19 years old in Hollywood
with no real prospects,
especially when you come off of having such success
with amateur wrestling in high school,
definitely was a bit depressed and dealing with that.
But I'm okay with it 'cause...
'cause without it, I wouldn't have known what I was missing.
You can't fabricate a dream.
It's not something that's just in your head.
It's in your heart.
I couldn't fabricate what I was out there to do.
I knew what I needed to be doing
was being around sports entertainment,
pro wrestling.
And I needed to get back to that.
I'd driven home from LA in almost 48 hours.
I mean, barely stopped, just kept going.
I needed to get to my dream.
I needed to get to what this was all about.
The first person I had to tell was my dad,
and it couldn't be just a conversation on the phone.
He needed to know because I needed his help.
- In early 2006, Cody returned home to Georgia
to meet with his father and tell him his dream.
- I got home, and it was probably the next day.
We went to eat breakfast,
and I told him that I was serious about it.
He thought about it for a moment,
and, finally, he just--
he said, "Okay, well, if you're gonna do it,
you're gonna do it to be the best."
When you're someone's son or daughter
and you get into this, it's like an alumni network.
You have these connections available to you to get in.
- Dusty came in 2005
to be a part of the creative team.
And Dusty, you know, wasn't necessarily a writer,
but Dusty was an idea guy.
- With his father's help,
Cody was put in a position to succeed.
At 20 years old, he joined WWE's developmental program--
Ohio Valley Wrestling.
- OVW-- tomorrow's stars today.
WWE developmental system, no real prior experience.
Although if you ask Miz,
he acts like I trained for years before I came.
- Cody walks in, and I'll never forget.
Like, he tells us all that he's never wrestled before.
And then he gets in the ring and just spot-on arm drags,
hip tosses, you know, doing like cartwheels
and frickin', like, celebrating himself.
And we're all like--all of us, like, watching the match
looked at each other like, this guy got us.
- Cody Runnels definitely has a bright future
in professional wrestling.
- My experience at OVW was the greatest experience,
was essentially college.
It's the best way to put it. It was my college.
You do not know Cody Runnels!
I'm a ghost.
And everything that you try to take away from me,
I am going to take away from you.
[crowd cheering]
- Less than one year into Cody's training,
his father was bestowed the honor of being inducted
into the WWE Hall of Fame.
- Tonight should be an incredible moment
when your sons induct you into the Hall of Fame.
How does that feel? - Well, it's a--
I'm gonna tell you, man, it's--
I'm trying very hard to keep--
I tear up pretty easy.
When you get old, you start to--
My wife tells me I babble about everything.
You know what I mean? But it's a great honor.
- I remember thinking,
because Dusty was such a prolific promo master,
I needed to make sure that his induction
matched that.
- I was really worried about Cody's speech,
because he was 21.
And that was the first time that he spoke publicly,
and to speak publicly for the first time
to such a huge audience...
- I drilled and practiced.
I was pacing in my hotel room.
- Please welcome
Dustin Runnels and Cody Rhodes.
- I treated his induction the same way I treat
walking into WrestleMania.
It's got to deliver.
If anything, it's got to more than deliver.
When he donned polka dots,
he reminded us something so, so important,
and that is that being common is absolutely uncommon
because there is strength in numbers.
- You could tell the amount of love and respect
that he had for his father.
- He was my seat in school. He was the food on our table.
He was everywhere.
And if there was a Hall of Fame for fathers,
you could bet he would be in that one as well.
[cheers and applause]
- He's just a natural when it comes to that.
So I was just super proud.
- Our father, the American Dream,
Dusty Rhodes.
[cheers and applause]
- He was impressive.
It was an amazing night for him,
so it made it amazing for me.
- Cody's got it.
The poise in which Cody delivered that speech,
everything about it was real.
- I remember sitting backstage,
and I was sitting next to Vince McMahon at the time.
And I said, "Wow."
- What happened after, I will never forget.
Bruce Prichard grabbed me, and he said,
"The chairman wants to speak with you."
So that's Vince.
He was just so impressed and excited
at how I was able to talk about my dad.
- I remember Bruce Prichard coming to me afterwards
and saying, "Vince just said to me,
'This kid is going to be huge.'"
- I knew right away,
I'm screwed because that was good,
and they're looking at it from the business perspective,
and I'm gonna get called up.
I'm not ready physically. I'm not ready mentally.
But I know it's gonna happen, so I better get ready.
And that's exactly what happened.
Tonight is my first night on "Monday Night RAW,"
and I plan on making a good impression.
- If your father came before you
and was a huge star...
- Let's go, son. Go.
- To fill those shoes is practically impossible.
- Cody Rhodes!
- Just three months after his Hall of Fame speech,
Cody made his debut on "Monday Night RAW."
- I have John Deere green--
that would be the color you would describe them as--
trunks on with yellow CR.
I have hand-me-down yellow boots from my father.
- Cody Rhodes, the young son of Dusty Rhodes...
- I was less than 50 matches when I debuted
for the biggest sports entertainment company
in the world.
[bell dinging]
- He's got to have butterflies in his stomach
the size of eagles.
- Cody had a very tough opponent,
former World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton.
- [chuckles] He was green through and through,
but there was something there, man.
I could tell he had fight. I could tell he had heart.
He was definitely his old man's son.
- Oh, the arm throw!
- Randy Orton beating Cody Rhodes
in Rhodes' first match on "RAW."
- Even though I said wasn't ready, which I wasn't,
even though they pulled me up too soon,
I couldn't have asked for a better debut
because I was presented as a rookie.
When you're presented as a rookie,
you can make mistakes, and there will be forgiveness.
but also you get to grow up in front of them.
I have literally grown up in front of the WWE audience.
- I think when you arrive on the scene
and you're the son of a legend or a daughter of a legend,
there is a shitload of pressure on you, man.
I mean, there is a lot.
- In the beginning, there was a little bit
of apprehension for Cody to be a Rhodes,
because immediately you would make that comparison.
- Well, King, you and I both watched Dusty Rhodes
wrestle for 30 years.
He's never backed down,
and this kid's never gonna back down either.
- It's more difficult when you come in and say,
"Hey, guys, I'm Cody Rhodes."
Okay, well, what can you do that he did?
Well, I can't necessarily do what he did,
but I can do what I can do.
And it's a great challenge, and it's very motivating.
- There's just so many pressures
that come along with being a generational talent.
You want to make him proud.
You want to show him that you can do it,
but then you have so much to prove once you start.
- People don't forget how they felt
when they saw a Ric Flair or a Dusty Rhodes perform.
They don't forget.
So when they see you, they can't help
but make that connection.
- To sort of create your own path,
your own career, your own identity, your own--
all those things is extremely difficult.
No matter how good you are or what you do,
you're just Dusty's kid.
Coming in, I thought Cody did a really good job
of trying to balance all that.
- Around that time,
I didn't want to be solely identified
as being the son of Dusty Rhodes.
The joke was, what do you know about Cody?
That's Dusty Rhodes' son.
Remember, I'm talking to you about being a little kid
and dad thinking he's wrestling Dusty.
When you're making your way in your career,
it's the same thing.
You have to do everything in your power
to get their mind off of him
and get their attention and mind and everything
centered on you-- who are you?
- Not that he's not learned from me
and schooled from me privately,
but no interference, Dad,
I do this myself or don't get it done.
I'm not you. I'm not pretending to be you.
I'm Cody Rhodes.
- Sometimes stepping away and realizing that you have
to do something different than the old man did,
that's even harder.
- In 2008, Cody began teaming with Randy Orton
and Ted DiBiase Jr.
This group would be known as Legacy.
- Knowing that I was gonna be a bad guy,
that was very exciting
because everything was very, very different
from what you would be getting from a Dusty Rhodes.
When you're this talented...
you don't pay dues.
- I think that was just what he needed then
to kind of step out from under his father's shadow.
- Randy will tell you when he's better than you.
He'll also tell you how to get as good as he is.
When you're a second generation
and everyone thinks your dad taught you everything
and, really, your dad didn't,
you need those people who help you,
and he helped me immensely.
- After multiple years learning from him,
Cody had gained confidence,
and WWE executives took notice.
A new plan and character emerged.
- Smile, and action.
- My name is "Dashing" Cody Rhodes,
and I'm here to tell you how you, too, can be dashing.
When the idea that "Dashing" Cody Rhodes came up,
I was beyond excited and thrilled.
And I'm gonna be this character.
But what is the character?
Snip, snip, snip.
A couple equal clips on each nail
should do the trick.
Not too short, though.
You don't want to damage your cuticles.
- I knew if I go in hard on this,
if I'm all-in with this, that it can yield results.
- Those vignettes that he put out there
were second to none.
And you wanted to punch him in the face.
- Dashing.
- He's the guy who thinks he's more handsome
than everybody else, and that makes him a dick.
You know what I mean?
That's pretty easy to wrap your head around.
- I'm really good-looking, and you can't hit me in my face,
because you hit me in my face, this is the bread and butter.
And then once he got hit in the face...
- The 619... - Oh!
- Right to the face!
- What happens?
- Oh, God!
There's still people today that ask me
if my nose really got broke.
When legend becomes fact, print the legend.
I don't recall if my nose was broken or not.
* *
In January of 2011,
the "Dashing" Cody Rhodes character
needed a change.
And Cody had an idea.
* *
- Cody Rhodes is an emotional mess,
still a tortured man ever since
his dashing good looks were ripped away from him.
- Rip Hamilton, he was playing for the Detroit Pistons
at the time--he wore a mask to protect his nose.
I contacted the same doctor.
Don't film me. Stop.
If you've seen the movie "American Psycho"
and you've seen how you can go from being
this polished, regimented, routined individual,
but also being deeply unhinged
and psychologically willing to go
where others aren't going to go.
I see what once was...
dashing...
reduced to this!
The best part of it, I'm gonna have paper bags
which I can hand out to ugly people in the crowd,
and I can put it over their heads.
- When he first started doing that, the audience--
you know, a couple would put it on.
And then all of a sudden, the audience
would start bringing their own paper bags.
And when Cody would come out,
they would put paper bags over their head.
I mean, did the audience not realize,
you're being made fun of right now?
He's telling you that he doesn't want to see your face
because it's too ugly to see.
He found his groove.
He found, like, something that he could sink his teeth into.
- Cody's hard work had paid off.
Just three months later, he was on the grand stage
of WrestleMania.
- It's a singles match on a pay-per-view at WrestleMania.
It's also my first singles match on a pay-per-view.
And not just that-- in my home state, in Georgia.
- Cody got us two passes.
Seeing him come out there, it was like
I just wanted to go, "Hey, that was my guy.
"He wouldn't be here-- Well, yeah, he would."
[chuckles]
- We connected right away.
And WrestleMania 27 was a really fun match.
[cheers and applause]
- One, two, three!
[bell dings]
- Actually, one of the highlights of WrestleMania...
I remember my dad had a BlackBerry.
And I caught him taking a picture of me from the side.
[soft music]
And that was...
It felt good because he was...
I'm the biggest fan of his, right?
But he got to be a fan of mine just for that moment.
* *
- What I hold in my hand
is the classic Intercontinental Championship title!
- In 2011, Cody was thriving as Intercontinental Champion,
proving his value as a singles star.
[wind whistling softly]
Despite it all, something was still missing...
until...
he met a girl.
- When you're doing the job in the industry like we have,
where you're on the road, the people you ride with--
they become your family.
They become your friends.
You're always told you don't want to really mix
that personal and professional,
but when you are together so often,
that is almost unavoidable.
And my dad had mentioned
he was working on something at FCW.
He mentioned this girl he'd met,
who had just these beautiful eyes.
- These chicks will learn to love me.
Oh, yeah, they will love me.
- His dad, Dusty,
was one of the coaches there.
And one day he came and was just kind of watching
at one of the shows.
Next interaction I had with him was at a show.
I was about to go out to start ring announcing.
- The hair and makeup department had given her
a real, like, Texas white housewife-style hairdo,
where it was giant, legit giant.
- I was getting ready to walk out,
and Cody says, "Are you about to go out there?"
And I said, "Yeah."
And he said, "You might want to take a look at your hair."
Beth Phoenix was in the locker room,
and she said, "What are you doing?
Don't you have to be out there?"
I said, "Yeah," but I said, "My hair's messed up."
And she said, "Who said your hair was messed up?"
And I said, "Cody."
And she said, "Nothing's wrong with your hair.
You're fine."
That's just his way of flirting with you.
And I was like, "Really?"
- I think she's got a whole spin on it now.
I was being dead honest.
- And we started dating pretty much immediately.
[cheers and applause]
In the earlier stages of our dating,
Cody sat me down.
He showed me a picture of his dad holding the title.
And it looks in the picture as if his dad won the title.
Cody just thought like, "How unfair.
"He won, but he didn't win.
"Well, I can fix that because I'm going to winwin.
And then it's a win for us."
And that's the sweetest story to hear,
especially when you're, you know, dating somebody.
It's, "Aw, you know, he really loves his dad.
This is really, really sweet."
- After two years of dating, in September of 2013,
Cody and Brandi tied the knot.
- I am incredibly lucky to have ever had
a hair and makeup person screw her hair up that bad
that I needed to tell her.
- A month later, the Rhodes family
would be together again...
this time in the ring.
Cody, his brother, known in WWE as Goldust,
and his father, Dusty, joined forces.
- Battleground, the whole day was really a gift...
my brother and I being a tag team.
Looking at it, too, we're all young.
Seth's young. Roman's young.
I'm young. We're developing.
It almost feels like it was part of the story
that I never even knew.
- Cross Rhodes!
all: One, two, three! [bell dings]
- The Rhodes have done it!
[cheers and applause]
- It was just a real moment
where we got to be a family.
- Get your dictionary out and look up "feel-good moment,"
and this is what you'll see right here.
- Our business is entertainment,
but there's moments that are real.
Being around my son and being able to do
a pay-per-view with them, my God, it was just amazing.
[cheers and applause]
- After four years as a singles star,
Cody's momentum had stalled.
- That was a point in Cody's career
where he had sort of plateaued.
He hit this roadblock.
He just was not, at that time in his career,
going to live up to the potential
of "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.
It wasn't gonna happen.
- WWE wanted to create
a new, over-the-top character for him.
- Creative Services came up with some really cool designs.
At one point, I looked like Marvel's Quicksilver.
Originally, there was a mask.
It looked like a condom blown up on my head.
We went through all these revisions
on what Stardust could be.
And then Stardust ended up being just a mini Goldust.
[shimmering music]
- Stardust.
I don't know what quite to make of this.
- Goldust.
Stardust.
- It was all character, you know,
face paint, body suit, mannerisms.
- [hisses]
- He sunk his teeth into that character.
And I think he did make it work.
He took it so seriously.
I think I even went to a Six Flags with Cody,
and he's dressed up as Stardust.
You know, so that's how serious
he took this character.
- Every single house show, every TV we had,
he would be completely committed to it.
He never phoned it in.
- Cody Rhodes is now dead. It's now all about Stardust.
- I never have seen someone in my life
that took a character like that
as seriously as Cody did and worked on that craft.
* *
- The Stardust character caught the eye of yours truly.
- Stephen Amell, look, the Arrow.
- In the spring of 2015,
I was playing a comic book hero
on the television show "Arrow."
It was a natural fit to connect us in WWE.
- Stephen Amell takes interest in me.
We're able to do this crossover
and do some stuff with Hollywood with "Arrow."
- Let's do this.
- A lot came from Stardust, really a lot.
- But playing the Stardust character
was challenging for Cody.
And after a year,
he began vocalizing his frustrations.
- Stardust's level was beneath me.
[party horn tooting]
One more time, sorry.
- I hated Stardust.
Yes, he was entertaining. Yes, he owned it.
He killed it as that character, as that Stardust character,
but you just never saw him as a credible World Champion.
- Stardust was locking me out of the top of the card.
- Stardust is that mid-card. He's fun. He's entertaining.
But he's never gonna be in the Main Event of WrestleMania.
And that's where we all want to be.
- What I did as Cody Rhodes,
particularly as Intercontinental Champion,
those brass rings I was really close to getting,
I think the taste of being so near it
is what made Stardust so bitter...
dead inside, painting my face,
mortified to be that character.
You know, I had pity on Brandi
for living with me throughout that period.
[laughs maniacally]
- I felt pain for him through that period
because I knew how hard he was trying.
- Pick a card, any card.
Sometimes you've got to hit a rock bottom.
That was rock bottom.
- You can start to do something here creatively
and wind up down a road that you think like,
"Man, how did I end up here? This isn't what I want to do."
You have a vision in your head of what you can be,
of what you can accomplish.
That's a tough blend
because it's got to work for everybody in the company.
It's got to work for the overall storytelling.
It's got to work for the overall brand.
It's not just about the individual.
That's just the business.
- My dad called me, and he was upset.
He said he'll never be World Champ in this.
- Frustration really sets in with Cody
more than anything I've ever done.
I see how talented he is.
What are they not seeing here?
To where you just want to go off--"Are you blind?"
But they--Oh, Dad's talking.
His dad wants him to be on top.
- I remember him calling his dad on the phone
almost every day,
and all they ever talked about was the business.
- The conversations when I was doing Stardust
became so negative and downtrodden
that that was one of the first times
he just hit me with the basic, "well, you should quit."
[tense music]
* *
- After nearly a year as the Stardust character,
Cody was questioning his future.
* *
- I didn't quit because that's now how I had been raised.
I didn't quit when I was a sophomore in high school
and had to wrestle seven matches in a single day
just to get on the podium at sixth place.
Had I quit at anything, my mom would've disowned me.
But it seemed like there was no way to get out of it.
I used to say, "I'm way smarter than this."
That's what I would tell myself--
"I'm way smarter than this,"
meaning, why can't I find the cheese?
Why can't I get out of this?
And, ultimately, I did hang on.
- Meanwhile, his father, Dusty,
had been molding a new class
of superstars at the WWE Performance Center
under the NXT banner.
- When you talk about promo or promo and communication
and the audience...
I love teaching.
That's why I'm still doing this.
I love teaching young kids and seeing them move up.
- It was the hot thing at the time.
So it was like, these NXT kids and Dusty's kids.
Meanwhile, he's spinning his wheels.
- I used to tell Brandi on NXT nights,
I'd always say, "It's gonna be a bad night."
I'm not part of this resurgence,
these indie stars coming in and being polished,
all under the umbrella of Dusty Rhodes.
- I was Dusty's kid.
Huge influence on all the students.
- Dusty had time for everybody,
and he truly did treat us like his kids.
- It did strike more of a nerve with him, I know,
than I would have assumed,
because I was like, "You know, it's just an expression.
"We're not his kids. Like, we just like the guy,
And he's so nice to us," you know?
- I worked closely with Dusty for a few years
down in Florida.
He was a big supporter of mine.
I mean, Dusty's responsible for almost everybody
that came through Developmental
over the course of five, six, seven years.
- He's telling me I should quit.
Meanwhile, he's grooming a Seth Rollins.
He's grooming a Roman Reigns. He's grooming a Sami Zayn.
He's grooming a Kevin Owens.
Maddening, [bleep] maddening.
Really just...
It's like he's got his own Little League team, right?
And they're just hitting home runs, and I can't play.
The worst.
And it made me really resent all of the Dusty's Kids.
Made me resent them.
Made me resent the idea
that he would be a mascot for the Developmental.
It was tough.
- Cody's frustration was reaching a breaking point,
but Dusty's support for his son never wavered.
- I was very close to his dad.
We sort of started NXT together.
To know how he felt about Cody,
to see how he felt about Cody's career
and what Cody could accomplish...
- He did speak very highly of Cody.
He used to refer to him as The Prince.
- Loved him, thought he was the best.
The company wasn't doing enough with him.
He's a great promo. He's great in the ring.
- Should have been still
Intercontinental Champion or World Champion.
Cody is so passionate.
He's one that doesn't like the status quo.
- He knew I was somewhere where maybe
I couldn't be retrieved, that I had to be the one.
I had to be the one to make whatever decision
would come next, and it sucks.
And it's such a shame that he doesn't
and didn't get to see the decision that was made next.
- As Cody struggled with his life on-screen,
his personal life took a sharp turn
on June 10, 2015.
- My father had been sick.
He had terrible, like, trouble in his stomach.
It's just tearing him up,
and they thought perhaps an infection.
- Early, very early in the morning,
he got up, and he told me, "I'm really sick.
Something is wrong."
And he collapsed, and I called the ambulance.
[siren whooping]
The doctor came in the room, and he said,
"You've got an infection."
He said, "We're gonna have to keep you here for the weekend,
and we're going to put you on IV antibiotics."
- I remember every coat of paint on the wall,
every scratch on the floor.
I remember the hallway I took to get coffee.
I remember going by the piano in the chapel.
Every piece of it is burned into my brain.
It's the last memories I have of him.
I found out about septicemia and septic shock.
And I found out the return rate--
once your body goes into shock like that,
the organs start to fail.
It's not a good return rate.
And...
I went from praying he would live
to praying he would pass...
because, you know, once the nurse tells you
he has no quality of life,
if you can't live, you can't live.
[monitor beeping]
* *
It's not like movies or TV, where the thing goes flat.
It takes longer.
A doctor has to come in
and literally put his ear to the chest.
The doctor tells you, "No, he's still alive."
[sighs] It's just a...
I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
It was just two days of sitting there
and watching your hero...
watching your favorite person just die.
[soft music]
- On June 11, 2015,
Dusty Rhodes passed on.
He was 69.
- You know, it's your hero, and he's--
Anybody who loses a parent, there's no good time for it,
but the shock of it for us as a family
was just hard to sort through.
- People say, "Oh, he's there. He's with you."
No, he's not.
I understand what you mean, but he's physically not.
But he was there in so many ways.
I describe him as a perfect father.
* *
It's almost selfish to want him any longer than I had him.
[voice breaking] And I had them for--
I had him for what I had him.
[somber music]
- Dusty's passing wasn't just felt by his family
but by the entire wrestling industry.
His memorial service was a glowing tribute
to both the legend and the father he was.
- It's an honor...
it's a privilege to tell you who Dusty was
and who he was in his heart.
- That's a tough thing-- to be able
to deliver your dad's eulogy in front of all your peers,
and you're having to deal with your own emotions.
- There was a period of time in my mid-teens
when we lost our fortune and we went broke.
And you'd never know.
We ate like kings. We danced like stars.
We partied like the monarchy.
We pretend to be because my dad refuted
the idea that his children would go without.
- I swear to God, every father in the world
would love to have someone speak about him
the way he spoke about Dusty.
- Today I consider myself the luckiest man
on the face of this Earth
for having stood in the company of Dusty Rhodes.
* *
Tonight when we lay down, when we fall asleep,
when we put our heads against the pillow,
I ask you, don't just have a dream...
[sighs] Have an American Dream.
* *
When my father passed away, I think a lot of people assumed
I would just come back as Cody Rhodes.
And it's actually the one time I wanted to make it clear,
no, I wasn't ready to be Cody Rhodes.
I wasn't even close to ready to being Cody Rhodes.
So now I had a mask already
that I could dive right back into.
I had a suit that could become armor
while I grieved and while I processed
and while I figured out,
how do I move the family forward now?
- Two months later, Cody and I were slated
to have a match at SummerSlam.
It had been ten weeks since Dusty's passing.
* *
- I put a blog out.
My wife has a blog.
I put it out to kind of, like, cool the fires
as far as...
coming back as Stardust.
It would've been real easy to come back as Cody Rhodes.
It would've been real easy.
It also would have been really tacky.
Many years ago, there was a death
in the sports entertainment industry,
and my dad even said--
he said, people were saying, "Oh, such-and-such
"would've loved that.
They would love being mentioned on TV."
And my dad said to me,
"I won't want to be mentioned on TV.
What I did is what I did."
And the last thing--
you know, barring some stuff with Goldust and myself--
the last thing he did was Battleground, really.
He was...
much more sick than I realized.
I can't believe we're here,
and I can't believe he is not here.
But I hope...
I really hope...
because I have had his voice in my head
and not in a forced way,
like, oh, I need to hear him, you know?
Because I'm very skeptical about what happens
after one dies, but I can hear him.
And he always would say-- It was a promo of his.
And I can't even find the promo.
He'd say, "This is the Super Bowl.
It's Broadway."
He's talking about a big match.
I can hear him-- how he talked, how he sounded.
And I hope...
when I tag in tonight, I can hear him.
It would mean a lot to me.
And it would mean a lot to his family,
'cause you can do a tag tournament for him,
and that's great,
and his NXT kids can be his kids,
but I'm one of his actual kids.
* *
The idea that we had this crossover element--
we've got Stephen Amell,
who's on top of the world at the time with "Arrow."
I felt like taking a bow essentially.
This is it.
The character was tapped out.
I can call myself Stardust.
You can debate all day,
but there's still a Rhodes wrestling,
and it felt good for there to be a Rhodes wrestling
in a premier spot.
I didn't think I wanted to even see a ring
if my dad wasn't in it.
And that...
that tonight ramped me right back up to,
I feel like one of the boys again.
I was at the point now where my heart was ready for it.
I was ready to tell the story of becoming Cody Rhodes again.
And that wasn't even on their radar.
I'm thinking, "Well, this is the end
of the Stardust chapter."
I'm thinking, "There'll be another thing.
"This is the same company that has raised me.
"They're absolutely gonna have something new
"for me to dive into.
Now what?"
And "now what?" was a whole lot of nothing.
I remember writing so many different emails--
like, reset me.
At one point, when I went to talk to one of the writers,
they ignored me.
They actually did the hand shun.
And they were typing on their laptop.
And I leaned in and looked, and the laptop was powered off.
So that was the moment where I headed up to Gorilla
and told Triple H,
"I want to punch that writer in the face."
And then as I was leaving, he said,
"Hey, if you really want to make some noise,
"you got to rattle the cages.
Got to rattle the cages."
And I just nodded at him and walked on through.
- When you're younger
and you're in the business and you're working hard
and you're doing all those things,
everything is very personal,
and it's emotional, and you can be blinded by that.
You're always in a rush to get to where you want to be.
You want it to be a different way.
You know, you're having to talk him off the ledge
almost every week.
- No matter what chicken salad
he made out of the chicken shit that was Stardust,
he couldn't get out of it.
[dramatic music]
- Over the next eight months,
Cody would continue to portray the Stardust character.
During this time, his resentment only grew.
- They wouldn't let him call himself Rhodes and all that.
I mean, does that make sense?
* *
- He was burned out of trying to convince people
that he should be Cody.
I mean, he's a [bleep] Rhodes. He should be Cody Rhodes.
- It's kind of like being told,
"We don't really think who you are
"is interesting enough to be on our show,
so we need you to play this crazy character."
- I would wrestle in the live events as Stardust,
and I had a steel tumbler that traveled with me
for coffee and stuff.
So, once I was done with my match,
I would fill it with whiskey and pour Gatorade on top of it
so nobody knew what was going on,
and I was drinking at the monitor,
watching the rest of the live event.
That's how checked out I was.
I wasn't trying to get drunk.
I feel like I was almost trying to get fired
just because I couldn't bring myself to quit,
even though I needed to bring myself to quit.
* *
And the next steps I took were the steps of,
let Triple H know, let Vince know
I'm not putting the suit back on
unless I'm telling the story of getting out of it.
And that was met very much poorly.
And that was where I knew I had to get out.
* *
- I was a legacy individual in WWE,
and I was a hard worker.
I wasn't gonna be fired
no matter how many budget cuts there were
or anything like that.
I told WWE, good luck in your future endeavors.
I fired WWE.
- In May of 2016,
after a decade with WWE,
Cody was granted his release.
- You could've collected
a six-figure check for the rest of your life.
You just bought a house, at the time, in Denton, Texas.
I'm married. We want to have a family.
Every bit of security and every guarantee you have
you just threw out, and now you can't get
those securities or those guarantees back--you can't.
- He walked away from a lot of money,
but he knew he was never gonna get the opportunity...
if he didn't leave.
- I was terrified.
I just was not on board with that.
- Her exact reaction was that I was gonna end up,
and I quote, "dead or in jail."
- I said, "Thank God. Let's go."
[chuckles] Like, no one's happy.
Leave this in a place of love. Leave this as a good memory.
Let's not leave this as purgatory, you know?
Move on.
And so we moved on together. [chuckles]
- A bold, brave,
incredibly difficult step to make, but he did it.
He went off sort of into the unknown for him.
All he'd ever known was WWE.
- The next step has to matter more than anything you do.
That very first move has to matter, has to mobilize,
which in my case was putting the list out.
- He created a list which he publicized,
a checklist of all the things he wanted to do,
guys he specifically wanted to wrestle.
No one had ever really done anything like that actually.
It was a very clever way to take these fans
and get them along with you on a journey,
which is actually kind of ingenious,
when you think about it.
- Cody Rhodes! [cheers and applause]
- A rather warm welcome for Cody Rhodes...
first wrestling match
since leaving World Wrestling Entertainment.
- Cody went from wrestling in WWE
to smaller, independent promotions around the world.
- The famous list that Cody put out--
the word of mouth, and everybody was excited
to see Cody. and what would he do
on his own and on his own terms?
- I wrestled Cody Rhodes a couple of times
during that year, and we had some incredible matches.
- He's got him.
- He did have a chip on his shoulder
because he had a lot to prove.
- I wanted to prove that the person I was
in 2011, '12--
I was Intercontinental Champion.
I wanted to prove that that
was just scratching the surface,
that that guy was actually supposed to keep going
up the damn ladder,
that that guy could make it to the Main Event spot.
That's what I wanted to prove--
that I could be in the Main Event.
- He went everywhere.
He worked three, four times a week.
He wasn't just doing the big weekend shows.
He was doing the shitty ones in front of 10, 15 people.
He did everything to get noticed.
- This business is all about betting on yourself,
and he made some really good choices to get re-established
and to make his net worth skyrocket.
- That ability to gamble on yourself
and say, "I can do more than this,
let me step away"-- my hat's off to him for,
because not a lot of people could have done it.
all: [chanting] Cody, Cody, Cody!
- I think fans saw in Cody
what they wanted to see in themselves.
Decided to bet on himself.
It was more worth it to Cody to follow his own heart
than it was to accept a paycheck
and be at the top place and not be the top person.
- You looked at him, and you could see
he looked at himself as a Main Eventer.
- Going on last, really the thing that they remember
and the thing that they stay for.
- Holy!
Rhodes put it all on the line!
all: [chanting] Thank you, Cody!
[stomping and clapping]
Thank you, Cody! [stomping and clapping]
- A ton of other stuff came up.
A whole cathartic and beautiful experience
of connecting with people.
For ten years,
I have beamed across some of your TV sets.
I've grown up in front of you.
I was in a very large shadow,
but it wasn't a big deal because I loved that shadow.
- When Dusty passed, it became challenging
because he wanted to honor his father
while still trying to be his own man, which is tough.
- What happens on the morning when you wake up
and there is no shadow anymore?
What do you do?
Kick, punch, fight, scratch,
and tell every son of a bitch who said you couldn't do it
that you can do it!
[cheers and applause]
- He lost his father, and it motivated him
to be better, to do better.
- I didn't deal with Dusty's death well,
and I was faced with it.
all: [chanting] Dusty, Dusty, Dusty!
- Tons of people in line, you know, telling me
their specific stories, showing me their picture,
and that was where I was able to deal with it.
I was at a show in Dallas on Thursday,
and a fan brought me a pair of boots,
and they said, "These are your dad's."
And I thought, "These couldn't be my dad's."
And I look at them, and I go, "Oh, these are his.
"I can tell.
I can tell by the way the toe is taped."
As I meet fans and meet people who knew him,
I'm blown away.
When you're in it and you're feeling it
and you encounter people who have those moments,
it was something that they needed
and, unbeknownst to them, I needed.
[light music]
- For several months, Cody went on a journey
of self-discovery outside the WWE bubble.
[tense music]
But it was across the globe where he discovered something
that would change him forever...
a new identity.
- Going over to New Japan Pro-Wrestling,
New Japan had footage of the American Dream.
Said, "Yeah, we want you to come in
as the American Nightmare."
- 40,000 fans here at the Tokyo Dome
have their eyes on the American Nightmare.
- That first Tokyo Dome show, that's where I really decided,
I know what the American Nightmare is.
A little bit of "Dashing" Cody Rhodes,
a little bit of Stardust.
Here's every experience I've ever had in my life.
Had you given me that name five years before,
it wouldn't have worked.
I needed every piece of what I had done,
all my equity, everything.
- I call you the traveling man,
because you're in Ring of Honor.
You're in New Japan.
- And you mentioned the word "freedom."
He carved his own path.
He opened up that forbidden door.
[cheers and applause]
- You know, before it became a fun term,
the Forbidden Door,
what it meant was you would be locked out
of going specific places.
Okay, if you sign with Impact, you're locked in there.
If you sign with Ring of Honor,
you're locked in there.
I was in a position where I was very wanted,
that I was able to leverage that interest in me,
because the catch was, you can get this for sure.
The American Nightmare,
the whole deal-- you can have it,
but they're gonna have it, too.
- Cody Rhodes bringing his own brand
to worldwide recognition.
- Cody Rhodes! [speaking native language]
- Nobody created a bigger buzz on the independent scene
than Cody Rhodes.
- Cody went from being in WWE
to being the star
of every single other promotion out there,
and you couldn't deny it.
- Just showing up everywhere,
getting people talking about Cody Rhodes.
- The ability to stay relevant
over a long period of time in our industry,
especially without the mainstream exposure
that WWE offers, that is a difficult task.
- What up, Code? - Hey, bud, how you doing?
How you feeling?
- He's in over here.
Oh, wait, and he's in with these guys.
Oh, interesting.
How does that all come together?
- While he was the hottest thing
going on the independents, it wasn't enough.
all: [chanting] Cody, Cody, Cody, Cody!
- Of course, the hair--
finally going through the transition.
When I first started in the industry,
I was told to do everything the opposite of your father
because you don't want to remind them of him
with every outing.
This was the safest time to remind them of him.
And I was able to change my hair color
because I had earned it.
It's like I finally have the right
to rely a little bit on him.
- Cody's success coincided with a groundswell of fandom
on the independent-wrestling scene.
The rise in popularity
had Cody's creative wheels spinning.
- It was clear we could run a bigger show.
And when I say we, I mean me, Matt, and Nick Jackson.
Now's the time.
Matt, Nick, myself, we are self-financing an event--
All In.
The goal is 10,000 people.
- They got together and said, "You know what?
"If we take the best of the best
"from the independent world and put together one night,
one special event, what would happen?"
- My sister Teil is the one
who came up with the name All In.
That was truly the message of what we were doing.
We were going all-in. We were self-financing,
and all our, you know, cards, chips,
everything was on the table.
- At the time, it was unfathomable to think
10,000 people would be in a building
for an independent show.
- Well, first off, who's gonna call?
Hi, I'd like to run a show in your building.
Yep, that's how it works.
Can we get a billboard? How do we get a billboard?
My favorite part that I don't often share with people
was scaling for tickets.
This section's gonna cost this much.
This section's gonna cost that much.
We put the prices fair.
We wanted you to be there.
Tickets went on sale two minutes ago,
and the website is already experiencing
very heavy traffic.
- 49 minutes...
- well, it sold out in 30 minutes.
- It was the peak of my career,
to see how excited people were.
- I'm so proud of the three of you.
- Thank you, man. - Oh, thanks, Stephen.
- I really, really mean that. You did it, and I cannot wait.
- That first All In show-- he was having so much fun.
- Justin in the ring is going to say,
"Ladies and gentlemen, please rise."
- I mean, I could sit back and just watch,
like, him saying,
"Now, hey, the most important thing is have fun."
He said it to everybody.
- Everybody looked at Cody as,
well, he's a WWE guy.
He's a WWE lifer.
And then he's the one that was able to fill
an arena full of wrestling fans
outside of the WWE.
- On September 1, 2018, over 11,000 fans
descended on Chicago for All In.
- Buzz was already going around
that this was something special.
And that's when you got to see
the business side of Cody.
- I couldn't even have thought of this as a kid--
how stupid fun it would be.
I have a plaque that's on the side of the arena still.
I hope they never tear it down.
- It's the perfect mix of timing and talent and fandom,
all crescendoing all at the same time
to show people,
if you build it, they will come.
- We all didn't know how big
or how incredible that show was gonna turn out
to lead into something even bigger.
- Following that success, Cody led a team
that created a new wrestling promotion.
- We're about to sign contracts with All Elite Wrestling.
- On January 1, 2019,
All Elite Wrestling, also known as AEW, was born.
- Bang. - Congratulations.
- Yeah.
- Awesome.
- If the network at 11:00 night
asked us to be on a flight at 5:00 a.m. to LA,
Cody and I were on the flight.
We're behind the scenes. We're in front of the camera.
If we've got to make a cake, we're going to do it.
Like, we're just really blood, sweat, and tears,
all-in on this.
- Executive vice president of All Elite Wrestling,
Cody Rhodes.
Good to see you, sir. - Oh, thanks for having me.
What an exciting time to be a wrestler and a wrestling fan.
- This is a guy that was just struggling,
and now here he is.
He's a top guy for a different company
that he helped put together, so...
that's pretty impressive.
- For over three years, Cody elevated the competition
in sports entertainment.
He also became a father to a girl named Liberty.
- You don't become a man until you have a daughter.
At least in my case, that's what's happened.
First and foremost, I am there to support
and provide the world for her.
- All you want to do is provide for that child.
The most important thing becomes that little person.
- Wrestling is filled with politics.
And when she was born, it just became about,
I can just do this transparently.
Hey, guys, I'm the best wrestler in the world.
I hope you know that,
and I'm going to try and go out there and show you that,
because I have to report back now.
I have to report back to this little kid
who doesn't have any clue what...
[voice breaking] Like, I'm going through
and doesn't ever need to know.
But I thought I had a tough task in front of me
with wrestling and following Dusty Rhodes' act
as a wrestler.
Following his act as a father...
I hope I'm even close.
- By January of 2022, rumors began to surface
that Cody's status in AEW was uncertain.
- When I first started hearing,
all right, he's working without a contract,
I honestly just didn't believe it.
- You know, people were asking online,
is Cody's contract up?
Yeah, it is. It was.
* *
That's all stuff that is public information
that's being shared.
So, if the contracts
are not being renewed on time...
we're rocking foundation.
It's just odd to me to play with that kind of fire
in an industry that's competitive.
I mean, you can attract people who don't know that,
and things can happen.
- There were rumblings about Cody's contract being up.
And reached out through some mutual friends
and just asked if that was true
and, if it was true, for Cody to give me a call.
And Cody called me within, like, five minutes.
And I believe Vince and I were on a plane
the very next day to meet with Cody
in person in Atlanta, Georgia.
- In early 2022,
the chairman of WWE, Vince McMahon,
went to Atlanta, Georgia, to meet with Cody.
- I looked at it as closure.
That's true honesty.
I thought I'd be able to apologize for how I exited
but also stand before them
as someone who went out and rattled those cages
and did some different things
and be able to have that moment with them,
and it be closure.
That's not at all what I got out of it.
- It wasn't so much a business meeting.
It was,
but it was a meeting of, what have you been doing?
What do you want to do?
What we think we could do as well together.
- This wasn't changing.
To quote Vince, and it's one of my favorite things
I have ever heard,
"We're not gonna change it. It's not broke.
That's what we're buying."
- Vince McMahon flew to his house to get him back.
I don't know.
I don't know how many people can say they did that.
- We left there without any doubt in anyone's mind
that Cody was coming home.
- Huge news...
Cody Rhodes, Brandi Rhodes
now done with All Elite Wrestling.
- This is my one request in this entire documentary.
This one answer I don't want edited in any capacity.
Don't even edit this part.
I can't tell you why I left AEW.
I can't, and I won't,
but I'll tell you the reasons that were said
that didn't actually matter.
I didn't leave AEW because of money,
and I didn't leave AEW because of other talents.
I left AEW because of a personal issue.
That's it.
But the byproduct of leaving AEW
is the opportunity...
to go for the biggest dream I ever had
and the first dream that I had in my life.
- To then take that gamble again and say,
this is not what I wanted to be.
I didn't grow up dreaming of being the champion
or the face of a secondary promotion.
I wanted to be the WWE Champion.
[soft dramatic music]
* *
- They say when one door closes,
another opens.
Cody was about to show the whole world
that the so-called forbidden door...
swings both ways.
- WrestleMania that year--
we got to the point where everything for Seth
that we had planned had kind of fallen through.
And then all of a sudden,
you get this huge superstar from outside of WWE,
who is now entering.
And it was the perfect storm to bring them together.
- It wasn't finalized
until, like, two weeks before WrestleMania.
- Seth Rollins is as good as it gets,
and I'm going to be the one making his WrestleMania,
one of Dusty's kids?
- Thank you, sir. - You're welcome, kid.
- Absolutely. Hell, yes.
* *
- The element of surprise to me
is the greatest tool
that we have as storytellers sometimes.
If the audience is expecting a surprise
and you give them something that satisfies their hunger...
Bingo, man. That's perfect.
- We'd heard rumblings,
but all day backstage, I'm asking questions.
As the announcer,
I would have liked to have had some facts lined up,
but instead I was flying blind.
- I knew he was coming back.
He just wouldn't admit it until that day
when I finally texted him, "Where are you?"
He's like, "I'm on this bus."
- I'll never forget...
this was the last place I was in for a Mania,
and I didn't think I would get another opportunity
to go down this path.
So I can't take it for granted.
- For me, the anxiety in everything was,
I know my husband.
The people who are the closest to him
he needs in moments like that.
He needed me, his mom,
and his sister.
And the only one that made it was me,
and I've got a nine-month-old baby on a bus
that I'm trying to keep together
for the biggest moment of his career thus far.
[cell phone chimes]
- Hey. - Hey.
- Up close and personal.
I miss you. - I miss you, too.
I wish I could be in two places at once.
Unfortunately, I couldn't be there
'cause it was my granddaughter's wedding day,
but we had a watch party.
- It was a rural location.
You know, we're in a field.
I've got, like, barely any connection.
[cheers and applause]
- You are looking live at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas!
Welcome to WrestleMania!
[indistinct chatter]
- Yep. - Oh, here you go.
- I didn't have an idea how they would respond to me.
Some people had indicated, maybe they won't know you.
Then I thought, "Well, maybe they'll boo you.
"You were the alternative.
You were on the other side."
- I remember Cody saying,
"If they turn on me, get out of Gorilla."
- So just don't step off right away.
Wait for it to stop.
- Stadium shows are interesting
because the center of the ring's like the eye
of the storm.
* *
It's almost like a calm, right? It's peace.
* *
- Who's it gonna be?
- Wrestling has more than one...
royal family. [cheers and applause]
[Downstait's "Kingdom" playing]
* *
- * Adrenaline in my soul *
* Every thought... *
- This is surreal!
I have got chills!
[fireworks booming]
- * The crowd is here, about to blow *
- Boom!
- * Waitin' for me to start the show *
- I was just so glad
that he got such a warm reception.
You know, it was a homecoming, but it was also--
It just felt that magic again.
- Here's the executive from the alternative company,
and he's here, and he's back.
- Here's a man who had such a shadow cast above him.
Here's a guy who took a big chance
leaving the only home he knew, betting on himself,
and becoming a bigger star because of it,
and then returning home
almost like the conquering hero.
- The prodigal son has returned!
- I'm just sitting there just watching the screen,
just, like, heart racing.
- From undesirable to undeniable!
Let's see what Cody brought to the table tonight.
Beautiful arm drag by Cody Rhodes.
- Oh, Cody Rhodes showboats a bit here at WrestleMania.
- That wasn't showboating. That was shedding skin.
That was a fresh start for the American Nightmare.
- One of the things that people are critical about is,
oh, this guy was this, this girl was this.
They can't kick out of that.
And I disagree with that.
I'm at my best form, and it requires all these experiences
that I've had,
and it requires all this leaning into the family
that I have.
- The Bionic Elbow, like the American Dream.
- We tell stories in the ring.
And I needed that story to be told in the ring.
[cheers and applause]
- Cross Rhodes!
all: One, two, three!
[bell dings]
[cheers and applause]
[soft dramatic music]
- There's not a word on Earth that can describe
coming up under those lights.
It's what every wrestler chases.
There's no drug on Earth that can provide a high like that.
I spent a long time chasing it.
There's a lot of wrestlers who got it right away,
and I don't begrudge them.
Great. They figured it out.
It took the Code man a while to figure it out.
- Right now high above the clouds,
a certain son of a plumber
is grinning from ear to ear.
- One of the best things about my dad--
I was his biggest fan, but he was a fan of me.
He believed in me.
I hope-- You know, I'm a father now.
I hope that I can instill that same belief,
'cause, man, if he believed in me at 20,
he would have had to wait 16 years to be like,
"All right, that's what I was telling you about.
There he is."
But, yeah, I can't thank him enough.
If he was here, a lot I would tell him,
but the first thing I'd say is thank you,
'cause confidence in this--
in wrestling will shake you.
And it never wavered, never did.
It just took time.
- Man, Dusty was looking down on him,
and I don't think Dusty could have been prouder,
because, man, I was proud.
- What Cody did was take how he was feeling,
and he turned it into fuel.
Undesirable to undeniable--
and let's be honest, he's undeniable now.
- The Cody that came back was so different
from the Cody who left.
He was a kid when he left.
Cody came back a man with a newfound respect
for both WWE
and for the business in general.
- For WWE to be your home, that's...
That's special.
When I came back at WrestleMania,
that's what everyone kept saying--
"Welcome home. Welcome home."
I have never once referred to this place as home publicly
because I felt like a hypocrite doing that,
especially after my departure and everything I did.
* *
It is, without a doubt,
without a shadow of a doubt, my home.
And it's wild how it's worked out,
but...
I couldn't ask for a better home.
- Two nights later on "RAW,"
Cody addressed the WWE Universe.
- At eight years old, I knew not what I wanted to do,
what I needed to do!
I was going to win
this championship belt right here!
I was going to bestow it into the hands
of the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes,
and I would tell him,
"Nobody can take it away from you now!"
- He wants to have the things in his career
that Dusty didn't get in his.
I mean, it's like he wants to finish it off.
[cheers and applause]
- Cody's proclamation was a rallying cry
that united the WWE Universe around him
like never before.
- The fans wanted to love Cody.
And to know his story and to understand his story,
how could you not want to cheer for him?
- It's kind of like, "Hey, that's one of our own.
"Good for him, and I'm glad he's back.
I want to be on that team."
- Man, he had so much momentum.
People were so with him and behind him.
And you can tell, like, he's on that rocket, man.
He's on that rocket going up.
* *
- [scoffs]
[bleep]. Uh...
- Today we are near my ancestral home
in Atlanta, Georgia,
preparing and training
for my upcoming match with Seth Rollins
inside Hell in a Cell.
[tense music]
* *
- Just two months after returning to WWE,
Cody was faced with a daunting task.
He was set to battle Seth Rollins
in a match known as Hell in a Cell.
The structure itself has a brutal history.
- The cell will break bones.
It will shred flesh.
It will change careers forever.
- No! Oh, my!
As God is my witness, he is broken in half!
- Cody was training for one
of the biggest matches of his career.
Then, just three days before the event...
a monumental injury.
- I got hurt bench-pressing.
It was devastating and embarrassing.
How it happened, just putting a bar above your head,
and the next thing you know, your chest rips from the arm.
- Bruce Prichard called me on the phone,
told me, "Well...
Cody tore his pec."
I said, "Are you [bleep] kidding me?"
- Initially, we're thinking, "Oh, my gosh,
"how are we going to substitute
this match that we have in this event?"
It was the headline.
- I've had the same injury.
I know what it feels like when you do it.
I know what it feels like a couple days later.
You find out a lot about people when they get injured.
It really shows your true inside.
- The option to not wrestle was the option
for everybody but me.
I have them on my phone still,
the amount of voice notes I sent about,
please do not cancel the match.
Hey, Doc Amann and I just spoke.
He did tell me no more damage can come to it at this point.
I would really appreciate
being able to perform on Sunday.
We're on last,
and it's the first time I've had that opportunity.
- Cody was just adamant that he was going to have the match.
So we had all of our experts examine him
nine ways from Sunday,
and they agreed that he's got strength in his arms.
He's got strength in his chest.
He can do everything,
but it looked gruesome,
absolutely gruesome.
- Well, you definitely need to do it.
You need to compete if you can compete.
But let's not kill ourselves.
- I was adamant that I would perform,
that I compete.
These people paid their money, you know?
You would have had to kill me
for me not to be doing this tonight.
- I thought, "Oh, my God.
Do you have to do this?"
- Whew.
- And he said, "It doesn't hurt as much as it looks like."
And I said, "You're lying."
[dramatic music]
- Seth Rollins adorned
in the trademark polka dots
of the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes.
- Cody Rhodes looking to end this chapter.
- No one would have thought less of Rhodes
to back out of this matchup.
That's not who the American Nightmare is.
Cody will not miss this battle,
come hell or high water!
* *
- It's like oxygen.
I needed to be in the ring that night.
If I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna go out my way.
[cheers and applause] Let's go! Let's go!
- I didn't know what the audience was gonna think
when they saw what his arm looked like.
all: [chanting] Cody, Cody, Cody, Cody!
- Oh...my...God.
* *
- I hadn't seen the injury backstage
at any point during the day.
I saw it for the very first time
the same time the WWE Universe laid eyes
on that gruesome injury.
The audible collective gasp from the fans
sucked the air out of the building.
* *
It was uncomfortable.
* *
It felt like we were watching something
we weren't supposed to be seeing
and that it could go catastrophically bad.
It was a genuine concern
from everybody in the arena that night.
- My reaction when he took off that ring jacket was just,
"My gosh, what are you doing?
You must be in so much pain."
- It really added to the storyline and the drama
and the intrigue.
[cheers and applause]
- Cody Rhodes truly has the weight of the world
on his shoulders tonight.
[bell dings]
- I can't call it anything but what it was.
It was really old school.
We came up and lived by a moniker--
if you walk, you go to the ring.
* *
- Aah!
- It's different when you're watching your dad
as opposed to watching your brothers.
You always have that fear that something really bad
is gonna happen.
* *
- It was brutal.
I watched like this.
* *
- Cody showed what he had inside,
and that's a lot more than a lot of people.
- Every, like, herky-jerky motion hurt.
And at one point, right after a Cody Cutter,
if there was gonna be a spot where the match ended,
it would have been right there, because I nearly vomited.
- Cody Cutter face down!
But how much damage did it do to Cody Rhodes delivering it?
- The referee that was in there with me that night,
he implored me, if you have a problem,
I'm gonna stop it.
So I had to make sure he knows, like, I'm okay.
- It was very tough to watch.
Even though you can't hurt it worse,
it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.
- Aah!
- Oh, my. - This is just ruthless.
This is gruesome.
- Should this be happening? I don't know.
But this is to give them something to remember.
- Sledgehammer...
to Rollins!
* *
all: One, two, three!
- Unbelievable!
[cheers and applause]
* *
That was a downright Herculean effort
that we will likely never see again
in a WWE ring.
- Thanks, boys.
[applause] - Appreciate it.
- It showed people not just how good Cody was
but how tough Cody was.
- I think that he lied
about the pain.
- Anyone who's asked me how this feels,
I have lied through my teeth.
I have absolutely lied through my teeth.
This is the most painful thing
that could possibly ever be happening in my body.
I mean, it's completely ruptured.
So, yeah, you couldn't do it any more,
but, my God, it is the worst.
That was rough. That was rough.
Everyone asks about the pec.
I hate talking about it.
I'm embarrassed that it happened.
I'm not proud, but I do love
that it endeared me to a side of the audience
that maybe hadn't come around to me yet.
all: [chanting] Cody, Cody, Cody!
- Cody Rhodes has earned every bit of adulation
for what he accomplished last night.
- But if that's what did it, then...
it's a pec well spent.
- Just days after his gutsy performance at Hell in a Cell,
Cody headed to Birmingham, Alabama,
to have his torn pectoral muscle repaired.
- We're gonna start by just making the standard approach
to the pec.
[monitor beeping]
- Big, deep breaths.
- Cody sustained a complete rupture
of his pectoralis major.
I saw the match,
and I couldn't believe he was doing it.
- Dr. Dugas is great.
He let me stand in there and watch.
[tube slurps]
* *
He told me that it was as successful
as successful could be.
- We were able to put all of it
basically right back to where it came from.
[monitor beeping]
* *
- I thought I was bulletproof.
News flash--I am not.
It took me ripping half my body off
to find out.
Can never come back and never recapture the fire,
or you can come back better than you ever were.
[soft dramatic music]
- It's been four months since Cody's surgery.
Today he's in his home state of Georgia,
welcoming a new crop of students
to his wrestling school,
aptly named the Nightmare Factory.
- I quit my job as a nurse and sold everything
that I own to come wrestle.
- Oh! [applause]
It doesn't matter who you are.
It is an absurdly difficult industry,
and you'll have success,
and then you'll wonder why you don't have more,
and then you'll realize,
oh, I just have to keep working harder.
This is the first time we get to sit down with them.
We try to loosen them up a little bit,
open it up for questions.
- How do you regain your confidence after a bad injury?
- Good question.
- For the first time in his career,
Cody was attempting to return from a major injury.
* *
- For someone who's been injured
and lost the thing that you love,
the journey to getting it back is not as simple as it sounds.
- It's good. It's good, intact.
- I think the toughest challenge
with specifically this type of tear
is after the third month, you feel relatively normal.
Then you get on a bench,
and you can only put up 3-pound or 5-pound dumbbells.
There's always a little bit of nerves
about picking something up
or moving in a way that there's a zinger.
- First concern you have is,
am I gonna be able to make it back?
And it runs through your mind during your healing process
and your rehabilitation.
- I hope I can perform better than I ever did.
I honestly thought I was the best wrestler in the world
the day I left Hell in the Cell
with the pec already torn,
but I would need to be at that same level or even better,
and there's an anchor on my bicep
with my pec tendon tied to it, so I am different.
So I got to be what I was but different at the same time.
Just...
It's a game.
It's a mental game of, okay, I feel really good about it,
and then I feel really terrible about it.
The biggest thing is not the injury itself.
The biggest thing is how it weighs on your mind.
Will I come back? How will I be received?
And just the unknown.
- You don't know what's going to happen during those months
that you're out.
Who's gonna come up?
What's gonna happen storyline-wise?
So you're sitting back, and you're completely helpless.
If you don't have that inner confidence in yourself...
[scoffs] It's complete misery.
- In wrestling, things can change...
[snaps fingers] Like that, and now I'm out.
So what's gonna happen when I come back?
- Are you going to feel the same?
Are you going to be able to perform the same?
Is the audience going to care?
Are they going to remember you?
Mentally, it's just a very challenging place to be in.
It can lead to depression at times, a lot of anxiety.
The days seem to stretch,
and it feels like it's never gonna happen.
- I'm so glad that today,
from a standpoint us as wrestlers
or WWE superstars can talk about the mental health,
the sports psychology involved with such a high
and then being met with such a low.
The only saving grace for that period was,
obviously, my wife was there with me every step of the way,
but I got to be around Liberty
more than I would have been around her,
you know, being on the road.
Can you say "I love you"? - I love you.
- Cody is a total family man, just like his dad.
He realizes...
to be a family man, you got to be there.
Your home is the heart of three people.
* *
- In December of 2022,
after six months of rehabilitation,
Cody stepped in the ring once again.
- I thought I was a really hard worker,
and then I get the green light.
Doc Dugas says, you can train,
and you can get in the ring, too.
And then I found out
there was a whole nother layer of hard work.
[grunts]
* *
I mean, you can see the manifestation.
As hard as I tried to keep muscle on
and develop my muscle...
I got as lean as I have ever been.
* *
I got as healthy as a wrestler
as I've ever been, as an athlete.
* *
- WWE Medical requires that performers
go through an evaluation to be cleared for competition.
- Today we were going through his warmup strategies
to basically prepare himself before any match going forward
and then getting in the ring today to get cleared.
- I'm Carmelo Hayes, NXT superstar,
and we're here to get Cody ready.
* *
- That was really exciting, for me to feel ready.
* *
- The thing about Cody is,
he thinks that, you know, I'm here to help him,
but in reality, he's helping me.
It's cool to get in there with somebody,
such a pro like Cody.
I think he's ready to go, man. He was fine.
If anything, I had to take it up a notch to meet him.
- Everyone was there to help me check those boxes.
Good? - Yeah, that's good.
- Yay. - Yay.
- Head up. - Yeah.
- Did it.
- He did awesome.
So I have no reservations or hesitations
about him going forward.
- The Royal Rumble is the obvious destination
at this point.
You're looking right at it.
And if we're cleared with no restrictions,
what are we waiting for?
And the next step will be pulling the bus
into San Antonio and the Alamodome.
* *
- One month later,
Cody stepped off his bus in San Antonio, Texas,
to compete in WWE's annual Royal Rumble match.
In this contest,
the winner receives a championship opportunity
at WrestleMania 39.
- There's fear, in terms of,
can you even do it at the level you were doing it at?
But I've been visualizing it for seven months.
So, walking in here, so far, it's exactly what I wanted.
[bell dings]
- The following is the 30-man
Royal Rumble match!
[cheers and applause]
- 30 men, every man for himself!
Over 50,000 strong
at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
And here we go!
* *
- Nothing can prepare you for wrestling like wrestling.
- The ring filling up with superstars.
- I hadn't been having big, big, big matches yet.
* *
- This is entry number 15.
- Seth "Freakin" Rollins is here!
[cheers and applause]
- And now eliminated by Gunther.
- Coming into the Rumble,
you could spend some time in there.
- Here comes number 30.
- In my case, I came in at the lofty number-30 spot.
[buzzer blares]
[energetic rock music]
- The American Nightmare is here!
His recovery from the torn pectoral muscle
has been well documented.
- Let's roll, right? Let's roll! Let's roll!
[dramatic music]
- Cody Rhodes!
Oh, Rhodes!
Logan Paul sent over the top rope,
and it's down to two!
It's down to Cody! It's down to Gunther!
- The first chop that he put across my chest
and on the area that had been surgically repaired...
* *
It was like coming alive again.
* *
And he made me feel it.
- You saw everything Cody Rhodes
put himself through to get ready,
to battle back, to be ready for this moment
here tonight at the Royal Rumble.
And now Gunther looking to eliminate Cody Rhodes
and win the--
Oh! Cody Rhodes!
Cross Rhodes to Gunther!
Cody Rhodes! Gunther!
Eliminated!
[cheers and applause]
[triumphant music]
The American Nightmare,
one step closer to the American Dream!
* *
- For me in that moment...
I felt damn good.
* *
- Can you imagine the feeling after the torn pectoral muscle
and the match of the year at Hell in a Cell
to this moment tonight?
* *
- It hasn't hit me at all...
the whole story and what we do next.
That's once-in-a-lifetime stuff, you know?
- You guys did all out. Great job.
- Congratulations.
- I don't think I've ever been beat up that bad in my life.
You know, I joke a lot about, you know,
how she felt about me leaving and the roll of the dice,
and to see me in a successful moment,
that's irreplaceable.
You know, for a guy who doesn't believe in destiny,
we're on a hell of a course here, right?
Mm.
[soft dramatic music]
* *
- Cody had the opportunity to fulfill his dream
and achieve the goal his father never did...
win the WWE Championship.
* *
- At WrestleMania 39,
Cody had the opportunity of a lifetime--
a Main Event match
against the WWE Undisputed Universal Champion,
Roman Reigns.
- Nearly 2 1/2 years,
Roman Reigns has ruled WWE.
- He's in there with the biggest Main Eventer
in WrestleMania history.
So he's more than dipping his toes.
He's jumping in the deep end.
- Quite simply, Roman Reigns
exists in God mode.
- We have a mountain that so many people
have failed to climb and failed to conquer.
- Daniel Bryan and Edge couldn't do it.
John Cena couldn't do it.
Sami Zayn couldn't do it in Montreal.
Why should I be the one?
- For some, you have become
this impossible mountain to climb.
But that's kind of my thing.
There's no way that Cody will survive Stardust.
There's no way that 10,000 people
would pay to see me
and my buddy's little indie show.
The goal posts have continuously moved,
and I continuously punch it through the uprights.
So, for everybody else,
Roman Reigns might be impossible...
[crowd shouting, cheering, whistling]
Just not for me.
[cheers and applause]
If there was one person who could do it,
it's the guy who has been trained his whole life,
whether he knew he was training for it or not,
to do it.
- He exudes confidence.
And you can tell he believes in what he's doing.
It comes across on TV
as like, yeah, this guy's locked in.
- I have waited my whole life! I will wait no more!
On April 2nd, Roman Reigns, I pin you!
I stick you in this ring and become
the first Rhodes to ever say
he is the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion!
[cheers and applause]
[soft dramatic music]
- All roads lead to WrestleMania.
And joining us now,
WWE superstar, the American Nightmare,
Mr. Cody Rhodes! - Cody Rhodes!
- Oh, my gosh, what a buildup. What an intro.
This is the most improbable Main Event,
if you really look at it.
- Cody Rhodes one was when you were here
to promote AEW. - Yeah.
A year ago, I was an outsider.
Roman has been to the Main Event.
This is number seven. This is number one for me.
So heading into a match with Roman Reigns,
it's the biggest thing anyone in my family has ever done.
- Your daughter--
I mean, is she starting to feel the wrestling?
- We'll see how she takes to it.
She may end up being like, "Nope, this isn't for me."
Or she may fall right in love with it.
So we'll see.
- We can't wait to see what happens.
Well, good luck.
[soft music]
* *
- I really want to win, guys.
God, I want to win. I do.
But it's not just about that anymore.
I still can't hand it to him.
I still can't tell him,
"Nobody can take it away from you now."
I have my own family.
- Libby, ooh. - Baby.
- Cheese!
- [voice breaking] You know, one day...
she's gonna tell somebody that her dad was Cody Rhodes.
[imitates whoosh, chuckles] - [giggles]
And what comes back is very important.
* *
- It's a matter of,
is it destiny or not for Cody Rhodes?
- Cody Rhodes is taking that title home tonight.
- Let's go.
I don't have anything else to say.
Let's go!
- Cody feels like a champion when he walks in the room.
Great chance for Cody Rhodes, but it ain't gonna be easy.
- When I was underneath, I could feel his hand.
So I felt like he was with me.
- Get a dream, hold on to it, and shoot for the sky!
[dramatic music]
* *
[crowd shouting, fireworks booming]
* *
- Being in that moment, going on last,
it's just something that my family can share
and be there for and rally together.
- This is a moment generations in the making
for the Rhodes family.
- I am so lucky to be here.
Absolutely I worked my ass off.
I worked my entire life for this.
Bet on myself. Yes, that's great.
But I'm still lucky to be in this spot.
* *
I'm living the first dream I ever had,
and part of that is terrifying.
- Roman in the midst of one
of the most incredible championship runs
in the history of sports entertainment.
Cody Rhodes
looking to end that tonight.
- But part of that's really fun.
Final inning here, bottom of the ninth.
This is it.
You either do the thing, or you strike out.
[bell dings]
- The following contest scheduled for one fall is for
the Undisputed WWE
Universal Championship!
[cheers and applause]
- The last time that Roman Reigns
was pinned in a match was in December of 2019.
- Cody letting Roman know,
I'm here to take what you have.
And Roman is eager to remind the entire WWE Universe
that this is his world.
Cody trying to hang on.
Back body drop through the table!
Cody's got a chance!
Oh, Cody Cutter!
- SoFi is rumbling!
It feels like we are on the precipice of history!
- Cross Rhodes!
And a kick-out by Reigns!
- Does Rhodes have what it takes to finish the story?
- Oh, my God, Roman did it again!
- Rhodes trying to psych himself back up.
- Oh, Superman punch!
Rhodes is out cold!
Cody's alive, though!
Roman can't believe it!
He's gonna do it! Cross Rhodes!
Do it again, Cody!
- No! Solo!
- Oh, my God, not like this!
[soft dramatic music]
* *
- And still
the Undisputed
WWE Universal Champion!
* *
- Cody Rhodes
with the fight of his life.
His father, the American Dream,
looking down, has to be proud.
- Main Eventing WrestleMania,
it really doesn't get bigger than that.
That's a moment.
That's a moment his dad never had.
Like, I can feel his dad's presence there,
you know, watching that, and without sounding cliché,
like, I know--I know what that would have meant to him.
I felt like in that moment, it was important
for me to reinforce to him what he had just done,
because I think sometimes it's easy
to just pass that off and not actually sit back
and take a moment to go, "Wow, I just
Main Evented WrestleMania," you know?
That's an accomplishment.
- I know people are proud, and I appreciate that,
but this sucks.
It really [bleep] sucks.
* *
I'm not done.
The story is unfinished.
But a lot of good stories have a lot of pages.
* *
- There is still work to be done.
But through it all, Cody Rhodes
has proven nothing is impossible.
- It's really easy to say, hey, when the book's closed,
the whole story is finished, "He was Dusty Rhodes' son."
But then there's another way you say it,
where he's Dusty Rhodes' son,
and that means a whole lot...
because of what he was able to do.
* *
[fireworks booming]
- There is one key to this business--
is believing in your worth.
If anyone is a testament to that, it's Cody.
- Somebody said to somebody, "Not you."
And to be able to be the person
to turn around and say,
"I'm gonna make you change your mind"...
However many years it takes, finally, they say,
"You know what? You were right."
God, that's great.
- From undesirable to undeniable!
- What a beautiful story.
I mean, this is the story that you make movies about.
- It's just the sheer force of will
that he had to be a star in the business.
- He's gone from being a wrestler to being a star,
but now he's becoming an attraction.
When you become an attraction,
you get so far ahead of the pack,
they can't even see your tail lights.
That's where he's headed right now.
- He has built Cody Rhodes.
Maybe it got him looked at at first
because he was Dusty's son, but that's it.
He's built an incredible career
and is delivering at all times.
- It's no longer, "Oh, that's Cody Rhodes.
That's Dusty's boy."
It's, "That's Cody Rhodes right there."
- I got to meet Cody.
I gave him a picture.
- I'm just as proud of him as a parent can be, period.
- I look up to Cody Rhodes,
not only in ring but out of ring.
He's a great father and husband.
- [imitates whoosh] - Jump, baby!
- I'm proud of myself as a husband and father.
[both grunting sweetly]
But as a performer,
I don't think I can say I'm proud
because I haven't finished it.
- The chip his dad never got.
And believe me, he won't give up until he gets it.
- Believing in himself,
that's his superpower.
- When people talk about me or think about me,
I'd want them to say...
"I wouldn't bet against that guy."
* *
I will carry this dream on my shoulders
until it becomes a reality.
* *
- When is this documentary ever going to stop shooting...
- Yeah, Matt, you're in charge. - For this man?
- When is it over?
[Downstait's "Kingdom" playing]
* *
- * Adrenaline in my soul *
- The game plan for today is,
I'm gonna walk through our desert and encounter
various pieces of not just my professional life,
but my personal life.
- * Whoa *
- You got an Usos shirt on.
[object thuds]
Unprofessional.
- * You took it all away *
* I give it all away *
* Can't take my freedom *
- I'm gonna say Tunisia for this shoot
just because I think that's where they did "A New Hope"
and all the "Star Wars" Tatooine stuff.
So I'm gonna tell people Tunisia.
See how far it can go.
- * I am my kingdom *
* Now you bow to me *