Cody Rhodes talks Travis Scott, Clash of Clans, more

[Chris]

Cody Rhodes on WrestleMania and That Travis Scott Punch

Cody Rhodes opens up about John Cena’s final match and mo...

www.complex.com

When Cody Rhodes left the WWE in 2016, his legacy was far from cemented. He had two Intercontinental Championship runs, one of which included the reintroduction of the belt's classic designs, six tag title reigns, and several memorable characters. But Rhodes was struggling to make his way to the top of the card so he departed to pursue independent opportunities, eventually culminating in being a founding father of WWE’s rival promotion AEW and being named the brand’s EVP in 2019. At AEW, Rhodes was the inaugural TNT champ and a clear challenger to the main event scene.

Now, the son of WWE icon Dusty Rhodes is back in the WWE, is arguably the face of the entire company, and is set to main event his third consecutive WrestleMania. After a two-year rivalry with Roman Reigns came to a head at last year’s Mania with Rhodes finishing his story and finally capturing a world title, the American Nightmare goes into this year's event defending that same title against the greatest of all time, John Cena.

"I feel like I'm tasked almost with being what John was at a certain point in his career, where all I do is win,” Rhodes tells Complex. “So I'm going to win.”

This isn't just an ordinary Mania match against Cena; the stakes are much higher than that. It's Cena’s final WrestleMania match, he's going for a record-breaking 17th world title, and he's doing all of this as a heel for the first time in his career.

In case you live under a rock, the jorts-wearing, fruity pebble outfit-donning, Make-A-Wish-granting hero to millions turned on Rhodes at the Elimination Chamber in February with the help of “The Final Boss” The Rock, and Travis Scott–yes, the rapper. In the process, Travis was a bit amped up for his first in-ring WWE action and connected with Cody a few times, giving him a nasty black eye and busting up his eardrum.

“That's wrestling,” Rhodes says. “I am not mad so much, but I am looking and my eyes are open for what we inevitably, what we'll call a receipt.”

With all those factors in play, Rhodes’ main event match is gearing up to be one of the most important of all time. Will he fend off a heel Cena one three count away from history? Will The Rock and Travis Scott get involved? Or will Cody continue writing chapters in his own “Super Cena” run that he’s currently on.

Ahead of WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas on April 19 and 20, Rhodes is set to announce a new partnership between the WWE and Clash of Clans, a game the champ happened to be incredibly fond of. He’s in the top 10% of players in the world, after all. Alongside Rhodes, Rhea Ripley, The Undertaker, Jey Uso, Kane, Rey Mysterio, Becky Lynch, and Bianca Belair will become playable characters in the popular phone game.

“There's so many people who love this game and play this game, and it bonds us globally, which is the whole point of WWE, which is crazy,” Rhodes says.

For more on the WWE’s Clash of Clans partnership, WrestleMania, Travis Scott, and a message to The Final Boss, you can find the full conversation below. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

I wanna start with Clash of Clans, can you talk about this partnership between Clash and the WWE and how excited you are to be a part of it?

With WWE and Clash? Working together is massive for me. I've been playing since the game basically came out, and I've seen all the various seasons. Clash has seasons where you get a new skin for the heroes, you get a new scenery for the war villages and home villages and all this stuff. So for them to do it WWE style, to see Rhea Ripley as the Archer Queen, and again, myself as the Barbarian King, if you play Clash, it's amazing. Plus Clash is really cool about all their lore. If you ever look up the YouTubes and these little trailers and things, they do the videos with the riders and the barbarians. They're cool about fleshing out these characters that you just tap on your phone. And I am honored to be the barbarian king. I have played this game. I sincerely like the game. So this is a really fun one.

I think I saw somewhere that you're in the top 10% of players globally in the game. How do you have time to do that?

Well, I didn't know that, and I think I've been told that, that just might be equity and time and experience, which again, leads to the fact of like, ‘Hey, when the hell are you playing this game, dude?’ But the way Clash works is you set your base, you put it down, and then when you get in there in the wars, these are three to five minute stretches. So this is the greatest sitting in the passenger seat or sitting on the plane, and you got good wifi. It's a great game for us on the road, which is why we started it because my clan is almost all wrestlers. We had this thing on the road that we could do together, but also do it at different times.

I feel like a lot of the times when superstars have these brand partnerships, it isn't always the most authentic, but this one seems very authentic to you and something that you're passionate about. Is it more exciting to get to work on a partnership like this that really does resonate for you?

Well, so twofold, right? Like you said, sometimes it might be new to you and you want to get as much information about it, and then other times it's something you're passionate about. And I feel like when it's new to you, that's a little tricky. When it comes to things like this, there's only so much to tell them about it versus for me, being passionate about this, this is easy. This doesn't even feel like it's a cross promotion. This doesn't even feel like it's something that we're looking at from a business metric as well. So I guess it's just far easier to talk about. And I just texted Undertaker and I've been waiting to text them this, and I have to text Rhea and Bianca as well, just so they know. They might already know. I think Rhea does. She did the commercial with me and she had a good base of information about it, but I just want them to know how cool this is. Yeah, It is a legit, well-loved, well-curated world. There's so many people who love this game and play this game, and it bonds us globally, which is the whole point of WWE, which is crazy. We're fighting each other in the ring. But yeah, this is an easy one for me.

Obviously, Wrestlemania is right around the corner and you’re fighting John Cena in his last Mania match ever. Can you talk a little bit about what that means to you?

I think it's almost an unenviable task, and I don't mean to be a downer in that term. Nothing is bigger in what we do. I mean, there's the Hall of Fame, which is a whole other category, but nothing is bigger in what we do in terms of going to WrestleMania, being in the main event, and the distinction of being in the headline main event match: that's as exciting as it could possibly get. If you had nothing in your blood and bones, that would fill you up to where you could do superhuman things. However, I say unenviable tasks because it's like you said, it's his last WrestleMania, this is it. And if anyone knows John, even a surface level of John, even just from what they've seen on television when he says, “This is it”–this is it.

I feel like I'm tasked almost with being what John was at a certain point in his career, where all I do is win, so I'm going to win. He is not going to get 17, and that's our last [match], that's it. Gosh, that's just a unique position to be in. On a personal level, it's extremely exciting. No matter the circumstances, whether we love each other or hate each other, dislike each other, whatever. Because John is a guy, I drove around in a rental car for two, almost three years, and just got to sit there and drive him and learn everything under the sun from him. From how to do a media morning to how to check in with the merch sheets after the show, from how to eat and train on the road, and how to live. And I just sponged up all I could. I did not imagine I'd be standing across from him here at the end, but that's how it works.

You mentioned that you are in a position that John used to be in. You’re not only fighting John Cena, but you’re fighting a heel John Cena. How much of a statement is it that the WWE trusts Cody Rhodes to be the person that John turns heel against for the first time?

I know it's kind of inside baseball, so I'll try and keep it as general, but I'll just say it. I am very lucky and every time I say that, somebody will remind me, oh no, you've done this and you’ve done that. But there's just an element of luck to all this as well. If I catalog it all and I look at the last two years, I say, ‘Hey, we had this situation with Roman Reigns, and then it would turn into the situation with the Rock, and then we had this situation with John Cena and that actually he's going out differently than he was.’ Again, it's almost overwhelming to think about what I do with the trust that WWE has given me, particularly the trust that Triple H, Nick Kahan, and the Final Boss the Rock have given me is it just has to be all hits, no misses. They put me on the field and that's what they expect, all hits, no misses, no complaints, which again, I'm very lucky. I think perhaps having failed incredibly on a massive scale prior in my career, having failed, failed, failed again, has put me in this position where now all I want to do is win.

And all I do currently, respectfully, is win. But that's because I'd been there before. I tasted that failure before and I learned a great deal from it. So that propels me forward in a great way.

This is your third straight year in the main event of Wrestlemania. You left the WWE for a few years and really bet on yourself, and now in this run you’re basically the top guy in the company, did you see this coming all those years ago during the Stardust days, the Dashing Cody Rhodes days, would you have ever anticipated you will now be main eventing your third straight WrestleMania?

I mean, I think I could say yes, but if you really put yourself in my shoes during that period, no, not at all. Just because I was getting further away from it. I was becoming one of those “over with the boys” types, a good worker, a good hand, which is a really great skillset to have, but wasn't why I got into this and I had the added fuel and chip on my shoulder from trying to show my dad the most impossible thing ever is that I could get over on a level like he was, and I mean to some people, Dusty's a Mount Rushmore wrestler. So this again was, these are incredibly difficult things to go after. And I don't know, I don't even know where I'm at in terms of all this, but yeah, to headline, WrestleMania once is a gift. It's a godsend. It's special to go into, you could say my fourth main event, but my third headlining the show… Here's the secret though, I just want another one. You just want more. Again, very lucky and no, I never imagined it. I wish I could speak confidently and say I knew it was going to be me. I didn't. I'll tell you who did, and sorry for my long ramble. My wife was pretty convinced that I was the best thing on earth and she was the only one. So I always offer her the best credit I can. She was one of the few that said, ‘Yeah, you need to leave. Let's go do this.’ And just really brought a different person out of me that I didn't know existed.

So obviously Travis Scott was a major part of that moment at Elimination Chamber-

Oh, he was?

He might've been there. What's it like getting punched in the face by one of the biggest rappers on the planet? How hard did he really hit you? Did you kind of give him the, ‘Hey man, just really let me have it’?

Well, the next day after the incident, I told everyone, "He didn't hit me." I didn't realize there was a fan video circulating of him hitting me with the power of a thousand suns and the noise deafening. And then I had a Tommy Boy situation where the entire side of my face was black and blue and I kept saying, ‘Oh no, I'm good. I'm good.’ And then I had a little flutter in the eardrum because it popped. Again, I'm a weirdo, this is going to sound so strange, and I apologize to your viewers and your listeners, but man, that's wrestling. You know what I'm saying? Beat me up. I'm going to beat you up. That's wrestling. I am not mad so much, but I am looking, and my eyes are open for what we inevitably, what we'll call a receipt. If Travis Scott ever makes his way back into the WWE frey, maybe there's a receipt for Travis. Prior to this though, by the way, I was a Travis Scott fan. I bought those sneakers on [Sneaker Shopping].

So that was my question. Are Brandi and Liberty allowed to wear them still?

So she wore them. Little Liberty Bigfoot, who's like growing her feet like a crazy person. She did wear the shoes. Not after the incident though. I don't know where the shoes went after the incident.

No more Travis Scott shoes in the house?

Let's say they might've gone somewhere. The shoes are not there anymore.

Who hits harder? Travis Scott or Logan Paul?

Well, Travis Scott hits pretty hard, but that's not the hardest I've ever been slapped. The hardest I've ever been slapped? Nattie Neidhart. If Travis Scott hit me with the force of a thousand suns, Nattie Neidhart sent me to the phantom zone. Legit, I was lost in space for a second, so that was the hardest one I ever got. Logan's a hard hitter though, and Logan is, I mean, that's a genetic freak. He is just a stud. He's kind of our - internet, please don't freak out - but he's kind of our Kurt Angle in terms of this athlete hybrid, whatever the hell he does, the YouTube’ing, the drinking, the Prime, he's an extremely big star. I think he's a huge part of WWE’s future. I wish he was way nicer and cooler, but he's a huge part of our future. I look forward to wrestling him again. I liked our Saudi Arabia match. I like him a lot.

You know exactly what the internet is going to do with that.

At this point they’re going to do what they do. It’s Mania season, the internet is gonna do what it wants to do.

You haven’t had the chance to go face to face with the Rock since the Elimination Chamber, if you had to send him a message and you knew he was going to hear it, what would it be?

Oh, one message for the Rock that I knew he was going to hear. I would just hope that the Final Boss can sit back and put his feet up and watch WrestleMania 41 and pat the sweat on his forehead with dollar bills that I'll be making him in another main event at another WrestleMania, where I'm going to make it so that they leave the event thinking about me and not him. But again, he's the boss, so he gets to reap those rewards in a similar way that I do, and also in the craziest of ways, I'd also want to thank him. He is, again, a little bit outside of the box, but he thinks in a very unique way, and although what you see on screen, those individuals don't get along and that might be very, very real. I have learned a great deal from the Final Boss, and I'm not too cool to admit that. I hope to continue to learn more.