Cody Rhodes Describes Hilarious Mask That Stardust Was Supposed to Wear

Cody Rhodes' Stardust gimmick thankfully avoided having to wear a mask.

By Connor Casey

Cody Rhodes' infamous Stardust character stuck around from June 2014 up until he requested his release in 2016. "The American Nightmare" has spoken about the infamous persona in multiple interviews, saying he never intends to revive the character and is happy to have moved on. Stardust's look closely resembled Dustin Rhodes' Goldust persona, though Cody tossed in a few cosmic elements. In a new interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr on Dale Download this week, Rhodes revealed the gimmick was originally supposed to include a mask, one he described as a "condom meets Electro from the Spider-Man comics."

"At one point, I had the paint, but there was an actual mask that was pitched," Rhodes said (h/t Fightful). "This was an area where I spoke up. I put it on and it's like a classic condom blowing up. It looked so bad. I get there is an element of humor to what I'm going to do, but they have to be laughing with you, they can't be laughing at you. It looked like a condom meets Electro from the Spider-Man comics. I told Vince [Vince McMahon], 'I can't do the mask it looks so bad.' I went and shaved my head like Dustin. I'm glad the mask never saw the light of day. Stardust had some milestones, and I did go into it committed to try and change it, but it wasn't going to get me anywhere."

Cody Rhodes on Not Owning the All In Trademark

Rhodes talked elsewhere in the interview about the original All In event, which AEW recently revived for its first stadium show and set a new record for most tickets sold for a one-day pro wrestling event at over 81,000. He admitted he had an issue with no longer owning the trademark for the show as it was originally owned by Ring of Honor, which AEW's Tony Khan purchased last year.

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"I have trouble with the fact that I no longer own the name to it," Rhodes said. "I kind of look at it in the sense of, it's not mine, it's the fans'. Let them have a good time with it."

After appearing at Payback this past weekend to announce Jey Uso had been traded to Monday Night Raw, WWE has announced will be back on the Red Brand next week.

WWE Payback 2023 Results

  • Becky Lynch def. Trish Stratus (Steel Cage Match)
  • LA Knight def. The Miz (John Cena as special guest referee)
  • WWE United States Championship: Rey Mysterio def. Austin Theory
  • Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships:  The Judgment Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest) def. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn 
  • Women's World Championship: Rhea Ripley def. Raquel Rodriguez
  • World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins def. Shinsuke Nakamura

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