Cody Rhodes Feels He's Still "On The Hunt" to Create His Own Legacy
Cody Rhodes' family legacy has been an integral pillar of his pro wrestling career. Between his father's status as a legendary icon of the pro wrestling business ("The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes) and his brother's decades of success (Dustin Rhodes), "The American Nightmare" had quite a bit to live up to from the time he first laced up a pair of boots. Between his two world championship reigns — including the same NWA World Heavyweight Championship his father held three times — his involvement in the creation of All Elite Wrestling and his recent success in WWE as both a Royal Rumble winner and WrestleMania main eventer, many would argue that Rhodes has already created a legacy separate from the rest of family. But Rhodes thinks otherwise.
"A big secret there is when it comes to second or third-generation wrestlers, this trickles down to any athlete where your parent came before you and did something great. The thing you don't always say is, 'I want to honor them,' but also, you want to be better than they were. Not in a negative way. You want to take it a step further," Rhodes said in an interview with ESPN Radio this week (h/t Fightful). "For me, winning the Royal Rumble. My dad passed away in 2015, it's so unique that he's not able to see it, but I feel like he's still here with me. To be able to do some things that he never touched. Dusty did everything. To be able to win the Royal Rumble, to go to WrestleMania and be the main event of the biggest thing in wrestling, I'm blessed and lucky, but I'm still on the hunt.
"You mentioned SummerSlam, [on Monday] in Buffalo (at WWE Raw), I'm hopefully going to get to talk about what I'm going to do at SummerSlam, but I'm still on the hunt to find my own legacy. That's the tricky thing when you're in these families. You want to look at everybody and say, 'they were different, they did this. He was different and did this.' That's my way of honoring them. Trying to be different from both dad and my brother. That's certainly a struggle because they laid out a great path."
Why Cody Rhodes Hasn't Pursued the World Heavyweight Championship
Rhodes made it clear during the Money in the Bank post-show conference that, for him, winning the new World Heavyweight Championship would not be enough for him to achieve his goal of "finishing the story." That mission is still to win the WWE Championship, which is still held by Roman Reigns as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
"I don't want to be a downer but no (it doesn't finish the story)," Rhodes said. "Winning the world heavyweight championship would be outstanding, it would be amazing. It is the title on the flagship show, Monday Night Raw. It absolutely matters, is important, and what Seth is doing with it is a special thing. That title will mean far more in five minutes and then in 10 minutes. Every second it gains equity. But finishing the story was always about the title that my dad didn't get."
WWE Monday Night Raw Card (July 10, 2023)
- Cody Rhodes Delivers "Special Message" to Brock Lesnar
- Drew McIntyre & Riddle vs. Imperium
- Tommaso Ciampa vs. The Miz (No Disqualification)
- Ricochet & Logan Paul face-to-face confrontation
- Maxxine Dupri "Graduation Ceremony" From The Alpha Academy
WWE SummerSlam 2023 Rumored Card
- Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso
- Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs. Drew McIntyre
- SmackDown Women's Championship: Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair
- Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships: Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. TBA
- Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar (with some sort of stipulation)
- Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus
- Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler
- Ricochet vs. Logan Paul