Midway through the Nov. 6 episode of AEW Dynamite, Cody Rhodes walked to the ring and delivered a passionate, emotional promo about his upcoming AEW World Championship match at the Full Gear pay-per-view. The promo was widely praised by wrestling fans, to the point where people started calling it his version of the “Hard Times” promo famously given by Rhodes’ father, Dusty Rhodes. Jim Ross worked alongside Dusty for years before taking up his current role as AEW commentator, and in a new interview with ComicBook.com this week he talked about what aspects of Cody’s abilities in and out of the ring remind him of his famous father.
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“He [Dusty] was different a lot of ways, but the similarities for these two guys are so much alike on the creative side of it,” Ross said. “Cody is a natural born storyteller, whether it’s him writing stories for the other talents on the show or him writing his own stuff. He’s a natural born storyteller just like ‘The Dream’ was. Dustin is the great in-ring technician from that family. They’re half brothers. But Dustin will admit to this, he doesn’t have the creativity Cody does. Cody’s a chip off the old block.
“He is so gifted,” he added. “He had that promo nailed, his tone, his inflection, his eye contact, his body language, all the things that lend to a promo. And unlike some companies, we don’t have any writers on staff. So when a talent comes out, he does a promo. The week before, Jon Moxley, I thought he had a hell of a promo. That’s their creation. They’re creating their own content and then they have the confidence to deliver their own content. That’s one of the things that makes our show different.”
Though his promo was excellent, Rhodes wound up falling short in his title match at Full Gear after MJF threw in the towel while he was locked in Jericho’s Liontamer submission. MJF then turned heel and hit Rhodes with a knee to the groin, kicking off a brand new feud.
During a recent appearance on ESPN Radio, Rhodes admitted that he’ll forever be grateful to the WWE for helping his father during financial troubles back in the mid-2000s, and giving him a new career as an NXT coach.
“I could smash a thousand thrones, and I could make a thousand hot shots and little fourth wall-breaking comments about my experience because it is vastly different from Dusty’s,” Cody said. “But as his son, I know that in 2005 when he got his first royalty check for the Dusty Rhodes DVD, which they did a marvelous job on, my mother literally hit her knees in the kitchen and thanked God for them having kind of bring him back to financial security, them having given him a home in the winter of his life, and then a functional thing to chew on with NXT and to maybe help and guide a few young stars. So, with that in mind and what they did for him in the end, I will never be ungrateful to them.”
