Donald Wood of Ring Rust Radio passed along an interview with newly crowned ROH Champion Cody Rhodes where he discusses a variety of topics.
Rhodes addresses why he doesn’t think babyfaces and heels exist in modern wrestling anymore, wrestling Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on July 1 and being part of the popular Bullet Club group since leaving WWE.
Cody on why babyfaces and heels don’t exist anymore:
“There are good guys, there are bad guys and then there are stars and that’s what you want to be. One of the last conversations I actually had with my dad about the industry was about the shape, the change and the only constant in pro wrestling is that there is no constant. I think I have fallen into more of a villainous position in Ring of Honor because of the emphasis on the brand. The code of Honor and that horse sh-t and the concept of the sports style and sports entertainment and the concept of it all. I didn’t take any of that up when I was with WWE. I am the antithesis of the brand and also the fact that I refuse to sign a contract with them, and they aren’t alone in that. I really do like Ring of Honor. What a wonderful company as a whole in terms of the shows that they put on and you think about what the Young Bucks are doing and Ring of Honor being the platform that they’re doing it on. Ring of Honor for a pro wrestling fan, which I still am, is absolutely gangbusters. I just don’t want to sign a contract with anybody. I think that along with a little bit of my real attitude might get under the skin of a good amount of the Ring of Honor fans, but that makes it fun. It’s so great because Christopher Daniels is the brand. He’s honor defined man. That’s somebody who works and is as pure it gets, you know?”
On facing Okada at the New Japan show in the U.S. on July 1:
“The added incentive is you have a lot of people excited about what I am doing with Christopher Daniels. People are like, ‘Whoa, finally Cody is wrestling singles for the big one.’ Then you have a lot of people who are absolutely furious about Long Beach and as much as I like pleasing the fans I have acquired, nothing would make me happier than upsetting the critics I have acquired. It’s two glorious matches, eight days of summer that I get to watch wrestling twitter just sh-t itself and shut down and essentially have a heart attack. The amount of speculation like how I’m not in the G1 and just the amount of speculation going on, when you start a sentence with that, that pretty much guarantees you are trying to convince yourself and I love it. I love the type of crowd we are walking into at Long Beach and both title matches have such a great and unique lineage behind them about them.”
Joining The Bullet Club after his WWE run:
“At the time that I joined the Bullet Club, I am the biggest name that’s ever joined it. However, with that said, there are those who have rose up from the Bullet Club like Finn Balor, AJ Styles and Anderson and Gallows, all those guys who because of WWE programming is so worldwide now, that maybe I’m no longer the biggest name. I feel I was excited at the thought that I could do something for the Bullet Club and perhaps provide them a different demographic, but the truth is the Bullet Club has done more for me. I don’t know why, that’s the power of the Young Bucks, if that makes any sense. Being the Elite is such a great show and it’s such a good opportunity to show folks a different side of yourself and perhaps the real side of yourself. Me being able to piggyback off their watershed deal with Hot Topic and being able to be in stores, I honestly don’t do it, but I should call them every morning and say thank you very much for making it so I’m making more money on my own schedule than I was with the biggest wrestling company in the world. Being part of the Bullet Club has done more for me than I have done for the Bullet Club. So hopefully Friday and hopefully the following week, I’ll be able to have something to offer more than just my legacy and heritage and me saying ‘F–k the Revival,’ hopefully have more to offer to the Bullet Club. I look forward to it.”