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Cody Rhodes Explains Why He Was Resistant to Bleaching His Hair in the Past, Discusses Kenny Omega Dressing Up as Bury the Bear

March 31, 2018 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
ROH FInal Battle 2017 - Cody Rhodes

Best of New Orleans recently interviewed former ROH world champion Cody Rhodes. He addressed why he was resistant to bleach his hair at first and more. Below are some highlights.

Cody Rhodes on working on The JBL and Cole Show in WWE: “It’s funny — I loved The JBL and Cole Show, and JBL kind of at one point just let me and Wade [Barrett] take over. We had a production meeting, and we ended up with on-air characters coming out of it. ‘Bad News’ Barrett was 100% from The JBL and Cole Show. It makes me laugh when I think of that — I’m glad you said that, because I think of that as a nice little credential, a nice little piece of equity in my career.

When I mention that to [The Young Bucks’] Matt and Nick, they don’t even think I’m telling them the truth. They pretend that The JBL and Cole Show and Z! True Long Island Story, Zack Ryder’s very successful YouTube show … if you ask the Bucks, the very first YouTube show that ever existed was Being the Elite. And they’re being funny, but I know in my mind that it did help a lot. It helped me open up to, hey, this isn’t Wrestling 101 anymore. This is a different medium, and you can portray yourself differently and see if it works.”

Cody Rhodes on bleaching his hair: “Well, I never thought much of it. I think I was always so resistant to coloring my hair because you know, when my dad was still alive, it’s so easy for a second or third generation wrestler to just copy their predecessor. The hardest thing you can do is try and carve out your own legacy. I mean, hats off to [Cody’s brother] Dustin. When people online say, ‘Oh, he should be Dustin,’ I can tell you, he doesn’t want to be Dustin. For one night, yes. In honor of Pop, of course. But his career he carved out is Goldust. That’s his identity.

So I always steered away from the blond hair because you know — if I go out there and do a bionic elbow, all it means is Dusty is over, not me. But you know, there are exceptions to everything in wrestling. There’s no law. So, I did it. I haven’t felt anything from it, but people seem to really like it. Marty told me the other day, he said ‘Man, this change in your hair has changed everything.’ I just laughed. He decided to double down on it, said ‘Yeah, I looked at some pictures of you before, and you were kind of just boring.’ I don’t know why that is, but now I’m pretty hell-bent on keeping it, for a while at least.”

Cody Rhodes on Kenny Omega dressing up as Bury the Bear: “Well I think Kenny— again, if you ask people today kind of who is the best wrestler in the world, especially wrestling fans, they’re very likely going to tell you you either Kenny Omega or [Kazuchika] Okada. I think Kenny is carving out a reputation as an unbelievable wrestler. But I’ve said this before — that’s easy to do when you barely ever wrestle, when you pretty much take a month off, do one match, take another month off.

I work full-time, whether it’s on ALL IN, my own show, whether it’s Ring of Honor, whether it’s New Japan, I make every show. Whereas Kenny, I was actually surprised by him even coming to Vegas. I think Kenny is now aware he can’t just be an underground band that everybody says is really good but they don’t know any of the names of the songs. He actually is going to have to deliver at the highest stage with the entire wrestling world in one spot, that being New Orleans. I think he sees that. As for ruining Bury the Drug-Free Bear … Hey, there goes $1,200 on a bear suit. Thing is, there’s another mascot who I’m bringing into the fold. He’s all business and I’m very excited. He’ll be appearing on Ring of Honor TV very soon, and he’ll also be at Supercard of Honor.”