Cody Rhodes Reveals Brandi’s Reaction To ‘Raheem’ Line, Didn’t Want To Offend Anyone With It

Cody Rhodes got quite a bit of attention online with his “Raheem” line on WWE Smackdown, and he recently revealed his wife Brandi’s reaction to it. The WWE star delivered the line during an in-ring promo segment on the February 6th episode of Smackdown where he talked about seeing Roman Reigns and CM Punk being in a “dick measuring contest” on that week’s Raw, and said that they should be glad he wasn’t there because “I didn’t get the nickname ‘Raheem’ for no reason.”

The line instantly went viral, and Rhodes was asked about the line in an interview with Jonathan Hood on In The Hood. He noted that he told Brandi about it beforehand and she told him that he had to say it. He also addressed those who may have been offended about it, saying that he didn’t want that to be the case and had “field tested” it beforehand, but also can’t get obsessed with what people online might be upset about. You can see the highlights below:

On Brandi’s Reaction To the Line:

“I had told her that I might say it. And I felt bad because I told her, and then she said, ‘Oh, you have to say it. It’s funny.’ And I wasn’t one that thought — I didn’t want to come at Roman or Punk in an adversarial way. ‘I’m not wrestling either of you. You guys are wrestling each other and it’s awesome.’ I feel that those things will come. I wanted to come at it with a little bit of levity, because I knew others were going to come at it from a different perspective. And I thought that was funny.”

On People Complaining About the Line:

“But then I felt bad, because I don’t ever want anybody to get married to a line. I’m like, ‘Oh, well, if I can’t say that–‘ you know? And I did my my field testing of it, and I hope I didn’t offend anybody with it… I very much stood by it. And when you see like a [Twitter user with] Manchester United in the bio and an anime picture as the avatar complaining about it, I got to ask like, ‘What are we really complaining about here?’ This is more of a positive joke than there could ever be about gifted men. Yeah, I’m not — I can’t really be mad at that, and I can’t really walk that one back.

“But also that was my entire — I knew, I said ‘I’m not going to spend my road to WrestleMania talking about two other guys. This is where it ends for me.’ And I picked a great place to do it. Charlotte, North Carolina was the place. So yes, I said it and that’s where I’m at.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Under the Hood with J-Hood with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.