Cody Rhodes Details His Feelings About Hearing Dusty Rhodes Impressions

Cody Rhodes recently weighed in on people doing impressions of his father, and specifically those of Will Sasso and Dan Soder. Dusty Rhodes’ distinctive vocal stylings are oft-imitated, and even Cody himself has done them in the past. He recently said there won’t be an “AI Dusty” in WWE, and that Bruce Prichard or him will do it if they ever need to “fill in the blanks.”

Rhodes spoke on Insight With Chris Van Vliet about the impressions Sasso and Soder did in interviews with Van Vliet. He gave both impressions high marks and spoke about why he has difficult feelings about hearing people do impressions of his dad. You can see the highlights below:

On Will Sasso and Dan Soder’s Dusty impressions:

“So here’s what I wanted to tell them, and I don’t know them. And I almost contacted you and said, ‘Oh, I want them to know this.’ They’re telling this funny story about Dusty promoing Ric off the line, and Ric kind of going back and forth. I can’t tell you that that is actually true, but I can tell you it was rooted in these things like that did actually happen, where a simple conversation about something then needed to heat up to where the vocals changed. And the next thing you know, they were going back and forth. Because remember, there’s no texting, email was not a thing. I mean, it was literally the landline at your house.

“So, as funny and as outlandish as it was, it felt a little bit like that could have been a thing that actually happened. Ric always — and I don’t know Ric as near as well as my father did, but Ric always was so passionate and took things personally and cared. Where my dad was like that, as they described in their impressions, where he was really more almost flippant. ‘It’s another day. We’ll move on;’ it was incredible. Their impressions are great.”

On His Feelings About the Impressions:

“You know this. I hate impressions usually. I hate them. I don’t hate them, but this is what people don’t totally get on the impressions. I’m going to take this deep. Their impressions were so nice, sweet, funny. Even my sister laughed at them, so they’re nailing it. They should keep doing those impressions. I say they’re very good, but here’s something people don’t get about the Dusty impression when they do it in front of me: oh my gosh, I would have loved if he was really here. So it’s a thing when people do it in front of me.

“I have said in so many interviews, and I can see your mind working now. This will be the thing that you clip down, you’ll use it against me, maybe. I have said in so many interviews that I don’t really love getting gifts, and I don’t ever want my dad’s personal things. I don’t think those interviews have ever been seen because the amount of stuff that comes to signings, whether it’s a trading card or something he wore or a picture of him. They’re always with the best of intent and the sweetest things, and I will always graciously take them. But in my mind, I’m thinking, ‘You should have this; you keep it.’ I do tell people a lot on shows where I’m making the rounds. I’m like, ‘You take it, it’s better with you, especially if it was something he wore.’ I don’t need that. I got my own; I got plenty, but that’s usually what I tell people is it’s better with you.”