Cody Rhodes Says People Will be Stunned by His Upcoming Match With Kenny Omega, Explains Why He Didn’t Get Involved After Omega’s Title Win

– ESPN recently interviewed Cody Rhodes, and he discussed his upcoming IWGP title match against Kenny Omega set for July 7 at the G1 Special in San Francisco. Below are some highlights.

Cody Rhodes on the importance of his match with Kazuchika Okada: “I look at that match very fondly. I think it was real important in terms of a lot of people leave WWE and their gimmick is that they were in WWE. Their gimmick then becomes they’re gonna go back to WWE. That was a night where if you hadn’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, you’d know this isn’t at all what we saw of him his last few years in WWE. This isn’t even what we saw of him as he was growing in WWE. This is a whole new man. He’s not just the ex-WWE guy.”

Cody Rhodes on Kenny Omega: “There’s no secret that Kenny and I don’t get along. We don’t get along, we’re not best friends, we have nothing in common, but then we have that one thing in common — that we love pro wrestling. He loves a very different kind of pro wrestling than I love, but it still involves that ring. I think that’s what makes it special. You have a real alpha situation going on there. That’s something that Matt [Jackson] pulled me aside once and said, ‘You can’t alpha-male everyone.’ We’re two damn rams running our heads into each other.”

Cody Rhodes on watching Kenny Omega end Okada’s title reign: “I always tell my wife this and she hates it — I’m very aware. As far as, I don’t want to get jealous. I don’t want to watch two guys go out there, absolutely tear the house down and get jealous. I want to look at it and [ask], ‘What are they doing right?’ There have been many matches, and Kenny knows this, where I’ve sat at the curtain, not at the monitor in the locker room, where I’ve sat at the curtain. I watched his G1 final against Naito last year, I’ve watched every single Okada match. You have to look at him, and he’s a competitor. If you really strip the curtain back he’s a competitor in the sense where, ‘I want to be better at this than you are. I want to be the guy in the spotlight. I want to be the guy waving the banner.’ That’s the real competition of wrestling. So I like to look at that very aware and say, OK, Kenny is an absolute athletic marvel as far as his cardiovascular goes in that ring, his ability, his unparalleled strength — I think the strongest guy I’ve felt besides him is Cesaro. You look at those things and [ask yourself] how can you compete with him.”

Cody Rhodes on what people can expect from him against Kenny Omega: “I think people are gonna be stunned. I think fans of mine who are already on the bandwagon, God bless them, thank you for being there, but I think this is a great jumping-off point if you’re looking at what is Cody Rhodes. I think I’ve proven the naysayers wrong about, ‘Oh, he’s just ex-WWE,’ and the new set of naysayers, ‘Oh, he can’t compete at this level.’ I can compete at any level. I’ve been doing this since I was 15 years old. Every time someone told me I couldn’t, I did. I’m still the same guy who’s responsible for one of the better Intercontinental runs of all time and changing that title. I’m still the guy who shared the ring with The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Triple H when they were still actually active. And I’m aware, as my wife loves to hear. It’s not different than any sport in the world where the best wrestlers are gonna get the best spots. That spot is for me, because I’ve earned it.