Cody Rhodes Recalls the Defining Moment He Realized His Dad’s Stardom

Unlike his older brother Dustin, Cody Rhodes grew up in a household with his father Dusty around. The elder Rhodes was a producer by then rather than an on-the-road wrestler, and despite his obvious distinctive look, tried to do his best to be a normal dad. On a recent episode of the Heyman Hustle, Jacob Heyman interviewed several second-generation stars, and asked when they realized their dad was different, which led Cody to recall a particular key memory in Atlanta.

“There’s a a night where my favorite wrestler of all time, which was Sting, is walking out in the parking lot, and you’ve seen that action at the end of the night you walk out and there’s fans there. They’re gathered. You know, that’s a nice moment. It’s always more than you think. And the show’s never over as you’ll find out and we all know. But I went to walk out right behind Sting like we’re just going to the car.”

“And my dad really just like threw his hand across my chest real hard. He never really was physical with me at all, but I knew I something was up. And he said, ‘You should never steal another man’s pop.’ No clue like what he was referencing cuz I didn’t know him that way. I was just watching Sting in the parking lot, people losing their mind.”

“And my dad walked out and this parking lot in Atlanta lost its freaking mind. I’d never heard the ‘Dusty!’ chants. I’d never seen the smile that’s on the side of the production trucks, the big phony smile — it’s not phony, but in a way. And uh that was kind of the moment where I first started looking up the old VHS’s, even some of the eights, the old reels, and and that is when I kind of started the journey of finding out who he was.”

Check out the whole show below: