Cody Rhodes On Paul Heyman Saying What He Needed To Hear
Cody Rhodes is thankful for Paul Heyman saying what he needed to hear during their recent memorable promo on WWE Monday Night Raw.
After winning the WWE Royal Rumble on January 28th, Cody Rhodes earned the right to challenge the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 39 on April 1st or 2nd. Those WWE & Universal Titles are held by Roman Reigns, who has to defend them against Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber this Saturday, February 18th.
On the February 6th edition of Raw, Cody Rhodes was in the ring doing a promo about WrestleMania 39 when he was interrupted by Roman’s Special Counsel, Paul Heyman.
During that Rhodes-Heyman promo exchange that earned a lot of praise from everybody watching Raw, Heyman told stories about Cody’s dad Dusty Rhodes saying he loved Dusty. Cody also thanked Heyman for booking Dusty on an ECW show in 2000. Cody Rhodes said that gave Dusty his confidence back.
Heyman delivered a key line towards the end of the promo Heyman told Cody that in his last conversation with Dusty, he told Heyman that Cody was his favorite son…but Roman Reigns was the son he always wanted. It was Heyman’s way of telling Cody that Dusty would have liked to have a son that was a main eventer/top guy like Reigns is. Whether Heyman was truthful is another question since Heyman is known for lying especially as a TV character. Cody said that everybody wants to make it personal and that’s what Heyman just did.
In an interview with the MMA Hour hosted by Ariel Helwani, Cody Rhodes spoke about how he needed to hear that it wasn’t about Dusty, it was about himself.
“Mr. Heyman said the exact thing that — I don’t think he knew I needed to hear this, but I heard it. He said it’s not about him [Dusty Rhodes]. Bruce Prichard told me that, too. He said, ‘Nobody loves your dad more than me, but this is about you. That Nightmare logo isn’t polka dots. All these kids with these little foam white belts? That’s not red, white, and blue Dusty Rhodes tour shirts. They’re into you.’ That’s an interesting thing to hear, right?”
“You want it. You want it. You want it. Then, you’re like, ‘Maybe I’m getting there. I just think that he would get a huge kick out of all his hand prints all over everything with WrestleMania. He’s still giving to the business, even from the grave.”