Dusty Rhodes “Upset” Over Stardust, Told Cody Rhodes To Quit WWE

Dusty Rhodes once encouraged Cody Rhodes to quit over dissatisfaction with his Stardust character.

American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes is set to debut on Peacock on July 31st. The documentary will feature a look at Rhodes’ journey from All Elite Wrestling to his WWE return.

Rhodes initially left WWE in 2016 after years of frustration at being made to portray the comedic Stardust character, an outlandish persona created in 2014 to mirror his brother Dustin’s Goldust. He went on to reinvent himself on the independent wrestling scene and was instrumental in the formation of All Elite Wrestling after the success of All Out in 2018.

In a clip from the documentary obtained by People, Rhodes opened up about his frustration playing Stardust and revealed that his WWE Hall of Fame father once encouraged him to quit the company.

“The conversations when I was doing Stardust became so negative and downtrodden, that that was one of the first times he just hit me with the basic, ‘Well, you should quit.’“

Cody’s sister Teil was also interviewed for the documentary, and recalled their father being upset that Cody was being pigeonholed into such a role.

“My dad called me and he was upset. He said he’ll never be world champ in this.”

Dusty Rhodes sadly passed away in 2015, prior to his son eventually quitting WWE to go out on his own. However, archival footage of the Hall of Famer shows him discussing the Stardust character and admitting that as a father, he wants to see his son on top of WWE.

“I see how talented he is,” Dusty says about his son. “What are they not seeing here? [It’s] to where you just want to go off, ‘Are you blind?’ But [this is] his dad talking. His dad wants him to be on top.”

When Did Cody Rhodes Return To WWE?

Cody Rhodes made his return to WWE at WrestleMania 38 as Vince McMahon’s hand-picked opponent for Seth Rollins. Though he had to take months off due to torn pectoral injury, he remains heavily featured and main evented WrestleMania 39 in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Roman Reigns as Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.

Rhodes is currently set for a third about against Brock Lesnar at the upcoming SummerSlam PLE in Detroit, MI on August 5th.