Since leaving WWE just a little over two months ago, Cody Rhodes has certainly been making the interview rounds as he enters this next phase of his wrestling career. In recent weeks, he’s discussed much of his tenure in WWE, including his time in Legacy with Randy Orton and Ted Dibiase, his famous mustache run, his time in the mask, and so much more. But now, Cody Rhodes has opened up about his two most memorable feuds from his final year in the company, those being the one with his brother, Goldust, and of course, his program with Arrow star, Stephen Amell.
In Cody Rhodes’ statement, he didn’t waste any time mentioning one of his father’s most famous rivals, Ric Flair, and Rhodes recently spoke with the two-time Hall of Famer and 16-time world champion for an episode of The Ric Flair Show and discussed working a program with his brother, Dustin, in early 2015. For quite a long time, many wrestling fans had wanted to see the two brothers get a chance to battle one another on the grandest stage of them all at WrestleMania , but Cody says that was never the plan from the beginning.
“It was never intended to be a WrestleMania match. Fastlane (2015) was it. I was in the ladder match in [ WrestleMania 31 ] for the Intercontinental Championship. I had been informed as such. No, it was never meant to be beyond Fastlane. The way I look at it, Fastlane was a total dud. It was a total dud and people think, ‘oh, well, the finish got screwed up’. The finish didn’t get screwed up. The match just sucked and it’s just one of those nights where I kick myself to this day about it.”
If you’ll recall, the match went just short of nine minutes with Goldust getting the win via roll-up. While the two shook hands after the match, Cody attacked his brother in a backstage segment later in the show and said that the feud wasn’t over. In reality, however, the program had reached its peak and the dream match at WrestleMania will obviously never take place.
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Later in the year, Cody Rhodes, still using the Stardust gimmick which he was certainly ready to get rid of, became involved in his feud with Amell. The program picked up a lot of mainstream attention, and while the two never met in a one-on-one match, instead mixing it up as part of a tag match at SummerSlam that also involved Neville and Wade Barrett, Rhodes says that there were plans in place for a singles match between the two, and while it would have given Cody another high-profile match, the result would have given him his name back.
“And then, there was supposed to be another match. We had practices scheduled and we were going to be at Hell In A Cell and that match was supposed to be the end of Stardust. It was supposed to be, ‘if Stardust loses to The Green Arrow, he’ll return as Cody Rhodes.’ And when that didn’t happen, that was one of the first, the first, kind of kick in the balls for me.”
It’s hard to say whether or not dropping the Stardust gimmick last summer would have resulted in Cody Rhodes still being in WWE and I guess now we’ll never know. What we do know is that Cody Rhodes is doing just fine. He’s got a big match against Kurt Angle next month in New York and is set to make his Ring of Honor debut at Final Battle in December. I’m sure we’ll get some more dirt from Cody Rhodes between now and then.
[Image via WWE]