Cody Rhodes has warned fans that if he turned heel, it wouldn’t be “fun.”
Since coming back to WWE in 2022, Cody Rhodes has been one of the promotion’s top babyfaces and has shown little interest in turning heel. Despite this, many fans hope he will turn to the dark side, and some even believe he already has.
On the latest episode of The Ebro Laura Rosenberg Show, the American Nightmare said he would be open to making the change if it helps WWE, but acknowledged the fans who already boo him.
“I’m open to anything if it’s something that moves the ball forward for WWE. I really am open to it. It’s not a conversation about, I wouldn’t or would not be willing to, but so much has happened already. People already boo. There’s some who have already established, ‘No, he is (a heel), talking about… everything I do is fake, performative, pretentious. I can see why some people would think that, and maybe they already decided that that’s who I am. There’s a lot out there that I’ve noticed, people like to fully describe me as if they know me 110% because I play me.
“It feels a certain way when you look at stuff that’s written about you, and you have to remind yourself that that is a person on television, a character. But it’s also rooted in who I really am and how I came up in the business. I’m very open to the idea of if that would happen. What I think is the longer we go without that definitive turn, the less likely it becomes.”
Reflecting on times he has been a heel in the past, Rhodes said he was fine with being booed by fans if he turned heel, as he was happy as long as they were reacting to him.
“There is a difference between being booed and really disliked. I just worry that people might think that change of paint would be new, it would be fresh, and it wouldn’t be actually bad; it would be cool. If I was to make this definitive turn, it wouldn’t be cool. I would do my best to take it very far.”
Cody Rhodes Explains What His Motivation Could Be As A Heel
Discussing a potential heel run in more depth, Cody Rhodes says he would want to make sure he wasn’t rooted for, and part of that would be explaining his motivations once and never cut another promo afterwards.
“I would not want to be rooted for. I don’t know what a bad guy is supposed to be anymore. I try to be careful because modern fans like what they like. They may have a different definition of what a bad guy is than what I do with my Eddie Graham, Dusty Rhodes outlook on it.
“I’m very open to it. The only little insight I could give is, if that happened, I would tell the audience one time, and one time only, why it happened, and they’ll never hear from me again. There wouldn’t be a single promo ever cut from me, somebody else would cut those promos. I’d give them one moment.
“If there was ever a case to go, ‘Alright, guys, here’s the problem.’ Wrestling fans like to hold me to the highest damn standard possible. I cannot complain about it, but if I do something nice for them, if I was to move a mountain for them, their response isn’t going to be, ‘Thank you, appreciate that.’ Their response is, ‘Well, you couldn’t move that other mountain.’
If they think about my history in totality, there might be a couple of things loaded up, maybe down in the basement (of my stomach) that didn’t feel good ,that I had to eat and walk through. I would say it one time, and one time only. The reason that I don’t think that’s going to happen is, in addition to resentments, I’ve also been given everything you can possibly be given. I’m living the golden life as far as what I got. I try not to focus on what I didn’t get or what went wrong, and what I actually got.”
“Please take what I’m saying with full-blown caution. It’s not going to be fun like you think. I mean that with no threatening nature. I’m just saying, always in wrestling, be careful with what you wish for. “
Cody Rhodes also discussed turning heel in a recent interview with ESPN, where he discussed the possibility of aligning with Paul Heyman.
