ROH Champion Cody Rhodes recently spoke with Metro, and below are some interview highlights:
Your personality has really shined on the independent circuit, whereas in WWE it felt like sometimes you were stuck in a vacuum at times. What could have WWE done better for your character?
I honestly think the more time I spend away from WWE the less it was WWE’s fault and the more it was my inability to go with my guts. There would have been a big difference if I had done that.
And that would have meant saying no to a writer or correcting a few folks and maybe ruffling some feathers and stepping on some toes, but I can’t think of anything more important for a wrestler than to go with his gut.
Did you ever speak up? The stories go that if you complain in WWE you get punished.
I don’t recall at any point ever being punished for anything like that, but I do recall that when I did speak up for myself from time to time it didn’t make a difference.
Essentially the answer I would get was thanks but no thanks. I think I developed a reputation as a complainer and that’s hard to escape. You don’t want to be a complainer, you want to be someone who says ‘I don’t like this but here’s my alternative.’
People still have many complaints about WWE’s creativity – or more accurately, the lack of it. Where does the buck stop with this? Who should they be complaining to?
WWE is so powerful in terms of their world presence and the talent they have on board, so I think what’s going to happen at some point is that they’re going to restructure all of this.
There are some guys in WWE, Vince McMahon, Triple H, Michael Hayes, Arn Anderson and Mike Rotunda included, who should be writers but instead are producers.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
