As the professional wrestling world gears up for Cody Rhodes‘ Peacock documentary American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes, fans, wrestlers, and pundits alike have been reflecting on the second-generation WWE Superstar's career, including Booker T, who believes he deserves some credit for getting the “Grandson of a Plummer” where he is today.

Sitting down with an interview with MuscleManMalcolm, Booker recalled the angle he worked with Rhodes from 2011-12 and noted that he personally took an interest in giving the future “American Nightmare” a rub when he was still early in his WWE run.

“I feel like I have a huge part in Cody Rhodes' success [laughs],” Booker T said via Fightful. “I chose to put Cody Rhodes over. I wanted to work with Cody Rhodes. I just saw a World Championship caliber athlete in Cody Rhodes, and I wanted to see him get his just due. Coming out of that group, everybody got a little bit of a shine, I thought Cody was the guy who kind of got left out in the cold, and I said, ‘Let me help him out a little bit.' Working with Cody definitely gave him that sense of, ‘I can do this.' Him going out on his own, he proved he can do it. Big ups to Cody Rhodes.”

After spending the final few years of the 2000s wrestling with and against Randy Orton and Ted DiBiase Jr. – plus Manu and Sim Snuka, who were both in Legacy for a cup of coffee – Rhodes needed something to really put himself over the top, and establish him as a legitimate player worth noting, especially after his whole Dashing/Undashing angle in 2010-11. While feuding with Booker T alone didn't magically make Rhodes' run, as his reign with the Intercontinental Championship was a big part in that evolution, securing an angle with a very well-established Superstar, even if he was largely doing commentary at the time, was a noticeable help for Rhodes' career then, even if it isn't remembered too much a decade later. Still, by bringing it up now, maybe Booker can get fans to revisit the angle, as there was some good stuff in that strange period of time, like the duo's TLC match in 2011.

Booker T shows some love to the other members of The Bloodline.

As the members of the Anoa'i-Fatu family fight like cats and dogs on SmackDown, with The Usos having turned babyface and against the tyranny of their oppressive uncle Roman Reigns, even at the expense of their younger brother Solo Sikoa, there are other members of the family tree who are quietly putting in work out of sight and proving that, the paraphrase Cody Rhodes' theme song, “wrestling has more than one royal family.”

Discussing some of these secondary members of the family on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T was asked about former MLW World Champion Jacob Fatu and whether or not he deserves a national platform like WWE or AEW. Unsurprisingly for anyone who has watched the 31-year-old in the ring, Booker noted that he's a fan and that the “Samoan Werewolf” would be a star in any promotion that books him.

“WWE, of course. Definitely wanna see Jacob in WWE,” Booker said via 411 Mania. “I think he belongs there, just because he's that damn good. Not saying that he wouldn't fit in an AEW or anything like that, not at all. But he is truly amazing. He really is.”

Turning his attention to Zilla Fatu, the biological son of Umaga who just made his in-ring debut in the Hall of Famer's Reality of Wrestling promotion, Booker complemented his efforts too, suggesting that Zilla already has his father's energy.

“That was Zilla Fatu's first match in front of a crowd,” Booker said. “And you could tell he was very, very composed. He had that thing to where we say in wrestling, ‘If you feel like you're going slow, move a little bit slower.' [laughs] He has that effect going on. His quickness and explosiveness was definitely there. You could feel his dad in the arena. I'm gonna tell you that right now, man, I swear to God, you could feel his dad in the arena. I could see his dad sitting right there next to me… I could feel his presence in that arena on Saturday night, and I think Zilla felt a little bit of it as well.”

Will Zilla eventually become a contracted performer for a wrestling promotion, be that MLW, Impact, AEW, or even WWE? Only time will tell, but needless to say, the future is looking incredibly bright for the Anoa'i-Fatu family, even if things are a bit Rocky at the top.