Cody Rhodes is a babyface.

Sure, he's worked heel every now and then, most notably during his Dashing/Undashing Cody Rhodes era and when he was painted up as Stardust, but ever since he ditched his Bullet Club gear for the red, white, and blue of the “American Nightmare” we know now, Rhodes has committed himself to leading the next Hulkamania, and he's done a darn good job at doing just that.

And yet, according to WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray on Busted Open Radio, deep down, Rhodes is a heel, and all he needs to unlock that is a Sith Lord like Paul Heyman to really unlock the inner Darth Vader just waiting under the surface.

“Cody Rhodes is not Luke Skywalker. Cody Rhodes is Anakin Skywalker. Luke Skywalker was a good guy, through and through, from the first time we met him as a whiny b**ch on Tattooine, all the way until the end, he becomes one of the most powerful Jedi… would not turn to the dark side,” Bully Ray noted via 411 Mania. “Anakin was a good guy also, but Anakin was tormented, tormented by a lot of things… Cody is torn on the inside, Cody is torn from leading a very difficult life of having to live in the shadow of Dusty… Cody at his core is a heel. His cadence makes him a heel. He speaks like a heel, he’s a heel disguised in babyface clothing. Not last night. All black last night. I know this is a stretch. But when I saw Cody come out in all black last night I was like, ‘Oh my God it’s Anakin.’ There is so much suppressed animosity, hatred, torment that lies in Cody… I’m not a hundred percent positive Cody could get it out himself. That would take an absolute Sith to get it out of him. And there’s only one there, Paul Heyman. Heyman could help Cody find himself. Heyman could get that heel out of Cody.”

Now, as most fans already know, AEW fans basically begged Rhodes to turn heel when he was still working for Tony Khan, as they literally threw back his weight belt in Minnesota to protest a tired act that no one wants to see any more of. Fans would have forgiven him for going after the World Championship, turning on The Elite, even pushing Bradi Rhodes to the moon so long as he embraced that darkness instead of forcing a hero that no one wanted to cheer for. After all of that, would Rhodes really turn heel in WWE? I mean, he probably wouldn't want to but hey, if Heyman was on board, WWE could have one heck of a pairing to ride into the future, as that pairing could cut through just about anything Triple H puts in their way.

Bully Ray believes Cody Rhodes handled his promo wrong on RAW.

Elsewhere on Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray reflected on Cody Rhdoes' blacked-out promo from RAW, noting that while the idea behind the promo was a solid idea, he might not have gone about cutting it the right way to maximize its effectiveness.

“1000% because that’s the meat of the promo. That’s what’s fueling you right now. The first words out of my mouth would’ve been, ‘Dwayne, my mother? You want to talk about my mother? Here’s what I got for you: First things first, you don’t talk about my family; second thing, you don’t talk about my mother. You have now put yourself in my crosshairs more than you’ve ever been before. This is no longer about Cody Rhodes and The Rock. This is now about Cody Runnels and Dwayne Johnson [their real-life names] because you brought my mother into this,'” Bully Ray said via 411 Mania.

“This should be the most un-pro wrestling promo. This should’ve been Adam Pearce coming to the ring in the middle of Cody’s promo going, ‘Cody, you can’t say these things. You’re gonna kept the plug pulled on us.’ [Cody should’ve responded] ‘Adam, get out of my ring. You know what, eff you too Adam.’ I would’ve painted this picture so differently to the point where wrestling fans would’ve had to take a step backwards because they wouldn’t know if Cody was going into business for himself or not.”

“When he mentioned, ‘You haven’t been in the ring in 10 years,’ that’s where he should have brought the insider term of ‘Blowing The Rock up.’ [Cody should’ve said] ‘I’m going to drag you into deep water, I’m going to have you breathing heavy, I’m going to beat you up, I’m going to blow you up, and I’m going to expose you for the fraud that you are. You couldn’t last 15 seconds with Jinder Mahal. How are you going to go 15 minutes with me? I’ve been wrestling every single day. H*ll, Rock, I wrestled with a torn pec.'”

Did Rhodes hit a double when he should have really should have swung for the fences? Maybe so, but at the end of the day, The Rock made things personal, and as a result, Rhodes needed to do the same. With a little over a week left to finish out the feud before WrestleMania 40, it's safe to say things are going to get really interesting before the open bell of the “Showcase of the Immortals.”