After weeks and weeks and weeks of anticipation, American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes has finally hit Peacock screens around the world.

Suddenly, fans can see what all of the fuss has been about, how much WWE decided to color Cody Rhodes‘ story to paint themselves in a better light, and most importantly of all, how the leaving-to-found-AEW part of his history would be addressed.

And the best part? Some serious heavy-hitters from around the professional wrestling world – read: WWE alumni – decided to weigh in on the conversation to help hype up Rhodes as the next big thing in professional wrestling.

Discussing what it felt like to see everyone from Hulk Hogan to Ric Flair, Triple H, and even The Undertaker talk about his career in a supplemental interview with Joe Otterson of Variety, Rhodes noted just how surreal it was to see legends he grew up idolizing talk him up in his documentary.

“When you see such luminary figures saying things that you would have only ever dreamed about — Hulk Hogan has a line in there about being an attraction, and what that means and the difference that makes feels amazing. This has not been a career wasted. This has not been a frivolous hobby. My obsession and my passion for wrestling and sports entertainment has yielded fruit, and this is a time to celebrate it. Really, if you’re able to hear something like that from Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Randy [Orton], Triple H, I had no clue that these interviews were even taking place, and to hear those things about yourself gives you a lot of confidence as you enter the next block and what you’re doing.”

Did the “American Nightmare” really need the co-signs of some current and future WWE Hall of Famers, some of whom he never actually worked with in his professional career? No, probably not; it's safe to say fans were far more interested in seeing how the AEW stuff should shake out than hearing the “Hulkster” call Rhodes an attraction. Still, for a performer like Rhodes specifically, getting those compliments surely meant a lot to him, as Brock Lesnar's SummerSlam opponent is nothing if not a man in search of validation.

Cody Rhodes reveals the most surprising archival footage in American Nightmare.

Elsewhere in his interview with Variety to promote American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes, the “Grandson of a Plummer” revealed what it was like to comb through the archival footage in the making of the documentary.

While Rhodes didn't hand-pick every piece of footage in the documentary, as he's just a producer on the project, not the director or editor, the pride of Atlanta, Georgia did note there were some segments in the film that he struggled to watch, as they still brought up too many emotions to this very day.

“Ben Houser from ESPN and Matt Braine from WWE, our outstanding director, they kept me in the loop on a great deal of things and asked me for a lot of what I wanted in there and what was important to me,” Rhodes said. “But there was a piece that I would never watch when I got a screener or anything like that. And it’s an interview before SummerSlam, where I wrestled Stephen Amell as Stardust. And they’ve got that whole interview in this documentary. I don’t even remember it, but it’s so dark. And it’s okay to be put in this package because there’s a resolution to it. But at the time that was someone very much struggling with grief. Dealing with the death of my dad was such a shock to our family. Dealing with that grief and how poorly I was dealing with it is on full display in that interview. And it’s one of those where even when I saw it at the premiere, I really just almost kept my head down just because you don’t want to find yourself back in that spot. Maybe that’s something that people can see from this is that’s a really low point, a rock bottom, and we were able to dig out, but that that piece of it surprised me to see that interview in its totality.”

You know, for all of the fun fans make of Rhodes' pension for self-mythologizing, he really has been through some tragic moments in his life, with the sudden passing of his father still surprising to this day. While American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes is largely a triumphant effort designed to make the former AEW EVP look like a career-crafting genius, there is some tragedy under the surface that bubbles up from time to time.