Though WrestleMania 39 is more than a month away, Cody Rhodes has already turned his eyes to the future to a degree and has discussed, at least a little bit, some of the matches he'd like to work on once he becomes the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. One of those feuds is against GUNTHER, the current Intercontinental Champion and the man Rhodes eliminated to punch his ticket to WrestleMania 39 at the Royal Rumble. Calling GUNTHER an ideal future opponent, especially if the match was exhibited in Europe, the “Ring General” basically agreed to the match in an appearance on After the Bell with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick.
“I mean, obviously it does [sound like an attractive match]. When I knew that scenario would go down with me and Cody at the end [of the Royal Rumble] — I knew the guy was out for a little bit,” GUNTHER said via F4W. “Since then I was able to work my way up, and I was like, ‘Okay, I have to introduce him to the new reality over here.' That was kind of like my attitude going into that. And yeah, obviously that was just a taste I think for everybody. I think Cody is one of those guys where that's the perfect match for me, the perfect opposite, if that makes sense. I think the match is right there whenever it needs to happen. If it would happen in Europe, obviously that would be fantastic.”
Welp, there you go, folks; GUNTHER and Rhodes both want a match, and even if there are a few logistical issues that could keep them apart, with the duo both being champions, one being on RAW and the other on SmackDown, etc., where there's a will, there's a way, especially with a “Premium Live Event” like Survivor Series dedicated to this sort of match already on WWE's events calendar for 2023.
Cody Rhodes insists Vince McMahon didn't bury Dusty Rhodes in WWE.
Discussing his father's run in WWE – then WWF – Rhodes insisted to Peter Rosenberg on The Ringer's Cheap Heat that Vince McMahon didn't bury Dusty Rhodes with the polka dot outfits and the “Common Man” moniker, instead inferring that the company's then-booker did good by “The American Dream” whenever he could.
“Then, he comes in, he's past his prime. I don't believe [Vince] took it out on [Dusty]. If you hear it from himself, he just thought he was past his prime, ‘let's do some fun stuff.' When I try to tell fans that the polka dots weren't a rib, it's one of those things where they will argue with me on it. I don't want to argue about this,” Rhodes said via Fightful. “In the past, I tried to argue it. The only thing I could offer of substance that it wasn't a rib is that he was in major rivalries. Ted DiBiase, Macho King [Randy Savage] as WrestleMania bringing Liz [Miss Elizabeth] back to the ring, Big Bossman. He was in major rivalries for the tiny amount of time he was there. He was prominent the whole time he was there. He was on before intermission or on last depending on where Hogan wanted to go on the card. It's also where he made the most money he ever made in his career, and prior to that he had been an executive producer and or top talent at NWA. I don't mind when people are like, ‘they don't love the Rhodes.' I like the narrative of the McMahons pushing the Rhodes a bit. It's a fun narrative. There might be some truth in it. Vince is this Adonis and it turned into the physique and what he wanted, maybe we don't check his box. However, we still come together with these random royal families in wrestling and we offer what we offer, and I want to make it clear how high up we are on the list.”
Now, to be fair, it's not too hard to see why some would consider the way the elder Rhodes was booked as potentially incendiary; Dusty went from an incredibly serious, though loveable, character with a few dozen NWA Championship reigns under his belt to a goofy character who never held the WWE Championship landing premier matches. Still, if Cody holds those memories fondly, and the money made during his two WWE runs was incredibly important to the family, then who is anyone but the hardest-core Dusty fan to argue with the “Son of a son of a Plummer?”
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