Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Brandi Rhodes on Her Unlikely Path To AEW & WWE And How Becoming A Mom Has Changed Her

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

Today's guest is Brandi Rhodes. Brandi is a professional wrestler, television personality and the Chief Branding Officer of All Elite Wrestling (AEW). She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about the birth of her daughter Liberty, the meaning behind the name, how different Cody is now that he's a father, her journey into wrestling and the WWE, becoming a ring announcer, her reaction to Cody's neck tattoo, what the future has in store for AEW, her reality show "Rhodes To The Top" and much more! If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Ah, yeah, how are you, my friends? And welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being with us on this episode and on every single episode. And if this is your first time here, make sure to hit subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you're listening, so you don't miss out on anything that we have coming up. What a path.

What a road, if you will, that Brandy Rhodes has been on. Not just in the wrestling world, but life in general. And so great to be able to dive into her story. Of course, a congratulations to her and Cody on the birth of their first daughter, Liberty. We find out why her name is Liberty, by the way, and it's probably not what you think. If you're not already following Brandy on social media, she's at the Brandy Rhodes. that's on both Twitter and Instagram. You can find me.

I'm at Chris Van Vleet. Troy B-0603 in my home and native land of Canada. He's our fan of the week. He says, simply awesome. Every episode is just amazing. CVV has an interview style that he pulls out the best in every guest and has a positive attitude. It's just awesome.

You just want to listen to more episodes and talk to this amazing person in real life. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to every new episode. Thank you so much, Troy. Appreciate that. And thank you for having like a username that actually is your real name. And look, I read out a review on every single episode of the podcast.

It'd be so cool if you could end it with your name. Like if your username is like Fisher Lover 49, be cool if you're like, hey, thanks for, you know, here's my name at the end. Joe. So, Troy, thank you. Also, could you go get a vanilla dip donut from Tim Hortons? for me, that'd be so great. Other than my friends and family, of course, Tim Hortons and Swiss Chalet are the two biggest things that I miss

about not living in Canada. So, yeah, read it out or leave a review if you haven't yet on Apple Podcasts, and I'll read it out on the show just like this one from Troy B. All right, you didn't come here to listen to me talking about Tim Hortons and Swiss Chalet, although, that rotissory chicken at Swiss Chalet. So good. Without any further ado, ladies and gentlemen, Brandon Rhodes. So good to see you.

Thank you. Very good to see you too. And I guess congratulations are in order. This is amazing. You do not look like a woman who just had a kid four months ago. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I'm working very hard every day to not look like I just had a baby a few months ago.

But here's the thing. You were already working hard, you know, in all, aspects of your life. How much does adding a daughter to this change things? It completely throws off my mojo of winging it. That doesn't really work anymore. And I was a pro at winging it. Like if you told me, Brandy, you've got an interview tomorrow at 6 o'clock, it's embedded in my brain and it's there. Now, Mandy or Liva, almost always at 605 is saying, where are you? And then I'm thinking, where am I supposed to be. Oh my gosh. And so yeah, I definitely have mom brain fully, fully embrace it. And I'm trying to get far more organized. So this is a real thing. Mom brain is a real thing.

Yes, absolutely. I was shocked as to how quickly it just all kind of floats out the window. And the only things that seem to stick are the things that are involved with the baby. So like her appointments, somehow I always can find time to shop for her online shopping. in baby clothes is my my forte at the moment. But yeah, all of her stuff seems to make it. My stuff, not so much. Is dad brain a real thing? How different is Cody now? Cody had dad brain before. So it's, it's worse. He's really trying to find his balance. The good thing is we kind of are surrounded by people who are empowering us and helping us. So that definitely has gone a long way.

Otherwise, I think we'd both be like floating out to sea just on a raft waiting for somebody to come out. I just feel like you're always like, go, go, go. So how were you able to kind of put the brakes on, stop, pause, and appreciate everything that was happening? It's exactly how people say it is. Once you see that person, that little person, that little human, everything stops. time just kind of stand still, even for the busiest person. And I thrive in a busy environment. I love to be busy. I like to have a lot going on. But the moment she came, every moment with her became something to treasure. There's something new that happens every day, it seems like.

And she's just so darn precious. So I can totally take time and pause for her. I'm looking really forward to getting back home to having mom and daughter day. We've got a couple of a day's just mapped out just me and her. So I'm really looking forward to that. Now, how much more difficult is this when you've got cameras following you almost all the time now for Rose of the Top? I will tell you the pregnancy. So they followed me from about seven months all the way up through the end and then the beginning of the new baby. And the hardest part of it was being that pregnant and having constant eyes on me and constant requests and trying to keep, you know, a good face forward. It bombed considerably, as I think was noted in the episode where I had

the meltdown about the bus and the bed not being on there. Let me say they were very kind to me in that moment. It was so much worse. It was, I went completely out the world backwards on that one. And I don't know, you know, how Cody missed that piece, but it's no secret. I hate the Nightmare Express. I just don't like it. To me, it's a waste of money and a waste of time because I can get on a flight and get there faster or I could drive for, you know, however many hours, it's a bus, so it takes longer.

I never have been a fan. So me pregnant, totally not a fan because then, you know, it's uncomfortable and I'm saying, like, how do I sit? And so the only place to be comfortable was to lay down in the back. Also, the nausea. Like, I have terrible nausea the entire pregnancy. So rolling around on the back of a bus, rough. That moment when I realized there was no bed on that bus, the meltdown was substantial.

I did throw something. We didn't show that. We should have showed that. I knew what I was doing. I did not care about the cameras in that moment. I was so angry. But they actually, they let me look okay in that scene. There were some meltdowns like that that weren't seen.

And I kind of really hope they do maybe like scenes that didn't make it scenario because there are some really funny scenes with the guys that I feel like didn't make it. And some meltdowns with me, especially in the interview space that didn't make it. And then there's the actual me going into labor all on camera. Not sure how much of that is shown. But it's pretty great. It's pretty great. So hopefully we do show some of that.

Yeah. If we take this back, Brandy, how did wrestling find you or how did you find wrestling? Me and wrestling found each other in the weirdest of ways. Well, at least to me it's weird now because of how far we've come and progressed in the space of women's wrestling and what we look for in a female wrestler. But I was one of the last divas. So I was scouted as a model. I was in Miami here. We're in Miami today for Rampage and tomorrow for dynamite at James L. Knight Center. So I'm super familiar. This was my old stomping grounds. But I was here. I was modeling and I was attending University of Miami at the time. And my agent called me one day and they said, hey, would you ever be interested in professional wrestling? And I thought like, what? Where is this coming from? And they said, well, you know, they saw your, your pictures and they're interested in athletic models. And I had figure skated for 17 years.

So that kind of made sense at that point in time. So, you know, I'm one of those people that any unique opportunity that comes my way, it just like piques my interest. There's not much that doesn't peak my interest or that you can't dangle a carrot and have me at least follow it for a little bit and see where we go. So I was a fan of wrestling as a child. So I thought, yeah, let's see. Let's see what the training is like for this. I went and did a week of training, fell completely in love with it, and I've been in it ever since. So you go in as a wrestler, and then the transition happens pretty quickly to becoming a ring

announcer. Whose decision was that? It just happened by default. So the short story of that is I came in and I started training. Of course, it was going to be a very long time before I made it anywhere in ring. But I remember Norman Smiley telling me, make yourself useful wherever you can. So if there's something that you feel like you're good at, you feel like you can do, get in there and do it and just get in the door.

So one night I was at an FCW show and they said, the ring announcer, the normal ring announcer, he's not feeling well. He can't make it tonight. What are we going to do? So there was a huge uproar about this show that had about 30 fans there. So I wasn't quite sure what the huge uproar was about, but everybody's freaking out and they're asking different girls. and they're going,

I know, I don't want to do this. And I said, well, wait, wait, what is it? What is the ring announcing? And it's, well, you got to get in the ring

and you read the towns and you say, you know, where the person's from and you have to speak loud. And I said, I'll do it. And they're like,

really? I said, yeah, I'm a broadcaster. They didn't even know that. Like, I just got hired off of the modeling stuff and no one knew anything about the broadcasting.

So I said, yeah, I do, this is kind of what I do. So I did it that night. It wasn't too bad. And then the next thing I know, I got travel sent to my email saying, you know, WWE travel. And I showed it to Norman. And he's like, you're booked.

You're going on the road. And I said, well, what am I doing? And he goes, I don't know. He just kept to go and talk to John Laurenitis and find out. And I found out I was ring announcing that night. And it was terrifying. I'd never spoken in front of that many people before. And I didn't know how to do the job.

I'd only done it one time in front of 30 people. So it went well. And they just kept booking me. And then after that, I ended up getting a contract bumped up to be a broadcaster. So, yeah. And I think it kind of all comes full circle because when you were starting out as a ring announcer, Justin Roberts kind of gave you some pointers. And now you guys are working together in AEW.

Yeah, Justin saved my life that day. I had no idea what was going on. I got with Justin. I sat with him. We talked about things. And then, you know, I sincerely told him like, hey, tell me how I do tonight. because I think I only announced four or five matches that night. I said, please tell me how to do it.

Tell me how to get better. I want to do a really good job here. And he, I believe, told Johnny she's got something. Like we've had a lot of people try this out, but she's naturally kind of got something and she's excited about it. So I think we should use her. And then come full circle, we start talking here at AEW about who would ring announce. And I'm like, why would we not have Justin Roberts?

Like to me, Justin is one of the best. I've loved all the ring announcers that I've worked with, Howard Finkl, Lillian, Jojo. We all had good relationships and everyone brought something great to the table. But Justin just always remained really special to me because of that bond we created in the beginning. And then you had a chance during the pandemic to do a little ring announcing too, which I thought so interesting. That was so fun. Honestly, I was a little worried about it.

I was like, do I still know how to do this? Do I still got it? It's a game ring announcing. For me, it was always a game because things change on the fly. You need to know everything. You need to be really real versed in it. And I wasn't at this point in time. I didn't know the stats of anybody anymore.

So I was sitting here at ringside and like reading before we go out. And like, okay, I got it. I got it. So had they throw me a curve ball, I might have missed. But thankfully, we kept it going. And we had the fun, you know, CGs on the screen saying, she said she'd never do this again. That was just the icing on the cake for me.

I just can't believe as we're sitting here right now that AEW is about to turn three in just a few months. So as we look back on these last three years, what are you most proud of with AEW? Oh, man, I have to say it is definitely a testament to everything that we, and when I say we, I mean, the whole crew at the very beginning. We were bare bones at the very beginning.

So the young bucks, Kenny Cody, myself, Tony, Chris Jericho, Dana Massey, Chrissy, all these, Chris Harrington, all these people together. We were core. And to look at that and then see that we have this phenomenal staff now and phenomenal roster reaching all the way up to CM Punk, that's just a testament to what we built. So it's very exciting. And it's really amazing to see that this was what we thought was possible.

But now we're seeing ourselves come full circle and we're seeing these people that we thought would be able to thrive in this space, really thrive in this space now. It's just really rewarding. Even on the roughest of days or the toughest of days or days where things for me maybe personally aren't going that great. I can still look at that and say I was a big part of this. Yeah. I mean, there's been a lot of other.

wrestling companies that have tried to do what AEW is doing, but they haven't succeeded. So what do you think is different here? I think it was always just the perfect storm. You needed the perfect storm of talent and behind the scenes folks that had the work ethic to make this all happen. And it all came together all at the same time. Tony's interests happening at the same time as everyone becoming free agents, all of that had to happen in order for it to work out as well as it did today. And so, you know, people will

always say, well, you wouldn't have had, you know, AEW without this person. In reality, you wouldn't have had AEW without all of the people, all of the wheels, the ones that, you know, we really, really tout that are front and center all the time, as well as the ones that, you know, you don't see or you maybe have heard about, but you've never seen because they're not a character. without all of that happening, I really don't think we would be where we are today. So it's just a really cool scenario, and I'm really proud of this crew.

I'm as shocked as you are to see how well things have been going. No, it's amazing. I remember interviewing Tony Kahn like two-ish years ago and he was talking about a five-year plan. And I really feel like a lot of this stuff he talked about happening five years from now have already happened. Yeah, yeah. It's really, it really should be something that people look at and go after their dreams.

Because, I mean, it's a dream scenario. It's a dream story. I had, I was talking to a radio station the other day and the MC had asked me if I could say something to one of his, his personal fans of mine who's going through a really rough time. And I mean, I literally just had to look at it and say to her, hey, five years ago, I didn't have a job. Like, I mean, you know, five years ago, I had all these dreams and hopes and I had no idea what was going to happen and look at what's happening today. So keep the faith, keep working hard, and keep dreaming because you never know what's going to happen. That's such great advice. I'm really curious with who your late great father-in-law is. Did Dusty give you any great advice that you still carry with you?

I mean, Dusty was always be straightforward as far as I was concerned. You know, When we would talk about wrestling and different aspects of it, he would say, well, what do you want to do? Like, tell me straight away, like, what is the plan? What do you see? And I would say, well, this is what I see. This is my perfect world plan. And then he would say, okay, you have to say that thing. You have to tell people, this is what I want. Because no one knows this, even though you feel like you're making it obvious or you feel like it should be obvious. It's not. You have to tell people what you want. And then you have to tell them how you're going to be able to do it. And then you have to show them. And, you know, that's always been kind of what stuck with me. That was something that I really thought about in my transition of going from my really comfortable job in a ring announcing at this great company.

And then moving on into the unknown because it wasn't ultimately what I wanted to do. So I would think about those words. And as I think a lot of people know, mine and Cody's move to the outside happened shortly after we lost Dusty. think that that was a lot of stuff that rang true for us that, hey, you only live once. Life is short. Your days aren't guaranteed. Why not just go for it? When you look at yourself, like a young brandy, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up? A lot of things. Professional figure skater. Is that at the top? Definitely thought I was going to be an Olympic figure skater. At some point in life, I thought I would be a marine biologist. But the number one thing

that I was always going to be was a TV news anchor. And I did that. I just didn't like it. I mean, the TV news industry is a lot of work. It's really hard. And you know, you scratch a claw, but it's not unlike wrestling. You know, you scratch and claw to get somewhere. And then, you know, you don't quite understand why things don't happen a certain way or, you know, paths go in directions that don't make sense to you. And that was kind of my experience with the, with the TV career. And as I was continuing to, you know, try to bolster that career, wrestling happened. And this is the direction and path that I, that I chose. But yeah, I'm a lot like my dad. My dad is a very, I would say, entrepreneurial type,

whereas opportunities come and he says, why not explore it? Why not take it? You're young. You'll bounce back. If you fall flat, you'll bounce back. And I've been that way my entire life. I've had a lot of different jobs. I've done a lot of different things because that's the way that I live. Whereas my mother would be terrified every time I would, you know, take these crazy leaps of faith. And she'd be like, why are you leaving? You have this great job and you're making good money. Why would you throw that away?

And I'd be like, mom, just give me some time and I'm going to be in a better place. And now I am. Well, this is something you can really sink your teeth into. There's no reason that this won't be your job for the right. to your life. I mean, I sincerely hope that it is. I feel like, like it or not, all of the people who were the pinnacle people in the beginning of AEW will always be connected to AEW. The good thing is that we like it. So, so that's good. But I mean, like it or not, that's the way that it's always going to be. So I do hope sincerely that I'm very connected to AEW, even as I get up in age and, you know,

Liberty gets older and, you know, maybe I get a little soccer momish. I still want to be very, you know, engrossed and very connected to this brand because it's been my heartbeat for the last three years. Who do you think's been the biggest inspiration for you in your life, either in wrestling or outside of wrestling? Wow. That's a huge question. I guess, you know, and it probably sounds cliche, but I'd have to say both of my parents. My mom in the sense that I've always known my mom to be a hardworking woman that takes no shit. I don't know if we can curse on the show. Of course, we cast the internet.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. So she's always been, you know, that woman that people don't want to cross very motivated, very hardworking, and just respected. And I looked up to that as a child. And that's why I've continued to work and want it to continue to work and will continue to work with Liberty, because I want her to be a part of a family with a working mom. I loved that about my mom. My dad, because he's a dreamer and he just is kind of whimsical like me. He likes new and exciting things and ideas and he'll hear

anything, any pitch. I'm kind of that way because you never know. You never know what's going to be the thing that just really fills you up and makes you, you know, want to come to work every day or makes you want to try every day. So a little combination of both. love that. I also love that you keep mentioning Liberty. It's such a pretty name. What was the, what was the meaning behind it? I'm so glad people are starting to ask this, because I feel like people think that the meaning behind Liberty has everything to do with Cody being a patriotic dude. And that's really cool. I love it that he's a patriotic dude, but I wouldn't name my daughter Liberty for that reason. I'm going to totally wow you with the reason why her name is Liberty.

Disney. I'm a huge Disney fan. Obviously, Cody and I are a huge, huge, huge. Disney fans. It's a massive part of our lives. And before we ever even found out we were pregnant, we were at Disney and kind of walking around and just whimsically talking about, you know, future. And if we would maybe have kids and what would their names be? And so I said, well, definitely we have to have a Disney connection. But I don't want it to be on the nose. Like it can't be Elsa or Ariel or, you know, one of the princesses because I feel like I can do better than that. So, you know, we were just walking around and talking and thinking and throwing things out there. And then we walked into Liberty Square in Magic Kingdom. And I saw the sign for Liberty Square.

And I just said, what about Liberty? We could call her Libby. And he was like, I love that. So cut to a year or so later, we were pregnant. Immediately we knew Liberty was going to be her name. Wow. That's such a great story. Yeah. So it's completely different than what people think. It has nothing to do with, you know, homelander or whatever people think it has to do with it. But it's, I think it's a beautiful name. And I hope she loves it. And I love that she can have a nickname. I couldn't have a nickname. Brandy is a cool name, but brand is the worst nickname in the world. Brand brand, brand. Little brand, brand, that's where we got that. You know, you mentioned Cody's patriotic. He's the American nightmare. He's the son of the American

dream. He has a tattoo with the American colors on it. Does he? I forgot about that. What was your first reaction when he, what was your reaction when he told you he wanted to get his new tattoo? You know, I mean, I know a lot of people who have a lot of tattoos. So it's not, you know, shocking to me that he would want a tattoo. And I have a lot of tattoos, but mine are smaller.

And I just thought that it should, I mean, this is just me now. He might get mad at me for saying this. But I thought that it should go into more. Like I thought that that would be like start of like maybe we're doing a whole sleeve thing or a chest thing. But he just wanted to do the one thing. So then I was kind of like, I kind of feel like it's going to look a little like lost. But now I've, you know, grown into it and I don't even notice it anymore, to be honest. But I never thought it looked terrible or anything like that.

I mean, tattoos are expressions of you and, you know, what you love and what you believe. I mean, okay, let's be real. This is not a pretty tattoo. I don't know if you can see that. It's not a pretty tattoo. What do you mean? That looks fine. Well, it's a claw mark across my arm with bolts and blood.

And that's because I'm into classic horror. So it's for Wolfman and Frankenstein and Dracula. I'm sure he didn't think that was the greatest idea ever, but I did it because I loved it and I wanted to do it. So tattoos or expressions, do what you like. It's your body. Who cares? So what is your favorite horror film of all that? time?

Halloween. Always. Like the original Halloween? The original Halloween. And I'm looking forward to seeing this Halloween. And funny story the other night, we moved to a new house. And I have to go down a long driveway to get to the mailbox. So for whatever reason I thought, I'm going to go to the mailbox at 11 o'clock at night

when it's super dark and I have to walk way down the driveway. And I wasn't really thinking about it. But I was fiddling with the mailbox. And he wasn't working. And I'm just playing around. And there's no cars coming or anything. It's really quiet. And then all of a sudden, I look up and there's kind of like woods across the street from my house.

And I thought, what if Michael Myers was standing there? Like, what would I do? This is exactly a scene from the movie, like something that would happen. And then he chases me into my house. And I, you know, I don't make it. Don't worry. He can't run. You can't.

Because he'll catch you. He can't run. He walks. But he catches you always. No matter how fast you run, he's going to make it and you're going to be there. So needless to say, I stopped fiddling with a mailbox at 11 o'clock at night. And I waited until the next day. Is that because it's October and that's fresh in your head or that would have been any time of the year?

October is definitely a factor because that's when he comes out, always. It's always Halloween. Michael waits until that time of year. So you can start checking your mail at night in November again. November 1st, I should be okay. It has been so great catching up with you and it's been so great watching the growth of AEW. you and I end every conversation with the same question. I start and end every day with gratitude. And I ask all my guests, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now?

I am grateful for my family. I am grateful that the God that I believe trusted me with liberty. And I am grateful for every day that I wake up. I love it. Please have a cup. cake for me. I know that they're on the way there. I'm going to have about three. We're going to just take this the cheap day. It wasn't, but it is now. That's Friday. Sure. Thank you so much, Brandy. Thank you, Chris. It's been great. Well, there you go, my friend. Big thank you to you for being with us on this episode. Big thank you, of course, to Brandy and take a screenshot. Let us know that you're on this journey with us and tag us on social media so we can share it. She is at the Brandy Rhodes.

I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Also, check to make sure that you're following insight on the podcasting platform of your choosing. Heck, check to make sure you're following it on the podcasting platform that is not of your choosing. I posted this on Twitter earlier this week, and it seemed to resonate with a lot of you. So I'll share it here as well. If you're searching for that one person who will change your life, look in the mirror. Be great. Be grateful and we will see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary.

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