Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Cody Rhodes: Street Fighter, Randy Orton Punt, His Final WWE Contract, Dusty Rhodes Impressions

Episode Date: October 22, 2026

Cody Rhodes (@americannightmarecody) is a WWE professional wrestler and actor. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Atlanta, GA to discuss playing Guile in the new "Street Fighter" movie, dressing up in costume complete with Guie's hair at the movie's premiere, signing his last WWE contract, how long he intends to wrestle for, reacting to Dan Soder and Will Sasso's impressions of Dusty Rhodes, reflecting back on WrestleMania 40 and the idea of "peak wrestling", calling out The Rock for a one-on-one match, his Mount Rushmore of films, and more! Please support our sponsors: SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount NATIVE PATH: Get over 50% off and FREE SHIPPING at https://getnativepath.com/CVV HELIX SLEEP: Flash sale! Go to https://helixsleep.com/cvv for 27% off sitewide! COZY EARTH: Go to https://cozyearth.com/CVV for up to 20% off! BETTER WILD: Get up to 40% off your order at https://betterwild.com/cvv BEAM: Go to https://shopbeam.com/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT for up to 40% off Beam’s Dream Powder SHOPIFY: Start your free trial today at https://shopify.com/INSIGHT PRIZE PICKS: Go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT to get $50 bonus credit in daily fantasy lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! DELETEME: Use the code INSIGHT to get 20% off your DeleteMe plan at https://joindeleteme.com/INSIGHT BETTER HELP: Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/cvv LEAN: Get 20% off with the code CVV at https://takelean.com FACTOR: Use the code INSIGHT50OFF to get 50% off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year, while supplies last until 10/31/2026 at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFF PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/cvv NORDVPN: Upgrade your online protection with an all-in-one security app! Get an exclusive NordVPN deal + 4 months extra here: https://nordvpn.com/cvv It’s risk free with NordVPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee! CALDERA LAB: Go to https://calderaLab.com/CHRIS and use code CHRIS for 20% off your first order. For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? 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. 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

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Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van, Van, Bui! I believe this is our seventh interview. Number seven? Yeah. See if you can recall them all. I got to show you this. This was our very first interview.

You recognize that guy? Oh, man. We're at that booth, too. That's great. WrestleMania 27 Access with Dashing Cody Rhodes. Who wore the protective facial mask, but also a Burberry polo. You know, that's a time period where you don't, I think, brand guidelines, you don't have your own or you don't at least have your you don't even know you the things you like so it's just hey this will work you have to do an appearance so if i was to do that appearance today with the undashing mask i would have just done full full gear

right full gear yeah it feels to me it feels more comfortable if you do full gear while you're being performative and also meeting fans and i don't know yeah i would have gone full it just feels you're you're crossing you're in the line of the question that you asked so many time, but you're in the line of, are you in character or are you out of character? And I think if you're undashing Cody Rhodes on TV and you're at access, you're technically supposed to be in character. So I'd say full gear. Why do you think that question haunts you so much? You know, now I say it, and it's not so much haunting, and I should, I should frame it differently. You asked me the question on one of our talks, and I think I should frame it more as it's actually, what's a good way? The question's a good question. And the question's a important question, and I kind of give it a dramatic answer.

That's something you should ask yourself, like me, before I do anything, because there are probably times its best prime example on Dash Dakota Rose to be in some sort of character. And then there's times when that's not a good call at all. Also, not to waste anyone's time, right? Not to waste your time, not to waste someone else's time. or you don't want to look back at these interviews and think, man, I was just, I was just completely full of it. Or I was trying to sell a ticket versus actually having a conversation. Is that the idea?

I think it's Shakespeare, right? Talking about the masks we wear in life. Like, you're one person when you're with your wife. You're one person when you're with your kids. You're another person at work. Yeah. Is that how you're framing it in your mind? Well, I think maybe it's a matter of who am I, who's best to be.

I don't know if I like the mask you wear in life. I think when you're a pro wrestler and maybe when you're an actor or maybe when you're a performer by trade, you might actually, this could sound, gosh, what would be the word? Maybe this is ironic. And you might only have a few masks if one is so prominent already. To me, I know you can be, you're different with friends and you're different with family and you're different with shows. Children and things that nature. but I really have just that one speed or this other speed. The family are what I'm doing in the storytelling.

How much of that is being the son of the legend, Dusty Rhodes? And like watching him. Is he in character? Who is he when he's with me? I think I told you, I used to know when he was on in the morning. Did I tell you this? No. Oh, yeah.

So I used to know when he was on because he had an office. I'd go down the steps. His office would be on the right. and in his office, he'd sit there. He pretty much, it's very funny because my dad didn't work an office job, but he liked having an office. So he'd go down in the morning, Cuban coffee, which I found is vastly different from American coffee,

because I assumed it was all Cuban coffee, until the first time I got gas station coffee and thought, oh, different. Where's the rest? Where's the intense amount of sugar and flavor? But no, he had an office to the right of the steps, and he'd just be down there nine to five every day. That was literally what he would do. And sometimes you'd wonder what he was doing in there.

But I knew when he was on and in character, because if he did a radio spot or did anything like that, I'd hear him talk in the voice. I don't think a lot of people know Dusty's voice was not that. And it wasn't even turned up. As he gets older and you see interviews with him as an older man, you can start to hear what he actually sounded like. And then in the beginning,

I can't imagine how difficult that was. Every stop you made on a trip, every to always talk so loud and so whimsical preacher style, you know, the Baptist Church and Thunder Bowl Patterson is where he got the majority of the gift of gab and poetry. Have you heard these impressions people do of him? Of course. Will Saso and Dan Soder on their own show? So you, I'm going to take a sip of this. Nobody freak out.

Is everybody okay? Okay. Okay. So we know each other. This is what our seven. I think seventh, yeah. Seventh. Can you recall all seven? I can try. So there was that short one, Short one. Resslemania 27. I remember the one at the rec center we did. In Fort Lauderdale. Yeah, so you were wearing the red suit jacket. You were a ring of honor champion. Oh, that, that the ring. Yeah, kissed the ring. Yeah.

Yes. Okay. There was that one. Yeah. Then there was the one when your documentary came out. There was money in the bank in Toronto. Okay. That's where we had an actual rec center, though. That was it, yes. We had a high school gym for the Ring of Honor.

That's right. Okay, got you guys. Something like that. That was War Memorial in Fort Lauderdale. Yeah. Then there was earlier this year at the Nightmare Factory. Yeah. And then now is that in?

That's not seven. That is not. But that's cool. Big seven. I think so. Who have you had the most before I answer your question about destiny impressions. I think Dolve Ziegler, but that's because I worked for a local TV station in Cleveland. And whenever he would come back home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever, I would just bug him and he'd come into the studio and we'd do a two-minute segment.

So that's, I think I've done like 18 interviews with him. Not all full length. You got me in Miami, too. I remember. Miami found Blue Hotel. Yeah, that's right. Okay, that was the other one. Um, May of 2019. So you had Dan and Will on your show. Yes. And it went crazy. And went as viral as, Anything could possibly go. Wild. Impressions galore. Andre impression. Phenomenal Andre impression.

So good. Especially if you knew Andre at all. There's like a deeper, Andre's, I think, gets deeper away. There's Andre on TV, but I actually think Andre off cam was almost more intense, kind of how he did it, which is great.

Dusty Impressions. What do you think of their dusty impression? So here's what I wanted to tell them, and I don't know them. And I almost contacted you and said, oh, I want them to know this. they're telling this funny story about dusty promoing Rick off the line. And Rick kind of going back and forth.

I can't tell you that that is actually true, but I can tell you it was rooted in these things like that did actually happen where a simple conversation about something then needed to heat up to where the vocals changed. And the next thing you know, they were going back and forth. Because remember, there's no texting, email was not. a thing. I mean, it was literally the landline at your house. So as funny and as outlandish as it was, it felt a little bit that that could have been a thing that actually happened. And Rick always,

and I don't, you know, Rick as near as well as my father did, but Rick always was so passionate and took things personally and cared, where my dad was like that, as they described in their impressions, where he was really more, you know, almost flippant. And, you know, it's another day, we'll move on. Like, it was incredible. Their impressions are great. And you know this. I hate impressions usually.

I hate them. I don't hate them, but this is what people don't totally get on the impressions. And I'm going to take this deep turn on their, their impressions were so nice, sweet, funny. Even my sister laughed at them. So they're nailing it. They should keep doing those impressions. Right. They're very good.

But here's something people don't get about the dusty impression when they do it in front of me. oh my gosh, I would have loved if he was really here. So it's a thing when people do it in front of me. I have said in so many interviews, and I can see your mind working out, this will be the thing that you clip down and you'll use it against me maybe. I'm going to try and never used to clip against you. I have said in so many interviews that I don't really love getting gifts and I don't ever want my dad's personal things.

I don't think those interviews have ever been seen because the amount of stuff that comes to signings that whether it's a trading card or something he wore or a picture of him, they're always with the best of intent and the sweetest things and I always will graciously take them but in my mind I'm thinking,

you should have this. Like you keep it. And I do tell people a lot on shows where I'm making the rounds, I'm like, you take it. Like it's better with you, especially if it was something he wore. I don't need that.

I got my own. I got plenty. But that's usually what I tell people is he, it's better with you. The best line is Dan and Will were saying, yeah, I may be the son of a plumber, but I'm also the father of a boy who wants to play cats. Yeah, I want to go outside. Yeah. And I do think it's funny.

They were talking about the siding on the wall and the Georgia heat. It was so, again, like, hats off to them because it was so silly. But there are real examples. Have you ever seen a dad crashout? There's great dad crash out videos all the time. Of course. I'm a big G.D. crash out. That's always just yesterday.

Set down, Libby, like, knock me in the knee. I spilled coffee. And I always do a 90-s sitcom version of GD. You hear it, but I didn't say it. I didn't say it. And everyone looks at you and you're like, oh, no, I'm that guy. But his crashout was an animated version of himself.

That's fun. Where he kind of got into gimmick, got into character. So as they're going back and forth, it's, again, that's what I found about the impressions that was so funny. They were good, but it seemed so real. Rick and Dusty talking on the phone and going back and forth, it was nice. I enjoyed it. I'm glad everyone loved that episode. That's got to be your top episode, right?

It's number two this year. What's the one? Stone Cold Steve Austin. As he should be. It's a tough one to top, right? Isn't he great? The number one, the box office. At Capital One, we don't just use technology.

We architect it. Our teams have true end-to-end product ownership, shipping distributed systems that handle high concurrency at scale. No single-server bottlenecks, engineered beyond legacy downtime, and operating right here in downtown Toronto. That's Technology at Capital One. Search Technology at Capital One, Canada. Millions of people win with OLG. Over 200 million wins last year alone. Common side effects of winning with OLG? shock, disbelief, no way. And laughter. It's what happened to Tristan from Hamilton

when he won the $1 million lotto 649 gold ball draw. Shock and all, all on his lunch break. Play at olg.c.a, and the next person sitting stunned in the break room could be you. With OLG winning happens here. Winner, Gagnon. I want to put you on the spot because we've done seven interviews. I'm going to flip the script.

You're going to ask the question. ask me the question that a wrestler hates to hear and now I got to ask you. And this, you're going to go, oh, this is why I'm going to try and use this to get you. I'm going to click it up and I'm going to turn a new headline. Okay, give me your Mount Rushmore wrestlers. Oh my gosh. Yep, yep. Got him. Got him. How does it feel? It's rough, huh? It's rough. It's rough. It's just happened to me down the street. The thing that's so tough, as you know about Mount Rushmore. Yes, just for? Just four. And by what criteria? That's the thing. You can, do the smart thing and say, hey, I'm going to put it under this criteria, ticket sales.

I'm going to put it under this criteria in ring, wrestling, work, work rate. I said that. You can do personal favor. You can go on the day. Sure. Here's what I do. I lie every time. So that.

So you change it us? Certain point, somebody will look at and go, he's never answered this the same. We'll stop asking him this question. Well, if I had to break you down the criteria, it's easier. But why don't you just go with your gut? Who is your Mount Rushmore? Your gut. Put yourself out there.

Give me a four. I think it's a personal answer, right? Yeah. Go for it. Own it. So Stone Cold is on there. Number one. For me.

Rock is on there. The final boss. For me. Rock was my guy. Yeah. During the Attitude Era. I think you got to put Hulk Hogan on there because if not for Hulk Hogan, then the attitude era doesn't evolve into what it is.

If not for Hogan, Maybe there's no Austin. Yeah. Maybe there's no rock. Good points. Good points. And then it's always tough to have the final spot. Here's a spot that.

This is where it gets tricky. Who was before Hogan? Who was before the guy who was before Hogan? They all are relying on each other. But go ahead. You've got one more. But Hogan helped to make it a global thing. Right?

Yeah. And I'm the biggest Hogan fan ever. But I heard that. Someone else said that. Took it from a carnival. It definitely wasn't a carnival. But that's the thing we say now. That's the thing we say.

Go ahead. That was the Roman Ray's interview. Yeah, he said on Shannon, he took it from the carnival, and I think, it was kind of moved out of there by then. But I put him on mine as well. I'm a big, so we don't have to. Is dusty on yours today? Sometimes.

Sometimes he is, because I look at it from the need for the big thing that happened in the 80s, in terms of Hogan being a big part of it on the other side when he was at the Fed. See how I did that? that close circuit you know close circuit in pay-per-view vans hogan close-circuit becomes pay-per-view boxing of course don king is a massive part of that but we were doing that also here in the south you're in the south today here in Georgia here in my my home well not my home but you're I live in the south now yeah yeah you're so i live in Nashville we were doing that as well maybe not with such a pomp and circumstance but that's one of the reasons why I kind of will put dusty there in addition to that all the people

he started and all the people he helped in the final chapter, I've noticed that he had such a lasting impact. It's one of the things I hoped for Hogan that I was obviously so bummed about is the documentary comes out and he passes and it's, Hogan didn't get to have that, that old man run. He had, he didn't get to have that senior advisor, that whatever it may be, he didn't get to do that. And I think that would have been something that would have been really great for the industry as a whole because he's all co-key.

I think my number four is The Undertaker. Wow. Yeah. Me and Mark, baby. Me and Mark. 90s into the 2000s, into the 2010s, even made events of WrestleMania in 2020. I think Undertaker's a great choice,

and I put him on my list before. I think he's a great choice because you need a guy like The Undertaker always and forever. And when I say that, what I mean is there are times when wrestling is, cool as cool gets, we're living in one, right? Then there's times when wrestling is you just tell that one guy to decide about it. You know, like, hey, I watch wrestling.

I watch wrestling. Yeah. Right now we're in this wonderful period. Undertaker was, he floated in all periods. And you need the guy to hang in and lead the room and lead the talk and keep doing things to remain interesting, stay uninteresting. Just, and he, again, the way everyone looks at Taker is the sheriff. in the, you know, the guy, right, who was standing there to pass that on to you and for good

reason. That's a great list. So that's my fort today. There it is. Chris Van Bly says Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker are his Mount Rushmore. Watch them come for you. You said nothing wrong, by the way, but just watch them come for you. Thank you.

Please clip this up for me so that I can run it. Because that's what Chris does, by the way. And I love Chris. I do. But here's what Chris does. Say tomorrow I get into some fender bender or traffic accident. Say it's my fault. Say something happens.

He then decides to run clips of you on the pod. Like, hey, that's crazy what happened to Cody. Don't forget to watch this pod we shot eight months ago. I reposted you telling the great story of the tables match with Big Show like two days ago. I know. And the idea. What was your purpose? What did you want to?

So without getting too deep. Yes. Yes. Here we go. I want to know. Those clips get posted as soon as the episode comes out. And then six to nine to 12 months later, a year later, we repost those clips on my main YouTube channel.

Yeah. Just to like, hey, this is the content we shot. Hey, pretty good chance that you didn't ever see this interview or never saw this clip. Yeah. We'll just repost it now. It's a great story. People love that story. It has 600,000 views right now.

It's the business of CVV. It's a business. I don't know if it's that. I think it's the business of content right now. How do you, oh, it has to be. You have to get it out there. You have to keep press and send. I also fully understand that if I send you a text and I say, you got to watch this interview,

it's so great. And you look at it and it's an hour and 15 minutes, you're not even going to click play. But if I send you a clip from that interview. Yeah. And it's 27 seconds. You're probably going to click play. That's your magic number. Maddo.

You don't waste of your plays here because you know. Everybody can have it all. But everyone knows this, right? You're the guy. It's been said. Flagrant podcast. You have brought it up. I have brought it up.

Yeah. Thank you. You really have turned the corner on this. You're the, you're there. You're the leader. Thank you for the, you're McDonald's right now, man. Ray Kroc.

I don't know if that's a good parallel. That's a good case. We like Ray Krog. I'm just saying, do we? I don't know, but it's a, you're building this wonderful thing here. Thank you for the nice words. You said with AJ Seiles.

Thank you. Yeah, big AJ. I look up to both of you guys. So for you to say that, it means a ton to be. Wow. Got deep. I appreciate that. That deep, man.

I wasn't, but thank you. Sorry. I wasn't sure. I'm done derailing your interview. I wasn't sure today if you'd be dressed as guile. Oh, yeah, yeah. You've been doing so much stuff as guile. How do you decide if you're going to be dressed as guile or wearing a Cody Road suit?

This is going to sound crazy. And no, it won't sound crazy. But guile, when I do guile, I want to respect the writers on the movie. Because the writers did such an incredible job putting Street Fighter together and the character. And I also want to respect Cousyrevehers. Capcom in that I don't ever want to catch myself creating dialogue for guile, for the commander that's not really, I'm an actor on this beautiful piece of business right here. And I was honored to even dawn that flat top and be part of this.

But I don't want to add any context or equity because my hope is this becomes Street Fighter One turns into Street Fighter 2. Every one of us had a blast playing these characters. and I think we want them to grow. So I keep it very limited. A lot of grunts, a lot of thumbs up, a lot of Uncle Sam points, a salute occasionally.

But yeah, it's a limited thing that I do. As Gile would be tough. Because then your question about when are you not in character, well, what are we doing? You know, like, it's one thing if you're wearing a helmet or a mask because you can almost be you under it and explain it. Gile's such an iconic thing. People have a, this was a, this is a scary thing about this movie.

And it was always going to be a scary thing. I can't imagine how Galena felt or Koji or Noah. These characters mean so much to people. And you see them and generational feeling and cosplay and the fighting game community. They mean so much. Man, we cannot do this wrong. Which is, thank gosh, we had Katow to direct this movie because it was about getting it accurate. And Capcom being there as a partner, you know, I don't know if you saw it.

Yes. Took a picture with Nakayama. And Nakayama is so excited about what we're doing. And he's the shepherd of the modern franchise in terms of the gaming. Yeah, it's a big amount of responsibility. As silly as it all may look at me, it's big, yeah. I'd say it all the time. Nostalgia's a hell of a drug.

Yeah. And this movie is injecting nostalgia into our veins. Big time. So you saw the movie? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. You're great. I do okay?

Yeah. All right. All right. Yeah. You have a guile voice in this movie. Yeah. How did you find that voice? I just did my jaw.

This is fun. One of my favorite pieces of direction ever, and I understood intensely after that what he meant and what we're going to be doing almost every scene. Is Catow just said, off-camp to me, just told me a little more pre-workout. And I think anyone who's ever had pre-workout, instantly. thought, yep, got it. Your chin starts popping out, and even the simplest things that you're saying, like, lanky.

Everything kind of, you're just there. You're ready to go at all times, and it was a nice place for Guy out to be in a movie where sometimes the characters are incredibly filled with adrenaline, adrenaline in their soul, no pun intended, and then other they are the peaceful and zen and don't want to be involved with combat like Akoji as Ryu. So, Gile being there consistent was fun. Fun. At 19 years old, you moved to Hollywood chasing that acting dream, right?

And the idea here was like, I think you said in a previous interview, if you could get big enough in the acting world, I could go be a wrestler. How funny is it? Do you think about how you've done this in a backwards way? Well, I, you know, I've been quoting her a lot, and it's very real, but my sister, Teal, is, when I went back to WWE, I might have even said, said this to you in the past, she had just said, be careful what you wish for. I think you're going to get everything you want. And none of it was monetary. None of it was about money. It was about, hey, I'm going to try and wrap up dad's story. I'm going to try and bring the entire brand with

me. I'm going to try and grow it because nobody has a platform like WWE has. And I'm going to, I'm going to settle in. And after we did that and that happened, and now it continues with WW where it's at today. This, again, it's a classic case of almost be careful what you wish for. It opened, this whole experience has really opened my eyes to what's hopefully next for me. And I think it's a great extension of any pro wrestler. You know the grow story? Rock telling me to say, I just want to grow.

No. Oh, okay. So one time, I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this, but one time, Rock told me he doesn't like when wrestlers would say, like, oh, I don't want to be an actor. I always want to be a wrestler. And he had good reasons. He said, of course, you love wrestling. But wrestling's in my blood.

It'll say on the little sheet when you die for me. I ain't going to say anything else but wrestler. I don't want to say anything else. But also wrestling is storytelling. And that's what he said. What I wish people would say is that they just want to grow as a storyteller. So one time I went to this really big general meeting in L.A. a really big one.

It's the one you posted a photo about it? No, no, no, no, it's a different one, but that's a thing. That's a thing. But I went to this meeting, and the guy was just casual and cool. There wasn't this performative element to the meeting. He'd had meetings all day.

He was excited to meet me, but also kind of, I think he wanted to cut the foreplay of it all. Like, what do you want to do? What could I do? And he goes, what do you want to do? I said, oh, I just want to grow. He's like, okay, into what? Like, what do you mean?

And then I was like, you know, right now in my career where I really want to grow. And I, in my mind, told myself, if I say it one more time, I'm going to punch my own self in the face. I need a, he needs a real answer. But the lesson for me was, I want to grow as a storyteller. That's what it is. And I think coming from wrestling is perfect because that's what we do.

And I got such a bug being on set, particularly Noah. I have been crediting him with this a lot because he's the one who screen Union County. him and Will Polter's movie for me, and I saw all the decisions he was making, because one day I see him as Ken working on, can he develop a hado? And then the next day, you see him in this wonderful independent film about substance abuse and brotherhood. And the questions were similar. Fun, action-packed, nostalgia-filled, beautiful story of brotherhood movie, and then another story of brotherhood, completely different stakes. And I just, the bug hit me so big that after the experience with Street Fighter, I wanted to do so much more. And like, when I say so much more in acting, but here's the thing that you know, and I feel like you might be the only person who's interviewed me who would know this,

and when I'm saying it isn't just going to go, yeah, you actually know this, is that WWE allows that now. I'm so lucky that they allow that now. Yeah, this might not have been the case 10-ish years ago. It wouldn't have been. It would have been one or the other. Yeah. And the idea that the company under Nick and Triple H has grown so much.

And the talent roster is so revolving and beautiful that you can take the time to do this project. And then you can bring that project back. When we did my entrance of SummerSlam, I've never seen a collaborative effort. Fatim in the truck, Katow on this film, Blair in their market. I've never seen such a collaborative effort where nobody misunderstood each other. Oh, that's who Gile is. Oh, this is his old theme. His theme's really popular.

Let's do character select. There was no red tape. It was just a full, beautiful collab. And now we can bring that too, which is fun. You know, to be able to promote one on the other in a way. And it's just a really great collaboration that wouldn't have existed years ago. It exists now. When you moved to Hollywood at 19, did you book any roles?

I didn't even go on an audition. No, I didn't book any roles. I didn't go on an audition. I got my challenge for the actor by Uda Hagenbook, and I attended Comprehensive Technique with Howard Fine. And then instead of moving on to scene study, I became a stage manager at the Howard Fine Studio just to do comprehensive technique again.

Because that really, I needed the kindergarten level, the first grade level. I needed to completely build up, which was something I was saying on the carpet the other day for the premiere is, I hope there's so many more things for me to do in this world, because I need to flex the muscle. It's not, wrestling can do so much for you as a storyteller, but the transition is different.

You've seen it with John, you've seen it with Dwayne, you've seen it with Batista. My gosh, and some of the material he's taking it on. This is, this isn't a walk in the park. This is challenging. I was very challenged by Street Fighter, and you need those reps, and you need that time. Have you received any advice from those three that you mentioned, John Cena the Rock or Dave Batista when it comes to transitioning into this world? Well, particularly with John and Rock, I feel like there's a ton of advice.

And not just a ton of advice, those guys are money where their mouth is tight. They both are very big on the resources that they have can be your resources. I know that's rather inside baseball, and this is a classic case of this might be where you click this thing up right here. And it becomes a classic CVV 27 seconder. But, I mean, they really do. They're resources. Brad Slater and I work together now. Brad Slater's been with the final boss long enough.

He's won Super Bowl after Super Bowl box office with DJ. And then John is the forever. You've sat here with John. He's a mentor to everybody who is worthy of the time. And some even who aren't. He's there to, he really wants to pass something on. So they've both been wonderful, hands down, wonderful. So if you move to Hollywood at 19, was acting the original dream?

you know, I'm quick to, I'm usually really quick to say no, because I grew up loving wrestling so much, and that was all I ever wanted to do in the story about seeing the picture at eight years old and wanting to win the WWE title. It's a real story. But there's a couple quotes from a 19-year-old where I might have said acting was the first dream, and even my brother has gone on to, you know, Dustin's good for a hot moment on social media, as you know. I think he's gone on to say, oh, he always wanted to be an actor. I always wanted to be an entertainment.

And the first love I had in the whole world other than my mom, my sister, and my dad was wrestling. So I think wrestling was always the thing. Was it the idea of stepping out of your dad's shadow trying to find your own lane? Well, maybe it wasn't, yeah, own lane is the best way. Own lane always. And I think every second gen, third gen, you've got to find your own lane. You can live in their lane, but it's all nostalgic. you're getting their pop, not your own.

And Onlane takes time and takes experience. But I always wanted to be different from Dustin and wanted to be different from my father in terms of what the presentation is. If you were to bring these three, or if you were to put us in the movie Street Fighter together, Dusty could not play Gile. Who could Dusty play?

Oh, that's a great question, actually. Who could Dusty play? I mean, there's some funny ones because of his robust style. I mean, like, he could have been a very, a very fun. So there's the loving nature of E Honda. Obviously, E Honda needs to be a Japanese sumo wrestler. So Dessie's out.

But he could have got to the final three, maybe, just from the, there's a nature of E Honda, a brotherhood, a watching, a love. And so he could have been in there. But Ken has real charisma. Your dad had real charisma. Yeah, I think, though, if you look at Noah Centineo in this movie and how shredded he got. He's so judged. Yeah, I might have, Dusty might have said, no.

that's not what I'm going to be doing here. But there's also, think about all the games. There's so many characters over time that, you know. I was always Chun Lee because of the kick. Yeah. You could just button mash that low kick. Oh, yeah, and you've seen the movie. So now, you know, the most pressure on her, it, amazing, right?

Yes. Right? Yeah. Unbelievable. My MVP's were, and I loved everything about this movie. And then when I saw it, I was so happy that everything I thought about it while I experienced it. was right. And I thought, this is hitting. These are anime, like titmouse put this anime together that picks right up off of the

anime that we loved. My two MVP's were Bison and were Colino, so Bison and Shunley. And again, more pressure, David, David going in there, following Rawl Julia and doing Bison how David does it and the story that's in this film, those are mine. These were my MbPs. Ontarians win billions playing with OLG. In fact, there were over 200 million wins with OLG last year worth $2.7 billion in prizes. That's like 12 wins for every person in Ontario. An average of over 380 OLG wins every minute

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We got you. Cooperators can give you advice that's the real deal. Cooperators. Get investments, insurance, and advice from someone who gets you. Terms and conditions apply. We need to talk about this popcorn bucket. It is brilliant. It's, well, is it the first ever wearable popcorn?

That's a great question. I want to, if we're going to get us this thing down, I think it might be the first ever wearable. And if not, I heard about it and thought, they can't do that. That doesn't work. You're going to wear it? And then when I saw it, it works. It's functional. There's the strap.

It can act as a Halloween costume as well. What I would recommend to people is to not get angry at the popcorn bucket in front of them if they can't see over it and do not reach in the back of people's heads because that's going to be a thing. You think people are going to be wearing this during the movie? I don't know. And like doing one of these? I know this that while we shot with it, because we were all so enamored with this one, wonderful idea that legendary came up with in this AMC collaboration popcorn bucket, all of

us went from being like, oh, can we eat that popcorn to just eating the popcorn throughout the whole shoot where they kept having to refill it and such. But it has his own jingle, by the way. You've seen the jingle? I don't know. Check out my Instagram. Yeah, there's a jingle. I cannot sing you the jingle, but they created its own proprietary little jingle for this popcorn bucket. I feel like the next few days will be the test to see how people go about the popcorn bucket in the theater. Got it in the lap, are they rocking this thing, firing it, and picking from it.

WrestleMania 42 this year. Yeah. I want to ask you about... What a turn. There's so many things we've got to cover, and what is such a short amount of time here. You get a few. He gets a few extra minutes. You get a few extra. this guy is. Yeah, you got, I was really, I was really slow rolling with you. Because somebody said, you asked for 90 minutes. I go, that's what he does. That's what he does.

He gets as much content as he can, you know? I just love talking to you. We have good talks. Why are you trying to make me out to be the villain? No, I just had, so, dude, media is hard these days. I bet. You just did your Mount Rushmore. They're already coming for you.

They're already, it's hard. Like, it's not what it used to be. And this is specific to the wrestling media. I'm going to get on my little boomer high horse here, right? I'm not a boomer, but I want to be. Okay. So there are conversations that take place online in the wrestling community. Here's what I just wish that people would know.

They only take place online. And I'll give you a prime example. And this is going to sound, I feel so bad that I've now gone into this rant. Somebody will say something like, I can't believe she's getting so much heat for this. And then 50 people will reply. But here's the lesson in all. She wasn't getting any heat for it.

There was no conversation. And now the conversation has started. And then once that talent signal boost it, now it is real. And it wasn't. So it's a very, it's just tough. Tough. Remember the whole Cardona scandal when you had them on here? And then I brought it up on my podcast and I was wrong to do so.

Yeah, it's tough, man. Yeah. What was the Cardona scandal? And he was talking about, I can't even, I don't know what to say it. Oh, the best friend. Yeah, I don't want to say it. It turns into a thing. Yeah, it's tough, man.

And you don't want to be that guy. You don't want to go down. and look at your life at the end and go, hey, I never answered a question straight. I never, you know, but that's just, you've gotten a lot of wrestlers who've found these ways to navigate the questions, very political.

So at the stage of your career that you're in now, there is so much noise. Yeah. Right? How do you know what to pay attention to? Oh, man, that's a good one. Damn, that's the CBB here, huh? But think about it, right?

How do you not believe this one person that's saying this? when 10,000 other people are saying the opposite. I think probably the most important thing is don't be absolute. So I just gave you an absolute. I said those conversations are only taking place there. That's not true. That conversation might be happening, right?

But then there might be a conversation over here that's important and a mentor or a voice. And then there's, of course, the most important voices, the ones in the arena with us, the ones who are there giving their time and their energy to you to be entertained and to take an escape. I think it's prioritizing that. That's what it has to be. Particularly my career and as far as a wrestler has become so filled with noise. And one of the things, and I'm really proud of WrestleMania 42,

and I know you're going to ask a question about it, but I were really proud because it was so noisy backstage and out in the arena that I wanted to cool, calm, fighter pilot, like Gile. That's what I wanted QB1. to be. I'm going to make this work for everybody. I'm going to make this work. And if anyone suffers and it's me, at least I can put it on me. I'm going to make this work for everybody. So I think you don't want to ever tune anyone out. Listen, this age old saying you cannot make everybody happy, but you can make the decision on who you prioritize to do so. So you have a list

of a few people like, you know, I'm sure Brandy's one of them, maybe people you work directly with. I'm going to trust what they say. Yeah. Well, in terms of you, you, you, you know, You mentioned Brandy as far as like a really good litmus test on something. I mean, my dad, before social, used me. I would sit and watch Monday Night Row. I would sit and watch Nitro. I'd watch Saturday night. If I was plugged in, he asked me as a young age, he goes,

what do you like about Sean Michaels? I remember, and he couldn't figure it out, but he knew it was real. And that's how he knew, okay, that's, that guy might be the one. Because my, this is the age, right? And I think with this movie, it's like a prime example. of we're seeing all these kids who didn't grow up playing Street Fighter enjoying the heck out of Street Fighter. And they don't need to know that Charlie is one of the dog tags on Giles. Maybe they look it up after.

The fact that it's hitting with them, you know, tonight we're doing one here in Atlanta. And Little Brody, who needs to come on your show at some point? I'd love to have it on. Yeah, and Little Brody needs to come up. But Little Brody's going to see it. And that's one of, that's a voice. That's one I want to hear. That's a voice.

Hey, what do you think? What do you think? And I, you know, I can already tell probably where he's going to be. to go with it, who he's going to like. You know, I think it's, you mentioned Brandy. I have my little group of advisory people who have always shouted out by name, and I know they hate that I shout them out by name, but their, WW doesn't work without a Mr. Heyman, without a Michael PSAs, without a Bobby Root, obviously without a Triple H doesn't

work without them. Those are good ones. But again, in the moment, in the arena, none of them are with you. So you have to decide. You have to look out. And that's a great lesson as far as you've been in the ring. one of the greatest baby-faced one-on-one things ever is look look if there's a little kid who is intently wanting you to get up and fight that man or stop bleeding or something you that's the one

you'll want to listen to that's the one you'll feel better listening to the one who is with you in there that that's again in the prioritization of it all rasselmania 42 you take the punt from randy yeah what was the actual injury um This is, uh, I said I was going to answer any of your controversial questions. I think we skated by with a little bit of an orbital fracture. And that, that's not on anyone's fault, but my own. It looked bad. Right.

And it's, it was bad. When you took the sunglasses off on raw, it's like, oh yeah. Same suit, by the way. Same suit. I hadn't worn it since that day. I think we skated by a little bit of an orbital fracture. And I think I am mad at myself for doing it. so because it's affected my work since, super slowed down.

It's not, you know what I mean? Real vision? Yeah, just to a degree, to a little bit. And I feel like that's, you can't go out there to be one and saying you're in your prime and you're the best you've ever been if you're dealing with something that's a bit of a hindrance like that. But at this point, we're out the woods. I got through it.

I showed up the next night. I am toxic as can be when it comes to physical. stuff. Toxic as can be. Oh, I can go. I can go. Tamp it up. I can go. Like the peck muscle? Right, right. And I'm letting you know and click this out, CVVita. I'm letting you know, that's not good. If you're a young wrestler, don't do it. Don't live to fight another day. I just, I can't, something about me can't not want to go. I don't know what it is. I love it too much. Maybe it's ego. I don't know. But I just can't not. So yeah, that was a nasty one. Did you have a moment at all on the set of street fighter where you talk to Roman

and it's the idea of like, man, we're the two guys who headline back-to-back WrestleMania's and here we are together now making this massive film? That sounds like it would be a really cool moment. I kind of, no, we did not have that moment. Maybe shared, you know, maybe shared in a sense of when you have something so important with somebody no matter what personal feelings no matter what fandoms may may think when you have something so personal with somebody that is so grand in a sense of the business that we both grew up in loving you have I don't know maybe just a connection forever and I think it was felt it definitely has not been said and if it ever is

I'll let somebody know but no it's that's not a thing that's been said. But I can tell you his performance in the movie is phenomenal. And I don't want to use phenomenal because that's AJ's thing. But it's, it's really, really great. I mean, it truly is. The voice, people are hearing about the voice work he did for the animation in addition to the demon, you know, that he brought to the character. And again, a great, a character that we've been waiting to hit the big screen. That now famous photo of you at the end of WrestleMania, 39 where you look did you add toady sad cody i do sad cody on tv a lot yeah how much of that was cody rose the wrestler lost the match and how much of that was you going i might not get another

chance at this i mean the man who shot liberty valance you know when the legend becomes fact print the legend and that's really where it's at as far as maybe it was a hundred percent a shoot as you kids like to say right it was a shoot right maybe it was a shoot right maybe it was a shoot Maybe I was 100% terrified that, wow, I came in and didn't accomplish the thing. And then this most obvious of setups ever, we did not get the ball into the end zone. Maybe it was. Because there's no guarantee that WrestleMania 4A. No, and then that it got so complex on the way to WrestleMania 4.

Of course. However, it, destiny, however you want to do it, the cream rising, history finds this way. It found a way, and we're all, you know, from a wrestling fandom and you being a big wrestling fan and part of the wrestling industry, we're all still riding that wave, right? Yeah. And credit where it's due, credit to Bloodline, Mr. Heyman, and Roman Raines. I don't want any of it. I'm there.

People talk about WrestleMania 40, especially Night 2 being peak wrestling. Did you feel it in that night? To me, it's a, I've always, you know, wrestling. is never a dirty word for me, right? But I'd actually say it's peak art. And I tell people all the time who misunderstand wrestling and think, oh, there's any goofiness to what we do?

There's a lot of goofiness to what we do. There is. And some nights, it's what you think. And then other nights, it's better than any other story you might have ever seen. And I'm not saying that was, but I know, you know when you're in one of those moments.

And there have been so many significant moments throughout history, and they're not always loaded with drama. Just think about Steve. Spray in the beer, one of your Mount Rushmore guys, spraying the beer, think about Hogan Slamming Andre. Those moments, they rise to the highest points of, I'm using the word, I never thought I'd do. Art, they do. One of the reasons of all the great wrestlers that I grew up loving were big-time film buffs,

big-time film buffs. This is their way of telling stories, and this is their canvas, the square. circle of the ring, but you name it. Somebody who was a big film buff or a huge music fan. Not that everyone isn't, but even on a deeper connective level, how do I put this together? How do I entertain?

Yeah. I know you love films. Now you're starring in Street Fighter. I'm going to turn that... I'm in Street Fighter. You're one of the stars of Street Fighter. Thank you. I'm in.

I'm going to turn the Mount Rushmore back around on you. Oh, no way. Mount Rushmore. Of actors? Of films. Oh, of films? Films, I can probably do. Actors would be tough.

Actors is as tough as wrestlers. Stop asking us what our Mount Rushmore is for wrestlers. Please. They just asked me, and I thought I was going to have a panic attack. All-time films. All-time films, it's easy. Well, the first part is going to be easy. The one that the head always has to be there.

And if anyone groans in this room, I'm going to lose it. I'm looking at you. Wow. Empire Strikes Back. Plot twist, moneymaker, everyone going. I'm a founding member at the Lucas Museum. I still haven't been. I'm excited. It looks beautiful.

So Empire Strikes Back. There's a lot of wrestling in Empire Strikes Back. There's a lot. Now it's going to get just personal in terms of how I feel today. Mal Rushmore film, obviously I think you have to put Godfather. I'm not putting Godfather 2. I'm putting Godfather 1. Marlon Brando.

Godfather one. Godfather two is unbelievable. They're one thing. They're one entity almost, right? Yeah. I'm putting Godfather. Yeah, they bleed right into each other. These two are going to get, oof, this is where it gets real tricky.

Okay. Mount Rushmore, ooh, I have my two. And I don't like them, but I have my two. Oh, man. I want to put, this one's a personal one, Forrest Gump. What a film. I one of the coolest things about Street Fighter and you saw it soundtrack I went to a place called media play in Marietta, Georgia, and with my lawnmower money, I bought the soundtrack for Forrest Gump. I didn't know CCR. I didn't know Dylan. I didn't know it. I learned them at a young age because the soundtrack of the movie is so incredible. So Forrest Gump is going in there for me. This is too hard. So we've got three heads. It's so hard when you get down on the fourth one. I had one in my mind.

Oh, man. Well, I said it's personal, right? It can be whatever you want to be. Buckle up. You got your seatbelt on. Here we go, baby. Buckle up all the way. Strap two shoulder.

Okay. I'm going to go Empire Strikes Back. I'm going to go Forrest Gump and then what was the Godfather. Can I do two? No, I can't, right? Sure, whatever. I can't do two.

It's your list. I'm going to do Street Fighter, the one that we're talking about today, The one you star in? I'm in it. Because I think what it aims to do is really, really fun. And maybe at a time where we really need something like this more than ever. Good old-fashioned trip to the movies, biggest screen. So I'm putting that on there.

What was your fifth answer? My other one, because I think people will be like, well, he has to say Street Fighter. And I want to say Street Fighter. But my other one is one that is so heavily used in wrestling, so heavily stolen from. Can you guess? Heavily stolen from a wrestling. Heavily stolen from. Goodfellas?

Goodfellas is a great. Oh, I feel like there's a lot of wrestling. And Rocky. Oh, Rocky. That gets borrowed. Well, you can do Mount Rushmore with Rockies. In general, Rocky 3 is the best one. Oh, wow.

Rocky's phenomenal. Tombstone. Tombstone. Tombstone. I like Rocky Ford, that's why I said. Tombstone. Wow. Just the, I mean, how Val Kilmer doesn't walk away with the little gold man?

You know, I got a lot of friends. I don't. Oh my God, like just a, ugh, ugh, I could watch Zoomstone with you right now. That's what we should do. You want to watch a film together? Yeah, Toomteen. That's my honorable mention. That will watch my favorite film.

Yeah. Back to the Future. You a Back to the Future guy? I'm usually a kind of a hater. But such a good movie, huh? such a good movie. You hate on Back to the Future? No, I hate on it a little because...

This is getting clipped out. Do you know a wrestler named Matt Cardona? I've heard of him. You familiar with that? Matt. Zach Ryder? That's the one. Brett Majors?

He gets upset at Universal Studios in Florida because the DeLorean is off to the side. And I always use it as a moment to really kick him below the belt and tell him, like, that's the nature of life. That's the circle of life, bro. That's it. You know what I mean? That's it.

It's the app. We got to make new cuts. 41 years later, yeah. Being a hater. The movie's phenomenal. Movies phenomenal. I think it's damn near perfect. Yeah.

It's really good. We'll watch that one later. Back to the Future is a hit. I'm not mad at that. I'm a big fan of Back to the Future. Doc, the whole thing. Great. Scott.

Also, time travel, time travel movies. Right. Back to the future in terms of time travel, but also time travel, there's literally like back to the future time travel rules. And then there's very similar. in Next Generation with how they did their time travel in terms of the final episode to TNG, which then was used slightly in the endgame of it all with Marvel.

So these guys set the tone. I think about the idea of if this doesn't happen, then that can't happen. If that thing doesn't happen, it doesn't lead to this. Your picture, you fade out of your picture. Do you imagine? Marty's parents don't meet. Marty's not born. Imagine?

Stakes are high. Stakes are high. With that said, and with where you, you're at in your career now. What do you think it's been the cost of being Cody Rhodes? Ooh. Oh, man, I don't want to get melodramatic on you. There's obvious costs in a sense of you, you lose a lot of time at home.

And that's the obvious cost to anybody who has any type of job, not just entertainment, where you are drawn to go where your work goes. I always say that. We go where the show is going. And you can try to make the most of it and the best. And that's why I'm not going to say that that's the most obvious cost because I grew up in it as well. It's not news to me that you will miss things. It's not news to me that you will have to repair, that you will owe more because you were gone more.

I think the obvious cost of being me, and again, not trying to get melodramatic, is not always knowing who I am. I think the obvious cost of being me is I have been in a performative industry. I have been in a very carny industry where you think about maybe selling a ticket. And over time, I realize that's not as valuable as perhaps selling an experience. But I think a lot of young men might have had a better idea of who they were around 30. And here I am at 41, one, finally having kind of gotten a hold of, okay, this is who I think I am. And this is how I'd like to live my life. And this is what I'd like to spread when I'm interacting and when I have interactions.

So I think the cost of being me is in a weird way, not fully knowing who I am. You would previously said you were, it's a great answer, by the way. I'm sure to be 27 seconds. Maybe 43. Ficked out, you know. Classic you. You had previously said that you were going to retire 40. Yeah, I did, didn't I?

Yeah. Look at everything you've accomplished since. Told you an old Cody lie, huh? Old 40, huh? And here I am. Yeah. Do you have a number in your mind now? Maybe you haven't made it public, but do you think about how much longer you want to do it?

I just think the last, I just signed my last contract. I say last contract. There's no, it's, I, that's going to go for a while. And if I'm able to do what I've been able to do, because I would love this year not to be just one movie, but perhaps two movies. And I'd love to kind of be able to share that at some point, get that going and be in that. With all that said, my time with WWB could go, I mean, just to give you a real answer here and not politic around you, probably seven, seven years. Seven more years. Six, seven, yeah.

I didn't mean it like that. But yeah, you know, that's the kids thing, right? I'd have Carmelo Hayes explained to me what that was, and I still didn't get it. Yeah, six, seven years, I'd say so, yeah. And I don't want to say that in a final sense. I just know that I don't want to overstay my welcome. AJ Styles made it clear when we talked. He didn't want to wrestle into his 50s.

Yeah. Do you have that kind of like... Well, definitely don't want to wrestle into my 50s. No shame to anyone who wrestles in their 50s. I don't want to overstay my welcome in a sense. of this, right? So I have been, like, I have been given so much from wrestling. And you have to think about my career in its totality, the things that we don't talk about, the things that I don't get asked about anymore, things that you have to think about all that. I have shed so much of my

skin for the industry, but I have also been given so, so, so much. I think there's a point where you have to stop taking. I'm not there, but there's a point. And I think that's in that time frame, a point where you just have to stop taking. It's giving me everything. I am talking to you today. As the first time I talked to you,

I was a mid-card talent at WWE, no shame to anything in the mid-card. Mid-card's beautiful. I heard Triple Age explained mid-card in a way that changed my perception of it forever. But I was a mid-card talent with a ceiling that was right above my head. And I'm talking to you today as someone who got to play Gile from Street Fighter, created by Capcom, a game that I played growing up as a little kid, looked at it.

That's me. Again, be careful what you wish for, but also I don't know how many moments like this I can take and I can get hopefully more, hopefully a lot more. But I've been so lucky so far and so blessed so far that I think wrestling, I mean, Cody Fatigue is already pretty set in. Do you feel that? Well, no. Maybe. Maybe.

But I think you can only go so far. And you're only supposed to go so far. At Capital One, we don't just use technology. We architect it. Our teams have true end-to-end product ownership, shipping, distributing, systems that handle high concurrency at scale. No single server bottlenecks, engineered beyond legacy downtime, and operating right here in downtown Toronto.

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Terms and conditions apply. I don't know if this gets brought up, but Elimination Chamber in Perth, you called out the Rock for a one-on-one match. Was there a plan for you? Oh, my gosh, that's such a deep. I know. It doesn't get brought up. I just remember the pyro. There was a lot of pyro.

They had barge pyro. That's the first time I ever heard, hey, there's a barge pyro. And then we were waiting for the little barges out on the water to shoot it up. Grayson Waller effect, right? Yes. Were you going to have a one-on-one match with The Rock? Oof. It's not that I'm evading that answer.

It's that I don't really know how to answer because I think personally he has a couple of matches probably left to do. I think that personally. But I also know looking at WrestleMania 40 and another guy who he's given all, continues to give all as part of the board, he could easily say that was a great final piece

as a performer in a wrestling ring. That'll be up to him. That'll certainly be up to him if there's more and what those matches might be. I don't think any wrestler would ever look you in the eye and tell you they wouldn't want to match like that. I'd want to match with the right. Right, right.

Sure. So we live in the most fun time for WWB. Even Hunter said this the other day about how great the attitude era was, but then it was over. And we've now been on this run for a while. I think that's one of the things that is maybe misunderstood is every metric and nobody likes hearing about metrics or shareholders or things like that. every metric is still going up.

Even if you look at a metric that you say, well, that's down, every other metric is still going up, and then another metric is overtaken. This isn't me trying to justify anything, but yeah, no, you are part of an era that's the most unpredictable time in wrestling. Really is unpredictable. So that may be a match like that does happen.

To bring this around full circle. Full circle it, man. Congrats on everything. Thank you. It's amazing. That first interview was 15 years ago. Yeah. Look how much has changed personally and professionally.

How tall are you? I got bigger, you know? I'm a full 5'10, though. Yeah, man. You can do anything at 5'10. Sure. Yeah. I will ask you the question I ask at the end of every interview.

Maybe it's the same answers last time, but. Well, before you do, thank you because this has been a mutual growth. And I heard this term the other day, upward mobility. in terms of keep going. I'm going to tell you flat out, though, I'm not going to keep putting you over on podcasts and saying you're the guy, because you're the guy,

you're not meant to be rewarded anymore. When you're the guy, so you're the QB1 of podcasts. I am? Here's what happens. They come for you. You're no longer underdog. You're no longer meant to steal the show.

You're meant to sell the show. It's a different... This is a lot of pressure. So the, oh, this is the pressure you feel. The pressure is on. And just my only thing I can say is make sure even if it feels like you're an egg that's about to crack, still enjoy it. Still enjoy it and be nice to the people around you. He was on our first interview or one of the interviews in a high school gym.

Be nice to people around you. Be loyal to the people around you. Don't go Hollywood CVV. If I see shades. Shades. Yeah, don't go Hollywood, CVV. Just stay. Because you're leading the podcast game.

Everyone is behind you. Also, if they go dark night on you where they need to chase you, where they need to be mad at you, let them be. There's no wrong way to be a fan. Let them be. You said I was jacked and handsome. Thank you for lying. Thank you for the Cody line. You're in great shit.

You said I had a bit of an eke. As you should, a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, as you should. But after this, I am no longer, I'm just going to say redacted when I say the best are that guy's interview. Because right now, let someone else try and catch... You're done putting me over. I am done after today. So right now, I think you're the best at this. There's major companies that are following your lead on how to do these interviews.

You've been wonderful to all your guests. You also always try to help your guests. In addition, you get your little digs in with... There are no digs. A little digs in with the clips and things of that nature. But that's the nature of doing an interview. There are no digs. Right?

You get your little digs in. But now, let me ask you this. And I've taken this a complete different way. Who do you see coming up? Who's trying to get CBV's spot? I think there is enough room for everybody to table. Oh, but I am always clapping for everybody. I believe that.

Clapping for others does not take away from your own success. It doesn't. And you should, so my rule is you should root for your worst enemy. And I do, especially in wrestling. I root for him every day. I don't know why. But who's, give me a name, though. Don't Cody, Sina this answer.

Give me a name. Give me, who is somebody who's on their way? Muscleman Malcolm is so good at this. And the thing that... Muscleman, Malcolm. Love you, Malcolm. Thank you. The thing about Malcolm is he has this,

he's just so hungry. He has this drive. I saw him at Booker T's reality of wrestling a few years ago. And he's like, yeah, man, when I leave from here, I'm going to go sleep at the airport because my flight's in the morning. Like, if it's like 11 o'clock at night, He's like, yeah, man, I'll sleep till my flight in the morning.

I'm like, I love that hunger. So I love the... But it makes you hungry. You've seen his stuff. He's the guy who asks the Waffle House question. Yeah, yeah. It makes you hungry, though. I love it, but I've always been hungry.

Yeah, I know. Like, our first interview was shot on a flip camera. The one after that was shot on an iPhone. The one after that was also shot on an iPhone. The one after that was also shot on an iPhone. I don't know you're saying iPhone like it's an archaic thing. It's an iPhone. Well, but it, yeah, like it was also like...

No, I know. I think one of those interviews had to stop because a phone was. The stakes are higher today. Stakes are higher. Stakes are higher. Paramount's watching you today. Paramounts watching. They're watching you too. I know. I probably screwed up a few times. I'm sure I did as well. I probably did. But that's what life's all about, isn't it? It is. But I know it makes you hungry here. I like that. I love it. Thank you for turn to the tables and ask. I did. Go ahead. So you asked your last question. I followed that.

What are three things that you're grateful for today? Three things that I'm grateful for today? Let's go today. My oldest daughter, I am grateful for her sense of just play. She came on my bus today and just did the air doors so many times that we had to restart the bus to fill the air back up so the doors could be open and things. And she just kept putting on my shoes. And I feel like as things get so intense and difficult and challenging and beautiful in their own way, it's fun. to see a little kid, just be a little kid.

And I hope I see a lot of that with just people coming to Street Fighter and just it's meant for you. It's meant for fun. I'm in that same stage of life right now. My daughter's three. I get it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

And then second thing I'm grateful for today, I'm looking right at them. Like, obviously, but I mean, I'm looking in terms of this beautiful poster, this cast. And even the ones not on this cast. And there's a, Katow Sakurai will tell you this. And Jason Momoa will tell you this. 50 Cent would even tell you this. Everyone who was in this movie realizes something special happened on set that doesn't always happen in Hollywood. Lightning in a bottle.

And I even met with a producer not too long ago in a general meeting. And I explained my experience to him. And he flat out said, that's amazing. Hollywood is not ever like that. and I am so grateful that it was for me. And this crew, and it's led by the three up there, Noah, Koji, and Kalina, everyone being a leader in their own field and doing it, I am so grateful for that experience. And I'm grateful for what it turned out to be, a beautiful experience that made a beautiful movie. I need a third.

Oh, man, I feel greedy. What could you be grateful for? I think I'm also grateful for the biggest critics I have in the pro wrestling space. I don't think they'll ever realize how much life that gives you. How much life and how much enjoyment and hunger. And you hear this all the time with the wrestlers. They don't talk about the positive thing. Talk about the negative thing.

That drives you? And it's not so much a drive as it's just a banter. It's a banter that you don't want it to end. Yeah. Grateful for Liberty. Grateful for the Street Fighter cast. Grateful for the critics of my wrestling character. Those three.

I'm always so grateful for your time. So thank you again for another great conversation. It's going to be a while before you talk again. Because you've got me and I am moving on to, what's his name? Malcolm. Malcolm. Malcolm. But it's time.

He's great. No, I'm excited. You're excited for your interview with Malcolm? I'm just excited to see if he's all that you said. Because, you know, I don't do interviews often go bad with me. I walk away from almost every interview mad. Mad? Yeah, I'm not going to walk away mad today.

I hope not. Or is anyone mad? Did we get it? How do you feel? Happy? Good? So we're good? Good?

We're not going to be mad? You don't know what he'll do with these clips? You don't know, you know? Yeah, he's a master, 27. The clips are the... The clips are the... The clips are the... I understand the lot.

Well, that is delicious. I understand. What aisle are they on? I understand. Oh. I should go check that out on YouTube. And I should subscribe because I've been watching this whole thing. As they should.

They should subscribe. Thank you, Cody. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it, man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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