My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 260 - THE LAST OF US EPISODE 5/CODY RHODES

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

Robbie and Clem discuss the trailers for 'The Flash' and 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3' and then the Boys break down 'The Last Of Us' Episode 5 (37:41)! Afterwards, Cody Rhodes joins Robbie in the Basement (1:02:12) to discuss the new A&E Biography on his father, Dusty Rhodes, as well as his journey to the main event of WrestleMania, the regrettable tattoo he almost got before the Legacy triple threat, and more! 3Chi: Use code BASEMENT15 for 15% off your complete order at 3Chi.com! Gametime: Redeem code MMB on the Gametime app for $20 off your first purchase! Factor: Head to FACTORMEALS.com/robbie50 and use promo code robbie50 for 50% off your first box! **************************************** Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basementYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement, presented by Barstool Sports and 3C. I am your host, Robbie Fox, along with me is my co-host, Clem. And today we've got a pretty packed show. You know we're recapping The Last of Us each and every week. We will continue to do that. We're recapping the last of us episode five on today's show but we've also got some super bowl trailers to talk about the flash and guardians of the galaxy three i mean i don't want to spoil our next podcast especially because we're still under embargo but i also just want to put it out there that me and clem went and saw ant-man and the wasp quantumania last night the basement boys are getting a little sneak peek,

little screeners and stuff moving up slightly in the world. So very cool. Very excited to have. It's so much easier to get your thoughts together and put it on podcast form. We have a couple of days to kind of think it, and then it's ready for everyone. As soon as they see it,

if they see it opening night, boom, you get in the car on the way home or whatever, and you can just listen to us. So very happy that that is the case. Hopefully we do that some more in the future. I think that'll be good for everybody, right? Yeah, it was awesome.

They gave us giant-sized quantum tickets and everything. We were in the IMAX in Lincoln Square. Like I said, we're under embargo, so we can't actually tell you guys our our review about it but look forward to that on thursday as soon as you get out of the theater on thursday our video and our podcast on ant-man and the wasp quantumania will be on the feeds so look forward to that make sure you're subscribed on both and you'll be the first to get it no spoilers but we had a great time at the movies together it was the first time we went to the movies together since endgame in 40x where we really just got the shit beat out

of us by those chairs i'll tell you man technologies imax is the example of a good technology that has really thrived in the theatrical environment 40x which for people that don't know it's supposed to like you feel like you're in the movie so it kind of jolts you around i always thought it was raining they missed you stuff like that if you've ever gone to like Disney or Universal, I feel like they have those 4D theaters where you feel like you're in it. It just, I felt like a roller coaster, but it didn't really go with Endgame all that great. So it's been a long time. I saw Endgame, the screener there actually with KFC back in the day because KFC radio got some screeners. If I was going to go, you couldn't go.

So I got the ticket and I still was like, holy shit. I can't believe like my mind was blown obviously after end game wrapped up. And I told you, I had seen a guy who had just left the theater. He was like, Hey man, did you see end game?

How was it? I was like, Oh, it was awesome. Blah, blah, blah. And he's like,

Oh, I'm in the middle of, he's did like that 18 hour marathon where you just stayed in and watched every MCU movie up to that point. And then it rolls right into endgame and i was like oh brother you did the right thing it is going to pay off in spades i'm so jealous of that dude he was he seemed like he was a little tipsy or a little he was up so mcu drunk he's superhero drunk yeah i think he was he said thor 2 was either on or it was in an intermission i would like to think maybe he's like i'm just going to take a break during thor

2 and have a cigarette yeah he's like i'm gonna get wasted during thor 2 to make it through so i have very warm memories of that theater so yeah we'll have that for you guys on thursday but so we're gonna get into these commercials are we're allowed to say super bowl again right it's no longer the big game we can say super bowl for the next 363 years right yeah i think we could say i think they're like very relaxed on the trademark especially the week after maybe they give everyone their employees a week off hope they're all on vacation right now anyway i think anyone who dives into football like when even big cat is talking about taking a vacation that's how you know that like the football guys are all on vacation right now is

when that crazy motherfucker is actually taking a little break. Yeah. And if you're listening to this on the podcast feed, I will have an interview with Cody Rhodes at the end of this episode. That is like a 50 minute interview. We had a 30 minute block scheduled for us. We went almost an hour. It was just like old times.

It was awesome. If you're watching us on YouTube, just go over, check that out. It's already on the YouTube channel for you and under a separate video. It was really, really cool to sit down with Cody. I've known him for seven years. It was the first time we ever did something in person like that.

Oh, wow. I'm shocked. I had no idea that was the case. I'm flabbergasted, Bob. Flabbergasted. You F-worded me on that one. That's a big deal. Hey, speaking of the F-word, let's get into the f word hit us with the thumbs up hit us with the

thumbs up in there in the in the youtubes all that stuff i always try to say that in the beginning of the videos and i don't remember until about 50 minutes in usually when we're recording these damn things so yeah i usually say it like the the last thing that is on the podcast i'll be like oh yeah subscribe who made it to the end before we get into today's podcast i want to tell everyone about our presenting sponsor that is 3g of all the things in life one of the best has to be getting high wherever you want whenever you want without the paranoia of consuming some sketchy black market stuff what's the best way to do that with 3g of course 3g has the highest quality cannabis products from their delicious delta 9 edibles and their industry leading Delta eight products to their new line of Delta nine Oh, Delta nine Oh vapes and everything

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Again, 3chi.com. That's the number 3, C-H-I.com. And the promo code is BASEMENT, all caps, BASEM caps basement 1515 must be 21 or older to purchase please use responsibly but yeah the other f word the flash and man it is kind of like the f word because it's it's dicey it's like people are saying are we allowed to be excited about this movie are we allowed to support ezra miller here and after seeing this trailer i saw a tweet that said this as well it's like we got to look at the kids that ezra miller held hostage and be like sorry it looks great fuck them kids the old mj meme right it's like at this point you have to

think i mean we do live in a different world in 2023 everything's a little softer now in terms of like you know people are maybe more socially conscious i feel like back in the day you would have just straight scumbags who could be in movies you're like i'm gonna see the movie anyway i really don't care right but uh ezra miller is i mean as we've covered i mean i guess a very very special person in terms of his super villainy he's an international terrorist is is what he is. And we've called him that. It's true. I stand by that. I don't like him as a person,

but I think this movie looks fucking great. And especially after everything we've heard from people we trust that are telling us that the hype is real about this. It's not just typical studio hype saying this is going to be the next big thing. It's crazy that they're going forward with it with Ezra Miller, but based on everything we're hearing based on this trailer it's like

well maybe they have to because what if it is one of the best superhero movies of all time like james gonna say it's so weird because with dc you're not thinking all right they're going to do the right thing all the time because dc has never really done that. I think they're just going to do whatever. But this again. Studios know what time we live in. And if they're still going to keep it going. With all the shit that's gone down. Now it makes a lot more sense. Now I think we can kind of agree.

Just based on again. Trailers almost always look fucking awesome. Let's put this out there too. I don't think Ezra Miller should ever play The Flash again. Even if this is amazing. I think they should recast the flash afterwards. And this is James Gunn has said kind of like a, a reboot point.

This is going to set the universe straight almost. So I think it's an opportunity to do that. Give Ezra Miller a fucking send off. I've also always said, I don't really like his flash. If I'm being completely honest, I don't like his version of barry um i expect him to be my least favorite part of this movie even with a great performance because in my mind i don't know how i get past like this is ezra miller i'm watching ezra miller

here but it's loaded with other shit that's not him that i'm looking forward to it's loaded with batman bob let's be honest you're that's what it is bob and you fucking love the bat so that's a big reason why you're saying something like that which i if you're not an ezra miller guy that that whatever um but let's also call a spade a spade here bob loves the guy with a big bat on his chest that's what it is so it's the flashpoint story that they're going with and in flashpoint it's either going to be barry going back in time to stop his mother's death and therefore prove his father's innocence because his father's in jail for his mother's death barry's swears he didn't do it you know um or someone else sends him back in time there's other flashes in the comics you know there's the reverse

flash professor zoom there's dark flash that's been teased apparently like some merchandise is leaked indicating dark flash might be in it which is like a black flash that's also a zombie so i don't know which version of the flash point they're going with here but there are similarities already in this trailer to the comic and the cartoon where like you see the flash is trying to recreate the shock that gave them powers because they don't have powers when they go into this new universe so they have to like recreate that they actually go to batman for help in the comic but batman in the comic is thomas wayne batman's dad because bruce gets shot instead oh it's a whole thing it's a

whole thing it's a whole thing but yeah they're doubling down literally on ezra miller because there's at least two of them in this movie and ben affleck is the first batman shown um he's back as bruce wayne and it looks like we're going back to the day zod invaded in man of steel there's time travel involved with this the flash and flashpoint and all that i think they're going back to man of steel almost like how they went back to the first avengers movie in endgame i was gonna say this is the dc walmart i don't know if walmart's even the right word for it what dollar general version of endgame no offense to the dc fans i don't want dc stands coming i do

now definitely do not want snyder verse people coming at my door here but let's call it what it is like if we're going back to old movies and stuff like that and by the way michael shannon is fucking awesome can i just say that amazing regardless of one of my favorite actors yes and he was the best villain that dc had so it's smart of them to be like let's just bring back the best villain that we ever put out there it is kind of funny though looking back and looking at the trailer and you're just seeing ezra miller is this like problematic super villain and they're like what's better than one ezra miller two ezra miller it's like that's the bad guy in the fucking movie right here but you're 100 right on that though i think you can have an awesome movie

here you could be man ezra miller crushed this role or he doesn't even have to crush the role for the movie to be good or great but at the same point i think he's revealed himself as a real liability and once we get that reboot in the james gunn universe whatever we're going to call that dcd uh jg whatever i don't want ezra miller then to get you know thrown in jail for 20 years and be like well we have to find another flash now like he's too important of a character and I think you've kind of shown your ass in Ezra Miller to be like, I can't be trusted. At some point, you kind of just have to cut bait and say, is it

really worth it here? I'm trying to think of like, I guess in a much difference, it's almost like if Marvel had Robert Downey Jr. when he just had a couple little problematic things, they got Robert Downey Jr. with like just had a couple little problematic things. They got Robert Downey Jr. with years and years,

age and wisdom. He kind of needs the role maybe. You got that point of Robert Downey Jr. If they had Robert Downey Jr. earlier maybe, I think they might have had to do the same thing where it's like, I just don't think it's worth the trouble. At that point, he was worth the trouble. He put fucking the entire MCU

on his back. He was also 20 years older at that point. Even at that point he was worth the trouble he put fucking the entire mcu on his back and he was also like 20 years older at that point and kind of even at that point marvel was marvel skeptical they were like we don't know if this guy's worth the trouble and favre had to fight for him yeah so you know i think to your point that's definitely a possibility uh the first shot of the batmaner from the tim burton movies in the mist that made it move but oh my god when they go into the cave and you see batman and it's keaton and he looks exactly like he looked in 1989 because when you just show this much of the person they haven't aged and he gives that long pause he's like yeah i'm batman and that long pause was everything it was everything yeah avengers assemble i mean i

mean like he did the thing we all pointed at the screen we were the leo meme it was it was the truth but uh yeah it definitely made it move and even seeing him even the way he like swooped down and the pickup like that was keaton's batman style right so that was very totally but he's fighting like the batman from the arkham games swooping down picking people up slamming them boom like holy shit this is michael keaton this is almost like you know like people want to see like luke skywalker at his full powers and we saw that in the mandalorian season two this is almost like that version of this batman if you guys are listening on the podcast that's fine i'm pretty much i listen to 90 of my my stuff through through podcast i think heavy spoiler is the only guy

i listen to like i go on youtube for him but if you want if you guys want to watch bob robbie right now he's beaming talking about like it's almost as if we're talking about his like son getting on the honor roll or something like he's radiant i haven't seen this look in robbie's eyes in a long time so that's how all the bat suits too the shot of the bat suits that i told you about the movies last night you see a michael keaton bat suit that is gray with the blue cowl you see like a scuba bat suit like i want all of them as action figures tomorrow you see the batman returns bat suit that's my favorite because the way they they take away one of the little swoops in the bat logo i love michael keaton's batman if you want to go back watch the michael keaton batman movies to prepare yourself for the flash we did

commentaries for both of those movies that you could sync up with the movies and it's like a my mom's basement commentary edition of Batman. And they're super fun. We did them with my older brother. And also a great scene is where Supergirl, a.k.a. Kara Zor-El, is fighting in the snow with Michael Keaton's Batman and the Flash. And they're like, what do we do? And Batman's like, just try to survive.

And then we see Supergirl come down. There's a slow-mo shot of Batman going to punch somebody, and Kara just comes from left field to punch him beforehand and that was just like that's how i expect super girl or super man to fight pretty fucking cool it was cool to see uh like a super person i guess to say it's not superman but the super person without their suit on just kicking the shit out of people yeah it's like the she was in like asylum gear almost like she was like imprisoned you know who i was thinking of uh the asian girl and the boys when she just starts fucking people you're like oh boy that like that's the kind of rips the guy's face off

and you're like oh by the way on the boys season three officially on the boys season three yes he's almost caught up with us now almost loving it yeah oh loving it yeah loving it every and everyone if you haven't watched the boys i'm gonna people were doing this to me and now i'm gonna do too you gotta watch the boys it's so fucking good i honestly i think like the next boys season will be probably unless there's an avengers movie or a guardians movie it'll be like the number one thing i'm looking most forward to in that time frame you know what i mean like that's how much i love the boys when we got uh gen z is it the the no it's not a prequel but it's almost like the x-men first class type yes boy series coming up pretty soon i think spring i think it's yeah i think it's coming to spring

or summer so that's gonna be there's a lot of shit coming down the pipe we have to actually like go and take a look at the release timelines. Cause at some point we're gonna have to figure out how we're going to like get all this shit recorded, put it on. We need to give like a presentation to the, my mom's basement listeners. Like we're Kevin Feige,

like showing the timeline. Here's what we're going to cover for the year. Yeah, exactly. I, I, those things are so fucking helpful too. I love those things so much.

You know, it's not helpful. These commercials coming out at the super commercials coming out during the Super Bowl. And let me preface this. This might be an old man thing, but I think I felt like this for a while now. It's hard to watch the Super Bowl. It's a hard thing to do because if you're a sports fan. So I'm a sports fan, but I also like watching the commercials.

I like the entertainment. And then also as someone that is geeked up about these movies and stuff like that it's kind of like you're watching it for work as well it's just like three hours and you don't get to take a break and then also if you're at a super bowl party you're having conversations if you're hosting like i was you're getting stuff you're getting food if you have kids you're trying to like stop them from killing themselves non-stop it's just, it's a lot of work. I didn't see the flash commercial until this morning before we recorded. And that's the reason why. So I just had to get on my soapbox and let it be known. And I want to know that I'm not alone. Please tell me what's your solution to that

though. To what? So at this point, the commercials are just, just because I don't like them releasing the commercials early. So I'm't like them releasing the commercials early. So I'm with you on. So that's the other thing. I'm with you on that. You wrote that blog and I was I was I was in lockstep finding out that Heisenberg was going to be, you know, on the on the big game. It like it kind of killed it for me. However, maybe that's so it's like I don't really view the commercials as a big deal anymore.

And I'm like, if something's really good, it'll just appear somewhere on social media. It'll appear on the blog. It'll appear somewhere in my universe at some point. And I do the thing where I'll go on YouTube and look at like top 10 best commercials. The USA Today used to do like a ranking every year. And I'd look at their rankings. And if something interested me, I'd find the YouTube for it.

But it's just one of those things. It's like, so it's like, I can't just not watch the game. Cause I'll miss something awesome potentially in the football game. Plus I cover sports for a living. And then the super, like the commercials,

there's just so many just flops that it's like, yeah. Oh my God. So many, if it's 80%, maybe 90% or flops. So this, I didn't see this one. I kind of like, I heard it. It was going in and out.

There was a commercial where they kind of did the Austin powers thing where they would do like the giant dick in the sky where they'd say a word. I saw the undertaker was on. He's like under undertaker. And I was like that commercial, I still haven't seen it. I'm going to go back and watch it. That one I thought was very good. But all these, these movie trailers, it's just too much. And I got a bone to pick with this Guardians 3 trailer that I'm going to tell you about right after I tell you about Game Time.

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So my bone to pick or my gripe with all these trailers is specifically with the Guardians trailer. They put out a 30 second TV spot and said, go to the YouTube page and see the full trailer there. Now, if we're trying to watch the game, if we're trying to watch all the commercials, now I have to ignore the game and the commercials to watch the trailer for the thing that I watched the trailer for. I watched the trailer to a trailer, essentially. And it's like Marvel. You're fucking Marvel. I know times are not hard over there. I know you're not paying your CG artists very well, which is an issue.

They got to figure that out. But why are you skimping out on a 90-second TV spot? You're only doing a 30 second one you want to send this to the youtube channel for your hits there that annoyed me a little bit and it's a great trailer but i was like i gotta go to the fucking youtube to watch during the super bowl right now i would never deceive someone to make them go to youtube never never that's just not what the boys do clickbait like come on i find it offensive actually yeah do you think like someone had a goal and they're like well by by by uh march 1st we need a certain number on our youtube so just

send the millions upon millions of people watching i'm with you too like again this is someone that doesn't have time to like it just seems like overwhelming so you're like oh no and now i have to pull out another device to then watch it as all the shit that i said i have a trouble like getting into my brain at once is going on in the second screen so now you're giving me two screens plus whatever chaos is going on at the super bowl party that was fucked up i know that they're laying off 7 000 people at disney so i guess bob didn't see this so things aren't going that good over there right now. 7,000 people. Maybe times are hard.

Our boy Bobby Iger is trying to fix some stuff up. So I don't know if like cutting 60 seconds worth of Super Bowl commercial time will really do that. But that's the only way I could figure it makes sense. But it was you said, holy shit, you watched the Guardians trailer. And at this point, I'm like, I probably can get it in in the next hour. And I'll be honest, I could just like, during the Super Bowl halftime show is when I can catch up on stuff. No matter who's singing. I know everyone loved Rihanna, which by the way, Rihanna, pregnant Rihanna, like 30,000 fucking feet in the air was wild.

I didn't know, like pregnant women, I know you could do a lot of stuff. They even say you could like sip on some wine. I just never thought you'd want to be know you could do a lot of stuff. They even say, can you like sip on some wine? I just never thought you'd want to be hanging off of like a thin little wire, you know, thousands of feet in the air. So that was crazy to me, but I'm with you,

Bob. It was just another, it was just another, it was, it's like the QR codes to click our QR code. Motherfucker. I am not getting up from my seat, clicking on my phone.

Like here's $10,000. That's how you fucking get me to click it If you're watching this and want $10,000 right now Click this QR code I'll consider it But other than that kiss my grits There's no way in hell However all that being said We're like if there's one Property that I'm gonna

Go out of my way and go the extra mile for to watch the trailer, it's Guardians if it's not an Avengers movie. So my ass was there. Your ass was there. And I'm sure most of the people listening and watching were there, too. So goddamn you, Disney. Like, they know they have us by the balls. And they do. The intro to the trailer features Star-Lord recapping the love story between him and Gamora in about 15 seconds.

It's a quick, we fell in love, then she went away, but then she came back and now she's a dick. And the rat catcher from the Suicide Squad is actually that alien-looking girl on the elevator with them during this. Nebula right away reaffirms that she's like, yep, that's kind of what happened. Great song choice, Since You've Been Gone by Rainbow. It was a song originally written by a guitarist named russ ballard it's covered by rainbow that's the one that's featured in the trailer here i love that they didn't go with the space hog the second time in a row that they changed it up and went with a song that i didn't know before i agree as well i was kind of almost i don't know why i was expecting space hog i'd rather have no music than space hog again.

I love space hog. I can listen in the meantime, nonstop takes you right back to like 1997 or whatever it came out. I actually have, I have another take that's a little off the beaten path here. I'm just going to make it. Cause if I write it, if I put it in written form,

it could probably get just skewered, especially on Twitter. Oh, I want to take back the rainbow. What do you mean? Take back the rainbow. Twitter. I want to take back the rainbow. What do you mean, take back the rainbow? I don't want to take back the rainbow. From LGBTQ? I don't want to take back the rainbow.

I want to be included in the rainbow. Can I be included in the rainbow? I love fucking rainbows. And I want to wear a shirt with a nice rainbow on it. But I feel like I'm making a statement. And I support. I am an ally. You're an ally.

I'm an ally. And you could wear the rainbow. I can wear the rainbow? Okay, fine. I'm going to wear the rainbow. Allies are included. I've been looking at rainbow shirts a lot lately. You know, it has the little rainbow.

It's like where the polo horse usually is on shirts. And I'm like, I fucking love that. I was on the subway yesterday. I had a couple of nice rainbows in a net. Like, rainbows are just a beautiful thing. But see, if I tweeted that, Bob. You cannot put that take out was on the subway yesterday. I had a couple of nice rainbows in a net. Like rainbows are just a beautiful thing. But see, if I tweeted that, Bob. You cannot put that take out there on Twitter. Yes.

Especially on a podcast. We're all joking around. Safe space here. You know, basement chilling. Can't put that in writing. You see, like, I have like the barstool hat as like my avatar. And they're going to be like, there goes barstool again. I love Pat. I love Joey. Joey is like the funniest fucking person we have here. avatar and they're gonna be like there goes barstool again i love uh i love pat i love joey

there joey is like the funniest fucking person we have here um but it's like i just wanted to say when you said rainbow it popped in my head i used to have rainbow sandals i like to have a little rainbow on there uh but yeah yeah you could yeah you could still you could still have it yeah you're now we got to see our boy star lord he was He was down. He was down bad. When you have the liquor bottle on the bar and it still has the little thing in it, like the pour of the shots, that's how you know our boy is going through some fucking shit. And I appreciated that they dove into the Gamora aspect of it because it has to be weird when you're with your girl and it's not your girl, though. It's kind of when your girl like you said was a dick and there it sucks man it just it didn't hit me as much in infinity war or even endgame just how much it sucks not having this the old gamora back because she was so like just seeing her change was

so awesome i thought in the in the second guardians movie which is like one of my is my probably my favorite non Avengers Marvel movie. And now she's just gone forever. But I guess if we get this kind of bickering and stuff like that, I guess that makes it all right. And I don't I don't know how much we saw this in the first trailer, but the high what's high evolutionary high evolutionary. I never realized like he it's like he is like a basically the face is torn off and then

it's being held onto his his face I never noticed that Clipped on stretched you see His skin is kind of stretched messed Up looking and I made a note are we Sleeping on the high evolutionary Because we've been talking about Kang Kang Kang Kang Kang and he's worthy of it Right but we haven't really been talking

Much about the high evolutionary and from The looks of this trailer he's going to be Shown experimenting Even torturing baby rocket who has the sweetest eyes i've ever seen oh that's as evil as it gets so i think we might be sleeping on this guy he is so goddamn sweet those little eyes now and i'm worried i mean i think we're all worried about our boy rocket right now there's you know super worried i'm scared to look at all the the trailers where they are the youtube videos where they break down the trailer because i feel like at this point they might as well just just show rocket's death just show it in the teaser get my like emotions out i could i could bury him then and then i could

go and watch the movie and probably have fun with my jane gunn jokes and his great songs and all that kind of stuff but yeah i i don't like it we might be sleeping on the high evolutionary a little bit because he does doesn't he have some sort of uh he has like an alliance or he has some tie backs to mr sinister right i think he does and he has and mr sinister is one bad dude as an x-men guy so So we have, it's almost like everyone's already just giving Patrick Mahomes their MVP votes, and it's like, well, not so fast, my friend. Like, there's this other guy over here, Jalen Hurts, who's pretty fucking good too.

And I feel like High Evolutionary may be the Jalen Hurts to Kang's Patrick Mahomes. So you're, well, you'll have to listen to our Quantumania review to know how we feel about that. But as of now The thing is So I guess I was going to say the Guardians It feels like their Villains are a little detached sometimes From the rest of the MCU but

Considering like Ronan I thought he stunk I hated Ronan that's one of my biggest reasons I like two more than one And Ego was awesome and I just hated How they killed him even though I feel like He's almost too powerful To just maybe Vader spin out right

He is a planet But we did have Thanos who was always a part of the Guardians And is technically still kind of part of the Guardians universe Just because his two daughters are there So I guess high evolutionary Could stay still No matter what happens in this movie Keep the high evolutionary around

Stop killing our villains Also No matter what happens in this movie, keep the high evolutionary around. Stop killing our villains. Hashtag stop killing our villains. Also, I know we're talking about Rocket being dead, but Drax is more dead than a dead guy's ever been before a movie came out. I need Batista just to say, like, yeah, they killed Drax. I mean, there's that shot of him with, like, a blaster bolt in his chest. I'm like, are we watching him dead right here almost like and he's dead batista's at the point where he wants to be an actor wants to be taken seriously and i'm happy for him at this point like just start don't spoil the whole movie

just tell me you're dead too so i can bury drax it's not what what's gonna what would hurt more a drax death or a rocket death for you? Rocket rocket rocket looks more like a dog. You know, that's, that's easy for me. That's a fair point. What about where's group fit on there? Considering group already died once. Group might be third because I know we could replant group and I know it's a different group, but like it's similar, you know? And is this wrong? Groot has now made it to a different Groot but like it's similar you know and is this wrong

Groot has now made it to the age where he's not cute anymore he's kind of stumpy right he's he's a very weird shape right now and I like the design but he's not cute yes and I will be like well that is cute baby Groot grown up and that's that would make me sad

if he died but there is like you said there is like we know as long as there's a splinter of group found somewhere we could just replant him throw some jackson five on he's gonna be all right when all said and done so i'm with you rocket tracks group i guess star lord would be like that would be like fuck that'd be we it would suck as a character that as a character that we would do right. And then I guess Gamora Nebula. They both died. They both died in each of the Avengers.

And, you know, Gamora dies in Infinity War. Nebula, the old Nebula bitch Nebula dies in Endgame. Mantis, I don't know. I don't know. Where does Mantis fit in there for you? After Holiday Special, she she definitely gets more points for me. Yeah. And yeah, I don't know. I don't know where does Mantis fit in there for you. After Holiday Special, she definitely gets more points for me. Yeah, and she feels like the sweetest of these six fucking dickheads. She's like the most pure, for sure. Yeah, so if she died, I'd be like,

maybe, okay, I'm going to call my shot now, which, as you guys know, my shots are not very good. I don't have a very good shooting percentage. I'm J.R. Smith, though. I keep shooting. I don't care. What is the Dion Waiters had a line like, if I'm going to miss one, it's better to go, like, 0 for 100 than, like, 0 for 6

because that means you kept believing in yourself. Drax is going to die, and it's going to be protecting Mantis. It'll, like, he'll sacrifice himself for Mantis because they've had that very unique relationship this whole time. So I'm calling that one I just thought of on the fly right now and as someone that has her higher on my list and tracks i'm gonna be happy she did that nice i i like that prediction um rocket seemingly has a love interest in this one it is an otter named lila in the comics she is the heiress to the largest toy making empire on half world that's what i read

about her huh that's the place where like the animal people are living right yep i i always love like the heiress or these random like my buddy my buddy on spring break he was telling people that he was the heir to or his dad invented donkey kong or something and that was the story he was like going up to girls and hitting on girls with or something like that i could never just be like a straight like liar i wonder if she's fibbing here i'd also appreciate that it's an otter i wonder if we're gonna get like keep the wrong animal name shtick going here where they call yeah fever or um what's another a A marmot, something like that. A woodchuck.

Something like that. I will say this too. Otters, everyone check out the Norwalk Aquarium. I believe they have some otters there. Fascinating to watch them. Just mesmerizing. I could watch them for hours there. I'm going to take my kids there next week. I have the kids for the whole week by my goddamn self

because my wife doesn't get off work that week and we're going to go to the aquarium. We're to watch some water swim it's going to be delightful time you're more than welcome to join if you'd like all right if i'm around yeah bob uh there's that shot of peter reacting to something where he's screaming he's looking down at something not good whatever he's reacting to is not good but that two second clip is already one of the best performances i've seen all year unreal Unrailed by Chris Pratt. And then at the end, there's a little tease of a Peter Quill Nebula connection,

where they're like, sounds like Nebula. No, we would never, no, but that was very funny. Like, he always said it was Sam and Diane, or him and Gamora, maybe him and Gamora, or Sam and Diane, so maybe him and Nebula, or Sam and Kirstie Alley, which I know this goes over the head of a lot of the youngs on the podcast, my co-host. But for the people that watch Cheers, Cheers is such a good fucking show. Oh, Cheers.

That's a popular show. People will understand that little, little throwback to the Guardians there. So I loved I don't know. I got a kick out of that too. And especially because I'm in love with the actress who is the redhead in Jumanji. Yeah, Karen Gillan. Yeah, yeah. I think she's Scottish or something like that.

Oh, yeah. I think she does have an accent. Maybe Australian. I don't know what she is. She's got an accent, though. She shaved her head for the movie, famously. She shaved her head and they were like whoa Ride or die

I've really grown to enjoy Nebula I like And as much as I'm sad We lost the New Gamora Everything's changed I'm happy we don't have the old cranky Nebula She'd like turn on you

She was like this one this nebula is is a lot better she still is much worse she's colder in her soul than any gamora ever has been but i can live with this nebula being around or else i'd be like get the fuck out of here the line where she keeps eating the root and it's it's not uh it's not it's too raw or whatever still like an all-time thing just makes me laugh every time I watch Guardians 2. It's amazing how much that paper football scene did for Nebula in my eyes. With Dear Mr. Fantasy playing in the background, playing with Tony Stark. Like, that one scene, I was like, all right, Nebula.

I could fuck with her. I like her. Dude, I couldn't get Dear Mr. Fantasy. I had that as a dozen question. I couldn't remember the name of it. It devastated me. Devastated. That's bad.

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The stuff's amazing. I promise. Our boy, Tony Stark would have been in a much better place with Nebula. If he had his factor, he just wasn't thinking. So don't get caught in the middle of space without factors. So your factor now robbie 50 robbie i.e we don't mess with those by people we just don't do it we don't mess with the wise what we do mess with is the last of us

the last of us is the best show on tv and it continues to break our hearts every single week we got one week off we got a bye week last week where they said all right we're not gonna kill anyone you fell in love with this week right i mean clem you lost out on your car you really loved that pickup truck i know i did but this week they fucking doubled up on us robert matthew fox what did i ever do to you what did i ever do to you to deserve having to watch this show? You made me watch it. You forced me to watch it.

And listen, part of it was I'm a baby and I don't like scary things. So you knew that going in, but then you, I know you didn't get too far in the game, but you had to have an idea about some of the stuff that happens. It just kind of like make me just get my heart ripped out every week. And then they put it back in my chest. They grow a new heart in me. And then they rip it out every single week this is like the third fucking dead

kid i've had to watch die on my screen what have i ever done to you i always thought we had a good relationship is this like is there like another text chain with people from work i'm like i'm just fucking with clem i'm ripping his heart out i'm gonna see like are you looking to see what i'm gonna break or something because i I just don't get it. No, I'm not. But I understand. It's like Indiana Jones in the temple of doom,

Kali Ma, the heart right out your chest. That's what the last of us does each and every week. By the time the credits are rolling, you're just feeling like defeated and down and empty inside. And like the world is coming to an end. Like you're in this apocalypse, Sam and Henry spoiler alert, pour one out for these two what phenomenal performances by these kids we talk

about it all the time i mean henry was a little older i don't know if he's a kid but child performances are very hit and miss in movies television all media like that sometimes the kids are a little annoying sometimes they're written poorly sometimes just the delivery isn't isn't on par with the rest of the adults or whatever sam was incredible a real deaf actor who was in the post thing yep he was talking about actually how great it was that there was like representation for deaf actors and that deaf actors were able to play deaf characters and he wasn't deaf in the video game this was another change that the show made and it worked so

fucking well by the end with that little notepad that he was using to write on everything the meaningfulness of that notepad by the end like holy shit what what a call, what a change, what a detour to make from the game. Whoever made that call in the writer's room, give them a bonus this week. Yeah, if they can fix, if they can make it better than the game, they're going to do it, right? And like that would be hard to do in a game where you're dealing with a deaf character,

a lot of writing and stuff like that. I can understand why it would be hard for a game to do that. They crushed it. It made the character nuanced it had that special bond between the brothers and then as she's learned as ellie's learning it with him um and then it just you know you're falling in love with the goddamn kid and they're just building you up i should have fucking known i mean it's crazy to think they ended the previous episode with the fucking guns pointed at, you know, Ellie and what's his name? Joel. Joel.

And then they're dead. It would buy guns, you know? Yeah. Like the same gun. The same fucking gun, man. That is some some dirty ass shit. That is some dirty stuff. But it's and like you said, the this this is like the part of the second or third big change we've had from the video game.

And it was absolutely perfect. Another one that they knocked out of the park. So the beginning of the episode shows you a little backstory on Sam and Henry. Goes back on them and shows how they found Joel and Ellie. Them overseeing the shooting in the laundromat and everything. Following them. Fleshes out their backstory a bit and has a bit of a life is beautiful element to it where henry is trying to hide the world and the horrors of

the world from sam so him being death actually works to henry's advantage in doing that because the people could be like oh you know get out of here tomorrow like we don't want to be with you and he'll turn to sam and be like oh Oh, they said they're going to save us. Everything's all good, buddy. Like we're, we're going to make it out alive. And we find out Henry ratted out Kathleen's brother,

who sounded like a pretty great guy to get Sam leukemia medicine in this episode. So it really pulls on all sides of you. Like, Oh my God, he ratted someone out to fedra like what a horrible guy and it's like to get his little brother leukemia medicine and you're like oh my god he had to do it they took the like gray angle where it's like not the world isn't black and white it's gray and they beat the fucking shit out of us 50 shades of gray yeah it's like

oh you had to get your little brother leukemia medicine during a fucking worldwide apocalypse scenario and you had to rat out like the greatest man i don't know her brother i've never had the pleasure of meeting him i loved him and i've not i've only heard his name and a couple of very brief stories about him that guy was basically jesus christ from what i can understand he was the absolute the goat as the kids say um and now it kind of makes sense why katherine is the meanest motherfucker on the planet she is kathleen kathleen is the meanest lady in the goddamn world she's so mean she's so mean bob she's so mean she orders like that room to get executed she's like burn the bodies it'll be faster and oh my god there's a lot of fedra in that right where fedra's just

burning the bodies without thinking joel kind of just throws the kid down and again anytime i reference stuff i've seen a video it's always my guy heavy spoilers because he is like my bible to all this stuff and he kind of made the the comparison about the two um and it is kind of like you see the two sides of love where it's she you know the reason henry and the reason joe with his daughter and now kind of with ellie like you just love these kids you want them to do well but then you kind of see the bad side of it where kathleen loved her brother so much as she's kind of gone like rogue and fucking pure evil uh also i gotta shout out that like it's kind of a flashback scene.

It's a very, it's not a huge jump, but showing actually, no, it's not even a flashback showing when they defeated Fedra in Kansas city. Oh yeah. Dude, that was like the red wedding. Like, did you get red wedding vibes at that? Yeah. They're going nuts. They're dragging bodies, bodies through the street with all the knives in the body.

One with like the 10 stab wounds in there that was that was fucking crazy there's just people begging for their lives again their asses kicked they're getting shot at point blank range like it was it was like a red hue almost you know what i mean so it was it was wild all the fire everywhere and everything like that yeah it's like a crazy visual i had yeah i had a big time red wedding fives but then also finding out that our boy henry was deaf kind of was a tough look for our guy uh joel right like a deaf kid is healthy and they can't find the deaf kid you figure at some point he's gonna make a noise or do something um but also shout out to uh i again what's the older brother's name sam no sam is he was hen No, Sam is the- He was Henry.

Henry is the older one. Sam is the deaf one. Yeah. Sam. A lot of new names every week. We can't stick with a single character two weeks in a row. Yeah, because if I fall in love with them, I'd know their name, and then they're just going to be dead and out of my mind.

By the time you like them, boom. Yep. Just like that. Making the kids Super Sam was such a smart thing to do, and he kind of put the orange paint on his face. That was awesome. And like you said, where he's lying, like lying to kids is the best because they believe everything, especially if they can't hear a goddamn thing.

Like AJ is too smart for his own good. He'll always try to pick apart. He can kind of sense a lie. But being able to kind of do that with Sam and Henry was awesome. And I feel like when he threw the paint on him that was almost like giving frankenstein from big daddy his glasses where he was gonna make that reference i swear to god i turned to my girlfriend during the episode and i said this just like frankenstein big daddy one of my favorite movies i swear i was gonna make

that reference i'm so glad we were on the same page that's that's the basement boys for you henry tells joel and ellie he can get them of the city, kind of points to it from a high rise, and says that he just needs their help because the tunnels that they need to go through to get onto the sewers or whatever might have a bunch of infected in them. Which is like, oh, God, we're going down to the fucking tunnels with flashlights now. I was very worried about this, but no infected really down there. They find a classroom shelter set up and they talk about how people went underground as soon as the outbreak happened. Some of them actually survived a little bit. And this is where they talk about how Henry hasn't really killed anyone, but he got somebody killed. So he feels that moral dilemma. And Kathleen is shown in her childhood bedroom.

She says that, you know, her last time seeing her brother, she said, he said to her, make sure you forgive like you have to forgive. And she's like, I can't forgive. Pretty fucking crazy, like cold line, even though she's burning bodies. She's a cold woman. The bitch is a cold ass mean bitch. She is. But at the same point, you kind of understand it which i always i mean when they called it kill a city i was like that's pretty dope and i if i live in kill a city i'm sure a lot of i'm sure i would become a very

cold person inside as well so i i really didn't have a problem with that and i did admit it i wrote it down in my notes here when they went in the tunnels i lowered the volume i did not mute it but i lowered it and i did not mute it but i lowered it and i your baby status class yes i was relying on the closed captioning for most of the stuff that happened i fully admit that but i mean come on man we're going down to fucking tunnels down there and they're telling you how there's no infected so i'm like oh there's gonna be a ton of infected but like you said so far so good on all that kind of stuff. And they did say he mentions like he calls them by clickers. Right.

And I just love the way that that Henry and Joel were kind of feeling each other out where it's like, oh, you've got a clicker. You're good. Or or oh, like he lays out his whole plan and he kind of knows what he's talking about. I kind of like that dynamic of the whole thing and the kid dynamic where they're kind of just you know interacting with each other i don't imagine they come across kids a lot in this fucked up world uh when they're looking at the joke book together and they're laughing at the jokes and i and i i sent you a picture when i was in arizona for the dozen i saw it was called julio's two t-o-o just like the t-o-O pun on the joke book. And I was like, I got to eat here. And I'll tell you, Bob, it was fucking awesome.

Anyone in Scottsdale, go to Julio's too. I was just looking for a quick place, not a sit-down Mexican place. I wanted to get some Mexican food since I'm down south. Not a sit-down place, basically like you order at the counter, you just bring it back. Perfect, perfect spot. I think I had like a 4.7 on Google reviews. So that's, what do you go with?

If Bob Fox isn't for a place to eat, do you go on Google reviews, Yelp, or are you just going blind? I pretty much go on blind to be honest. You go in blind? Yeah. That's a wild man's move. I guess that's why you're the size you are and I'm the size I am.

I'll never go on Yelp. Maybe I'll go on Google. Maybe. I've become a Google guy just because I feel like Yelp. Maybe I'll go on Google. Maybe I've become a Google guy just because I feel like Yelp bombing has become a thing. And I'm sure people Google Bob. The Karens are on Yelp. I feel like, yes, the Karens are on Yelp. Google is a little above their, their, their brain waves capability. But at the same point, usually if I'm looking for a new place, I have to find it. So I'm already on Google maps.

So it's kind of two birds, one stone. I don't have to go. I'm a big review guy in general. Amazon reviews. I always go find it. So I'm already on Google maps. So it's kind of two birds, one stone. I don't have to go off. I'm a big review guy in general, Amazon reviews. I always go based on, I should be, but I'm not. You should like,

if something is three stars, that doesn't bother you. You're just like, all right, I'll figure it out when I get it. Clem. I don't even see that. It's three stars.

I don't scroll down far enough. It's the top of the, Oh my God. You're just, you're star blind. You're star. This is why our blind lady fox had to get you a microphone because you were probably buying microphones that were one

stars i did buy a microphone that i used for one episode and everyone said it was even worse than the one that i had before so i went back to the bad one now i'm with the good one we're learning a lot about bob fox on this episode on this episode everybody right now i have a plug-in on amazon that even tells you if the reviews are legit because the thing is a lot of people have found ways to like, it's like Chinese bots or they'll have some way to game the system.

And this thing will tell you if it's like these reviews are a little sus and they'll tell you, like they'll give you a review of the reviews, five-star reviews, but it's an F because you, sometimes I was looking up a couch the other day, Bob, and halfway through the reviews, they started talking about a coffee table. And I think they changed the item from a cow coffee table to a couch. There is some F did. Yes. There's some

shady shit. They controlled that the fuck out of it. So you're, you're a fucking review detective. We knew who done it. Detective crime series about you, you you know scoping out fake reviews yes i would say at barstool i am a top three informed consumer here top oh wow i'd say what is it what a stat to give yourself that's you know don't get too egotistical on the podcast now look around bob look around in your mind's eye at the people who work at barstool i'm thinking i'm thinking i'm not too worried about no it's you yeah so jeff d is up there right you figure jeff d love but he also will buy these fucking lunch boxes beans in his shower so it's like i don't even know beans in his shower he does the man has beans in his shower and i'm like like and we're at the point now where i feel like half the guys here are going to – like Portnoy, he couldn't give a fuck about reviews anymore.

He's just going to – he just spent money. I have a father. Lessons for a pillow, and then he's very interested in pillows. That's true. If he's looking for something – and a pillow, I think, is like, again, the most important thing you can basically get in your life. So a little tangent there. A little tangent. Do you think Smitty puts in as much work on his Amazon reviews?

Yeah, exactly. I don't even want to disrespect Smitty. We shouldn't even brought him up, but no, obviously not. No, come on. So they make it out on the other side. They wait till nightfall to make sure it's dark. And when they make it out, it seems like it's safe for a second until a sniper starts shooting at them. So they take cover.

Joel goes around, takes out the sniper. He doesn't want to, he's like, come on, man. Like, just put the gun down.

Like, don't make me do this. You just stay in the house. We hear the gunshot and he called it in. So they're basically caught the whole fucking rebellion comes in for them. And it looks like they're cornered. It's like,

how are they going to make it out of this one until one of those trucks falls into the ground, like a sinkhole falls down, burning house and everything. And then a horde of clickers infected all the different variations of those zombies come up led by a big, what it's called a bloater um i called this a big fat clicker and people on tiktok were like pissed at me they were like learn the phrases learn the

terminology it's a bloater the bloater comes up and it is all out chaos there's hiding in cars we see a kid clicker like climbing into the car jo Joel's trying to snipe from above. It is all out war between the rebellion, the clickers, and then our kids trying to make it out. Basically, eventually the kid clicker kills Kathleen. And it is so satisfying to see. Like I said, it was almost like Chucky, like jumping on her. It's just a little crazy maniac thing. And they make it out it seems like they all made it out safe until sam starts asking ellie if she's ever afraid you ever get scared and she jokes with

him first oh yeah scorpion scared me and then she realizes he's serious he's trying to have a have a heart-to-heart here and he shows her a bite on it on his leg or his arm i think it was his leg and she's like oh no she panics cuts her hand and she's like my blood is medicine like you'll be okay my blood is medicine the next morning she wakes up he's facing the window and you see where it's going immediately it's just like oh no she's like sam sam full-on infected jumps infected, jumps on her, jumps on Joel. Henry sees it. Henry doesn't know what to do. Henry shoots Sam, realizes what he just did, and then shoots himself.

It is so sad, so shocking, so tragic. And the episode ends with them burying the bodies and Ellie leaving that little notepad on Sam's grave. And it says, I'm sorry. And heavy spoilers said in his video, total survivor skill, total. That could have been me. And I have this, you know, special gene that makes me not infected. And this kid, why couldn't he have that? So, so, so somber, so melancholy, so sad.

So I'm not going to talk about the motel scene right now because i'm still not ready even though i knew that was basically the uh end of this podcast right there i'm just i'm still not ready to talk about it um even though like cue the the portnoy sound like oh what an idiot what a fucking idiot ellie your blood it ain't that yeah not like that come on idiot um and then to go to sleep next to him like holy fuck i mean you're real confident in your immunity uh snipers are awesome like so in everything i love in video games being the sniper uh i hate facing a sniper in video games i in the new call of duty there's a guy sniping at you that's fucking the worst um but you just feel so helpless in this game you know in movies and stuff or when you

have a sniper on your side you're like oh we are ready to rock uh that the dude when i thought it was going to be and that's the thing i appreciate about this show is it's not always like oh the sniper's coming and he has the entire house booby-trapped and whatever. He's just an old dude. It's like he probably might have even heard it. He's just like, fuck it. And at the end, he's like, and Joel was like begging him, please, dude, don't do this. Just give up, surrender, and I'll let you live.

Because at this point, like the living are supposed to be on the same team, right? And he just fucking kills him. By the way, when Henry said Joel had an asshole voice I was like he does have an asshole voice That was a great call The run truck popping up out of nowhere And then like you said it goes down And it's the thing that springs the infected

And even the way Kathleen Gets um Killed by the little girl After she said like it was Your kids fate to, you know, die from leukemia and kids die too. And that's all part of fate.

And then fate being a little kid that got infected, killing her perfect fucking, I don't know. It rhymes. When I love when the villains that you hate or fear become the good guys. And I'm like, I'm rooting for the infected at this point. How fucked up was that?

And then we see that. I put him. I said, that big boy looks like it looked like the current group. As we talked about earlier on this episode, he's like, he was like just a big trunk of a dude. And he's big. And I was lucky. I didn't say anything on Twitter. I didn't want to get yelled at.

I'm happy you took. Listen, last of us fans. Take it fucking easy on us About the we don't know you know the terminology On the infected clear i've been Saying infected all podcast because i feel like That's a safe encompassing Word i have to get that into my

Repertoire because i've always been trying to figure out What to call him because i'm like i don't want to say clickers Because i think they'll be like well that's not a clicker He doesn't click at all he's not infected enough Infected is the word i Because I don't want to say the Z word. You say the Z word around these people. You're some zombies. You're going to get fucking well actually until you're

fucking dead. But that bloater comes out and he rips the dude's head apart. He does the spoiler alert like the fucking Wanda from Professor X. He just rips the dude's fucking head apart. That was metal. Confirmed metal here. So metal. fucking wanda from professor x we just ripped the dude's fucking head apart that was fucking so that was metal confirmed the metal here and metal i loved when he's sniping to keep uh ellie alive

and it's like it's like in a video game level where you have to keep sniping to keep a character alive and again this is more of an older head kind of a thing here but in goldeneye you had to keep natalia alive and that dumb bitch was the fucking biggest lemming in the world just looking to kill herself non-stop and basically like it's the one thing that can get you ready for parenthood because your kids are going to always look to like go near the electrical outlets or go near like climb on the thing that has the tv on it like they're just looking to die so i appreciated having that kind of old school video game vibe. And I mean, I don't know the motel scene.

It fucking sucked. I should have known it was coming. I don't know who I'm going to fall, like fall in love with this coming week. And then who they're going to rip from me, but I'm already fucking pissed about it. I'm already mad about it. I might,

I think I'm going to title a blog. The last of us is the worst show on TV. And then people are going to click it in anger. I'm going to say it's the best show on TV, but it's the fucking worst show on tv because it's so fucking good it's so emotional but like at this point i i think they're good they could do this to me every week i'll keep coming back for more and i don't think they'll i'll ever be at the point where like all right i don't really care like i'm always going to be a hundred percent invested in love and then devastated by the end of every episode hashtag the worst of us that's the hashtag oh nice one so it's so good it makes you feel like you're grieving every week

yeah exactly oh god i i have enough fucking sadness in my life i don't need this kind of actually i was gonna say as a mets fan and giants Giants fan, I made like the Mets get the wild card. Giants made the playoffs manager of the year in both fucking things. I can't complain too much. So I was going to use your sports analogy. I think it's turning around for me, Bob. I can't wait to find out how the last of us is going to rip our guts out this week. I have a different phrase that maybe we could use for the infected, too.

Maybe we could call them fun guys. Fun guys. Come on. And back to your point about how crazy kids are always going for the electrical sockets and everything. I don't know if I ever said this on the podcast, frequent guests of the podcast. My older brother,

Mike Fox as a three-year-old once stuck a key in an electrical socket and got electrocuted. Really? He was watching a big birds's big adventure or something like that and big bird gets put in jail and he was like oh let me go let big bird out of jail took a key right into the electrical socket oh my pretty crazy shit i had i have every electrical socket in this house had the little plastic things in them forever and i every time i see one now i just take it and just chuck it out i'm like thank god i don't have to deal with that kind of shit anymore and it's funny i once had a quick tangent here a friend of mine's daughter

when she was she was the first kid out of our group of friends to have the first baby out of all of us and she's crawling towards the electrical socket and they would say no natalie no and she would just shake her head no as she was crawling at it and they say the no like thing that you do with your head it's from babies that's what they do like they that's how they like communicate no and they just know it's wrong yet they still fucking do it so yeah like this this actually kind of explains a couple things about mike though that i've always thought about a quick jolt of electricity that's like number one you know my number one fear is apparent is the stairs no playing on the stairs it always freaks me out

number two is the electrical fucking alice it always just freaked me the fuck out yeah and now after the last of us number three could be uh the clickers the infected the fun guys or like at this point i look forward to going in dark tunnels where there's potentially a ton of infected fucking monsters because it's not as bad as losing all the loves of my life through like the most devastating, sometimes beautiful love stories you'll ever see. And then just like, God damn you, The Last of Us, The Worst of Us. Well, there you go. There's the hashtag for this week. Hashtag The Worst of Us. Again, if you're listening on the podcast feed, stay tuned for an interview with Cody Rhodes.

And if you're watching on YouTube, go check that out on our YouTube channel. Next, it was a 50-minute chat, just like old times with Cody. That was so awesome. We talked about Dusty Rhodes. We talked about WrestleMania, Roman Reigns, wrestler etiquette, all of that and more. Hashtag the worst of us. If you've made it to the end of the episode, make sure to like, and subscribe. As we told you at the beginning, we remembered

at the beginning this time, and we will see you on Thursday for our Ant-Man and the Wasp quantumania review and breakdown. It's kind, it's kind, it's kind. All right. Welcome back to my mom's basement is is robbie fox and i am here with cody roads for what is i think surprisingly the first in-person interview we've ever done can you believe that yeah we've done uh we've only done zoom phoners yeah phoners is this a camera it is right there yeah how do you think my posture looks like i'm sitting right now you know i actually just re-listened to our last interview to make sure I didn't repeat any questions. You mentioned that posture was a big thing, so I felt actually a little nervous.

Like, I better make sure my posture's good for Cody. Posture? Because it usually isn't. Posture's how I get on at the Nightmare Factory. I tell them on the first day, I'm like, hey, posture's a big deal to me. And then after, like, four weeks of that beginner's camp, you'll see them start to slip. And, man, I'm not a great coach. Instead of being like, hey, I just let it happen.

How did you not? You heard me, right? I know you heard me. But, again, some of these kids work like two jobs. You've seen a wrestling school. I try to make it a fun, happy experience. You having had gone to what I'd say is one of the top two wrestling schools there are um so you got you got a good experience yeah create a pro i am create a pro create a pro

yeah um max is that tattoo i uh what the hell were we talking about posture oh they're doing this documentary on me i don't think it's a spoiler. They've been doing it since I came back at WrestleMania. I just watched one of the interviews with me where I'm slouching. I can't have that. You're like, I've got to redo it. I can't have that. I can't have that be seen. I'm just slouching. Peak injury, so I've got two chins.

I need to redo it. Well, I want to talk about all of that, but we're here to talk about a different documentary today, actually. The return of wwe legends the biography series on a and e oh yeah season three they're going to be covering dusty roads your father and i wanted to ask are you very hands-on with this documentary with this whole process maybe a little too hands-on really um the documentary and i believe it airs the sunday on you know that superstar sunday with a and e i think it airs the Sunday on, you know, that Superstar Sunday with A&E.

I think it airs the week before WrestleMania. Actually, pretty positive. It is incredible. And I didn't fully, I don't want to say I disagreed. I had some trouble with the story that the director, the showrunner of this documentary, I had some trouble with how he was telling it. And that's why I say Mabos is a little too hands-on, because it's my dad. And people always want to talk to me objectively

about wrestling Dusty objectively, and you know this about me. He's my dad. I don't want to have those objective conversations. In this case, I needed to. I'm the executive producer. The story has to be told correctly, but also this is who we've entrusted to tell the vision.

Upon seeing the first cut, he told the right story. He tells the story of Dusty Rhodes through the eyes of his four kids, and not the first two, but also the last two, me and Teal, and that really rounds it out as far as who he was, and there are some secrets in here that aren't secrets to, I guess, Wrestling Insiders. But I'm real excited for A&E, casual watchers who just catch these things to see how special he was, not just while he was doing and being the American Dream, but in that last chapter of his life, kind of the winter of his life with NXT.

I mean, now it's all out there because I was just talking about it with Mr. Heyman last week in the ring and what he was able to do. He built all these great stars that are still rocking and kicking butt on Raw and SmackDown. So I'm very, very, very excited that he gets to be covered, and he is covered very fairly. It's not glossed over, but some of his contributions that have been revised or taken away, he gets his full due.

So I feel like people may not know how important that was to me to be on this and be the executive producer. And it was, I think maybe Meltzer pointed it out. That's got to be a big reason why he came back to is the protection of the legacy. It absolutely was, you know, all the merch,

all the, everything. Hey, you know, especially having a kid now, you know, to protect her and to protect my dad. It just,

it was a big part of coming back. I'm very proud of it. I think Rob is his name who did the documentary. I'm very proud of it. I think Rob is his name who did the documentary. I'm very proud of everybody on it. Some great stories. I think it'll be different than any of the others. And that was what makes them all good. The medley, you've got Iron Sheik, you've got this just a while. The NWO. The NWO. China too, correct? Jake the Snake. Jake, you know, just you're going to be getting some vastly different stories. And kudos to Annie for that. What was to you the most important thing about your father that you wanted to get across in your early conversations with the filmmakers?

The biggest thing for me was he had a he was very instrumental in pay-per-view. And right now, Don King and Vince get the most credit for the advent of pay-per-view and how big it was. And I felt like Dusty didn't really receive his due as far as closed circuit, then becoming pay-per-view the big event, um, and his own version of expansion. That was important to me. And then the other thing that was really important to me was the stories that Hogan had told about wanting to be Dusty and the story that Dusty had told me that as a kid I didn't believe

about how originally he was pinned to be the expansion guy and I remember hearing the story from Vince directly and thinking oh my gosh like gosh, like Big Fish, the movie, these stories were real. And then to hear Bruce Prichard's take, Bruce Prichard's amazing. He can make anything entertaining, but when it's real, he can really make it special. And he's just a great individual telling that story of what might have been had Dusty stayed in WWWF, what might have been had Dusty stayed in WWWF what might have been and it really as I don't believe in destiny or fate I'm not a very a spiritual person I'm not not either um but uh it's wild considering where we're going to be a week later Wrestlemania uh headlined by a member of the Rhodes family, also headlined by a member of the Flair family.

It's really a wild timeline we're living in. And, man, it makes me think about you because we don't talk that often, but I will always be proud of him because you, man, like, we were sitting there, was it after that Evolve show? No, or house of glory, or was it evolve? Or we did evolve shows. We did some pro wrestling, magic, magic, magic, pro shows, pro of course. We were sitting there, man. And it's just like two,

two people who had an idea what they wanted or how they wanted, but didn't know the steps. and it's just wild to see like what you've done and and i i know everyone around you's very proud of you but just wild uh to think of what you've done and what you'll continue to do um i love that about our business and i think that's something because i mean you're in our business in your own way and you're also in your own business but i think that's something I love about the critics of, uh, what I do is, Oh, how can that guy be there? He was stardust or, uh, you know, the what's special about him.

The only thing he says is his dad's dusty roads, blah, blah, blah. Like there's just people that don't understand. It's not where you start in terms of how you finish. Uh, so it's been a career just uh well lived for me and watching you has been great well i really appreciate you saying that and on the flip side like it's crazy thinking about remember we were eating at a jamaican place yeah i was just thinking about the jamaican place yeah and it was just the only spot we could find that was open after that evolved show and just like having those conversations about where you saw cody rhodes in the wrestling business yeah and the fact that

you you've done it all in just the span of a few years it's crazy to see on the flip side like i'm just as proud and happy for you as well it's crazy we did it we did it well you're you're close you're close we're close you gotta finish the story as you're saying absolutely finish the story but we're it's just you know it's just surreal but then again if you think about us talking then it's not because everybody was so driven by something so driven to what's the next now if you ask me then and there at this jamaican place we went to that i remember being all right, actually. It was pretty good, yeah. If you asked me what's next, I wouldn't have known. But it just looks like this was this master plan.

It wasn't. But very lucky. Yeah, it wasn't like you were sitting there saying, I'm going to main event WrestleMania in a few years. But it was just more of an overall where you saw where you could be. Yeah, and those were really, named the the promotions we were at those were just really fun experiences i think at that point in my life i needed fun out of what we do more fun and we were able to have some fun and that was a time when right now because there's you know aw existing and new japan and everything that's happening right now I feel like the independent

scene I'd love to see more of a spotlight on the actual independent scene not that there's not you know GCW's doing its thing not that there's not but just because there was at that period it was like all eyes were on these different independents what's Chris Hero doing what's Zack Sabre Jr. doing what's Cody doing and and then on the west coast what's pentagon doing just they were like all eyes on these events and i'd like to see more of that because it just made for good houses and good experiences yeah i'd love to see that as well now on raw you thanked paul hayman for your father's experiences in ecw for giving him his confidence back and And I just listened to your interview with Corey Graves on After the Bell. And what really struck me is you talking about feeling dead inside at your lowest is stardust and throw in the you who bottle at the at the rock.

Right at his face. Did you ever feel like you lost your confidence at that point? Do you find any similarities between the two experiences or do you think they're very separate no i mean they're i don't think i've framed it up in my mind that way but that's what it i had never been broken right i had never been broken until stardust i tell people stardust is like facebook it's complicated essentially like that relationship status there were things that I loved about it but it was moving me further away from being able to even say hey I want to main event Wrestlemania hey I want to be WWE champion those were my goals when I started and to you know when you change your goals something's off when you change your main life goals listen if you got your one-year plan

your three-year plan your five-year plan that your three-year plan, your five-year plan, that's one thing. But your big plan, you don't ever want to change your big plan. And that was making me think about changing my big plan. And it is the only time. I remember WWE had a college program. You could go back to college and they still have it. And they'd pay for it. I remember I thought about taking some online courses to get a, you know, a small degree so that I could be an amateur wrestling coach at my high school. And I remember

talking to my wife about that. And there's nothing shameful about me saying that. But as I'm saying, it's like, ugh, ugh, not that I don't love amateur wrestling. Not that I don't want it. That's a great, great gig. But just it means I had given up. And I'm really glad I'm really glad I didn't go to college. I'm really glad I was able to move past that. Yeah, that's that's crazy. Like, did you feel like you had to get your confidence back at some point? Did you get it back through doing the independence and becoming that independent star that was a showcase event at every card you were on i think i got it back in the matches so yes on the independence there were two areas where i felt like my just soul filled up was that those meet and greets because part of independent wrestling is the meet and greet yeah the merch table it's almost bigger than the match and i thought if i can do both if i can have this line out the door connect with all these people but then have this really wild non-tv style non-traditional style match where i just do things that i normally wouldn't where i say yeah okay sure you know

like where i'm not a know-it-all where not, you know, I'm only taking one bump, whatever. Like I really wanted to go for it. I remember I broke up. I did a table bump through a plastic table once and it still broke. Um, and it just everything, you know, somewhat indulgent sometimes, but I needed to indulge. Uh, that's where I really felt like I got my confidence back and I think it's one of those reasons it's like an online meme now I'm always crying I'm always emotional but if you were at any of those independent shows and you heard me get on the mic after you saw the same thing I was I needed it like you know I really did in the independent wrestling scene I was thinking about this I talked to Peter Rosenberg about this.

I was thinking about making a weight belt for Mania with every independent wrestling promotion that I visited written on it in text. And then Cardona brought up, well, you can't make a toy out of that. I thought, yep, that's true. But I still want to do it. Because I really thank them. You know, they all paid me really well. Yeah, but I can't thank them enough for that. Because I've got to meet a bunch of the guys that are on WWE now.

Like, when I look at NXT or when I look at... There's all these points of connection now that we have. And I feel like I've wrestled everybody, really. There's still plenty to wrestle as far as at WWE, specifically some guys I really want to get in there with. But gosh, it was the matches and the meet and greets. To test myself in the matches beyond what I had been tested as. Because here's like this tricky thing, and you've seen this.

When you come into these shows, you are giving the rub to the promotion as the WWE, as the TV wrestler. However, you're getting a rub that you need to be cognizant you're getting of the underground. You've got to recognize they've got their own in-house stuff here.

They've got people they love. You're getting their rub as well. And if you don't recognize that, you end up in a situation where you don't know what the mission is anymore. And I recognized it. I recognized, I wrestled AR Fox. I recognized that I'm getting something back.

Yeah, I'm giving something here. I'm getting something back. JT Dunn, I'm giving something here, but I'm getting something back. Dijak, i'm giving something here but i'm i'm getting something back die jack same thing all the new shows my gosh if it had one that would be bigger on the weight belt than any would be northeast wrestling um just because mike just put me to work and now i'm putting mike to work because he's gonna probably be in charge of my dad's foundation so Oh, nice. Ha-ha. Now I'm in charge, Mike. But, yeah, that's a great relationship.

But, yeah, I thought about this weight belt. Toy aside, I think I'm going to do it and maybe make a game day decision out of it. Were the toy foam weight belts for the kids, was that your idea? My – I don't think I had many demands. It was almost like a demand demand and the guy who carried it through was bruce pritchard i said these weight belts that come at the shows and now they sell the both they sell the weight belt and the little kid weight belt they're heavy they have a metal

clip on them yeah and not everyone's working out eight-year-old kids and i don't, like, get an eight-year-old kid in there putting a weight belt on working out. I thought it would be something. And lower price points. Tickets are expensive. Like, don't jack everything up, which WWE doesn't. It was, like, almost a demand. And Bruce just made sure that it happened. He made sure.

And I kid you not, Columbus, Pensacola, I'm so glad to be back on the live events. Road Dogs put me on every live event under the sun to see like three rows deep of just your stuff. If I was younger, I'd get arrogant, I'd get cocky, but at this point in my career, I'm just, how do we, thank you. If it was just this weekend, thank you. Hopefully it's next weekend too but gosh i really like seeing the kids with the little weight belts and also i don't know how to pronounce the name of the plushie it has a japanese first name i think i love them i signed the back of the head oh yeah

i don't know where else to sign yeah it's really as soon as i saw the weight belts i messaged you and i was like that is brilliant reminds me of like the brett hart glasses back in the day yeah i would buy your own pair of the brett hart glasses or something like that and you telling me i think one of the first maybe a month into your wwe return i texted you said how is everything you know how how are you feeling and one of the first things you said was i see kids in the crowd wearing my merch every single night and it's such an amazing feeling. It feels like I'm showing wrestling to the next generation almost. So I can, you know. It's so special.

And we focus so much on the you and me types who know every piece of the story and the rich storytelling and the details. And I appreciate that. And those fans are always there because they're, they're us, we're in, we're always there. But sometimes it's nice to remember it's a little simpler than it has to, you know, like just sometimes it's just meant to be fun. It's just meant to be fun, whatever they're doing, they're booing, they're cheering. It's just meant to be fun.

You don't know what's going on in the family's life that dad might need that rich deep storytelling but that kid might just need to you know the wiggles essentially you know and like if you can be that for them and and and be a you know i think probably the biggest honor you can have as a wrestler even if it's for two minutes if you can be someone's hero for two minutes uh because that's what wrestlers were to me. Shawn Michaels was my hero. Sting was my hero. Dustin was my hero. Triple H was my hero as I got a little old.

I needed all those guys, and I hope I can do that, and I hope I can find others to do that too. What was your experience like returning to the WWE locker room at WrestleMania where, like you said you know all of these guys from either your prior career in WWE or even the independents where you met them and then they got hired by WWE did you feel at all like the new kid in school or did you feel like you were just returning home I felt almost like no one made me feel this way I felt almost like no one made me feel this way. I felt almost like an outsider and to a degree a bit like an enemy

because we had put on such a battle on Wednesday nights and I had done things and said things and there weren't things you can walk back. There are things you live with and there's reasons for them and you stand by them but as much as I might have felt that way I was met with familiar faces like a Kofi Kingston and then I was met with the ultimate individual a Seth Rollins who's carrying Raw and just so good and for him to not look at me as the enemy, but for him to look at me as an asset.

And Seth and I genuinely, if you ask him the same thing, if he was sitting in this chair, he'd tell you he doesn't like me. I don't like Seth. We're not going to get along ever. However, the utmost respect for him. And for him to look at me as an asset made me not worry about what anyone else was thinking uh and in a pretentious way of answering this i don't really have the locker

room experience i should spend more time in the locker room because i have one of these buses yeah so like bus guy now i'm a bus guy so when i walk in there i'm always making sure like hey hey hey hi guys how are you thanks for having me um just because i don't want them to think like this guy in his bus changing suits every two minutes freaking guys carrying this robe for him and uh so i always try to invite people on the bus too i try to lure them on there but you know it's different you're older entering the prime of your career that bus bus is so nice, man. It's just at Barclays, you know, tonight, no buses.

Oh, because it's like you go underground. The Lazy Susan in the underground. That's where the big UFC, the brawl was, right? Yes. So I always remember it as just the Lazy Susan that turned you around like the Batmobile. But I'm going to be back in the locker room tonight. I'm looking forward to it, you know? Looking forward to just locker room so fun you get to know guys and um and i'd like to if i can get help from those who are there who have the help is i need it more than ever now i'm

on the roads of wrestlemania and want to do everything right but also there's tons of young guys that not like teach them or guide them or try to be some mentor to them. But but I have done it so I can always help in that sense or just be a shoulder. You know, like that's really what a locker room is. You know, not to use foul language here, but wrestlers bitch and complain a lot. It's way it's good when you have a good sounding board for. Yeah. You know, because then you get out of your system. All right. Where am I really at?

And it's good. And I want to be there for others because I had great people in the locker room for me. Glenn. Glenn was like the last locker room leader. Edge, still to this day. You can be at the highest of highs in your career, but if you look at Edge,

you have to know he's not going to sweat you. He's main evented WrestleMania. He's done it. And crazy thing, I ask the kids at the Nightmare Factory this all the time, who's your favorite wrestler? You expect to hear Hogan, Flair, Rock. We hear Edge a lot now, and it's just because they grew up with Edge and John.

Yeah. And I love hearing that. I hear Rey a lot too and i'm not i shouldn't be shocked by these statements but you know my my other partners there i was like it's not hogan like no and some of them haven't even seen like rock wrestle they know the rock you know yeah but they haven't seen the ladder match with him and hunter and stuff like that and that just blows my mind but you know we're getting older and you know this business has changed and they like different things nice to hear that do you feel a responsibility at all to be a locker room leader at this point in your career like we've heard the stories of john cena you know sitting in gorilla watching matches start to finish offering advice everything like that do you aspire to be like that type of role for the locker room?

Or now you're a father, you've got stuff to worry about on the side. Do you balance that? How do you balance that? I'll tell you. So you mentioned John. John's the ultimate role model as far as how he conducted himself, whether it was with the media, with the fans, the good fans, the more unruly fans, everything.

I mean, he's the ultimate role model. And before he became a bus guy, I got to drive him around a little bit, and he was just talking, but I was, in my mind, just writing everything down that he was saying. He was really invaluable as a person to be around. I'm so blown away by how he's doing and what he's doing.

But I think if you try to copy what he did, you're not, everyone's got to do it their own way. And I think my style of, if I ever was to be somebody that was a locker room leader, would just be to lead by example. I know because of my time in management and being an executive, as beneficial as that was to me and as educational as it was to me, sometimes it's easier to lead by example, really, versus telling them this is going to work or being so adamant that they need to do this and need to do this because

everybody is different. There is no true formula for success in sports entertainment and in pro wrestling. It's really, you just know it when you hear it, when they're reacting, uh, booze and cheers included in that.

And, uh, I, I think for me, I'll probably do it my way. Uh, if I ever am in that spot. And I kind of am.

Wow. Yeah. But, yeah, I'd like to do it my way. I loved how he did it. Dude was in his jean shorts and his shirt all show. The best thing I get from him that I tell the kids at the factory all the time is don't cover your ears, right? Even if there's like this small little rumble, he would always do something to reward their participation as a crowd. He would really make them interactive without letting them know they were interactive.

And then the roar would be a little louder each time. So the Cena rule, as we call it at the Nightmare Factory factory is if they're doing something you need to do something doesn't mean you gotta take it home or rush it you know but you need to you need to reward their noise um and i think that came from a sense in his time i'm like psychoanalyzing why he thought this way but i think it came from a sense of he was coming on the heels of giants, rock Austin, and probably didn't want to lose any bit of it. Participation any bit. Cause we're going out of these areas where everybody,

you know, Godfather walking through the curtain, not no knock on the Godfather, but the place is coming up. Right. Right. And then they got less and less for, for just the industry as a whole.

So I think he made it clear that whenever you get something, you reward it. And I think that's a good strategy to have now because as healthy as the business is now, and it is the healthiest it's ever been, you still want it to keep moving upwards. And I'm watching the Super Bowl last night and Undertaker's in a Super Bowl commercial. Logan Paul pumping that drink everywhere. Have you tried it? No, I haven't.

You should. It's good? So, I... Listen, my new thing is like trying drinks. I was going to say, you're just a shill for this. Because I saw your interview with him where you were like, listen, I stocked it in the fridge and everything. You're just trying to sell me on it?

But I stocked it in the fridge because he's a wrestler now. Yeah. And I wanted to support him. It's very good. And I'm a Gatorade guy. Yeah, same. And I'm like a Gatorade Zero type guy but Matt the bus driver shout out to Matt, he switched it out

it's the prime blues now so yeah, good for him but I was just liking that I saw that commercial then Patrick Mahomes wearing the championship this morning holding the Lombardi trophy you want more of that, you know. Hardcore fans don't always understand.

I'm a hardcore fan, so I get it why we try to seek out some of those mainstream involvements. But it never hurts. Never hurts. Speaking of feeling rewarded or rewarding the crowd, what at this point in your career in the business makes you feel the most rewarded is it the coaching is it the getting in the ring in front of you know 80 000 at wrestlemania right now it's i really feel the best i've ever felt um body wise and wrestler wrestler wise right now it's it's the matches um because you work for so long and you bank all this equity

what is it worth if you don't get it to the finish line right is it worth all the money you made maybe is it worth the experiences and the travel maybe but to me it's only worth it if you if you develop this trust and bond with the crowd and and just right now that is what I love and look forward the most, and it's also the most challenging as well because I'm always surprised. You know, I'm back by the curtain, and oh, they're going to go nuts when you go out there. Oh, they're going to be really active while you're doing your interview.

I always think like, well, maybe they won't be you know maybe maybe maybe they won't be maybe maybe they'll be at adversarial maybe they'll be maybe they won't be and then to the just the way the wwe audience has been so warm to me like if they're trying to tell me something you know it i've heard it loud and clear, you know. And I just, that's what I get the most of. It's, Nick Jackson and I used to joke, you go out through the curtain and, like, get a big response. He'd be like, man, you, like, are addicted to this. He'd always tell me, you're addicted.

I'm like, yeah, man, I'm addicted. And he was the same way. He's like, oh, you just can't get enough of it. At the end of the night, you know, it it's just a good it's real as a wrestler like there's that's the greatest high on the planet is that um the wwe universe pro wrestling fans that connection between the between you and them and then when it comes to the coaching side last time we talked about you teaching human behavior over fundamentals and all of the etiquette things of backstage and saying yes instead of yeah, having good posture. Oh, gosh.

Stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Is this stuff that you learned along the way or is this stuff that your father or someone taught you, like sat you down before you were in the business? So Dusty didn't pass this to me. This was passed to me in 2007 when i got called up and learned the uh the etiquette you know wrestler etiquette used to be a huge thing and the reason it isn't anymore is because some dummies who shouldn't have been teaching anyone in the first place took it too far wrestling etiquette became bully culture i never used the word bully but that's what it became

uh and gatekeeper culture too like they wouldn't let people in. And, you know, and that's not what it was ever about. So at the monitor. I'm going to duck low or go behind. Just because as great as what we do is, as great as WWE is, it does not exist solely because it's always going to be there. It exists because of the generations prior. So there is no biggest WrestleMania of all time, which we're heading into financially, at least, with Hollywood. And there is none of that had there not been John versus The Rock. There is not John versus The Rock had there not been Rock versus Hogan, had there not been Rock versus Macho, had there not been.

There's none of it. And I look at it that way, that you just have to dote on and respect these guys, even if they don't like it. Even if a dude doesn't want you to put his bag in the car, I'm going to put his bag in the car, even if he's mad because of it. Just because, you know, I saw the guys. I remember one time I came back. I was backstage at an indie show,

and Tony Atlas, of all people, my dad sat down, and my dad was really tired. Tony Atlas came over, and he took the wraps off my dad's knees and, uh, he did it and just real caring way and padded his knees. And there was just, that's what wrestler etiquette is not come down to the bar and I'm going to hit you over the head with his bottle. You know, like not that wrestler etiquette is, is that like, yeah, we go to war out there, but we got to take care of one another and send each other back to our families. And we try to teach that. Also, the reason I teach the human behavior and, you know, we, we give them the challenge for an actor book by Uta Hagen and fine on acting by Howard Fine. The reason we do

all that is because I'm not the best fundamental teacher. So, hey, QT can teach you all these fundamentals, right? You need to know where to post on a body slam. I learned street style, essentially, you know. He's there for that. Coach Luke, we've got Coach Luke there. Coach Luke's there for that. Billy Gunn, they're there for that. But me, I just want to give you the human side of all this

because it's a great business. Don't give anybody any bullets. Don't give them any ammunition. Just understand put some perspective on it as to how lucky we are to be in it again if you had asked me at 26 about wrestlemania i'd talk to you like i was just some braggart i'd feel like i i did i should have been there and yeah i guess that's in there a little bit internally. You don't always change fully. But I tell everyone the same thing when they're like, this is crazy.

Rhodes is main eventing WrestleMania. I tell them all the same thing. I'm very lucky to be in the spot. Lucky and blessed. And that's how I really feel. Do you ever think back to your first WrestleMania? The legacy triple threat at WrestleMania 26? Yeah.

I almost got a tattoo on my hand of the legacy logo. Really? Yes. Like at the time or recently? No, no. Before the match. Oh. I almost got this before the match.

And I want to say, hope I'm giving credit to the right guy, Kofi Kingston was the one who told me absolutely not to do that. Like, yeah, Legacy was cool, and yes, I was excited about having this first real WrestleMania taking the walk, but it's not that place on the card that you need this tattoo. And I thought, okay. I was also, the L and stuff, it was a pretty cool logo, but I didn't get the tattoo. So Kofi was right but gosh i'll never forget it i think it's eight to ten minutes long there's an alabama slam in it is where the super bowl was last night there in glendale that's what made me think of it yeah i i remember thinking what i

liked about it most was it was three wrestlers and pat patterson told me that he's like you guys just came down there all in shape and trunks and boots and three wrestlers so you know as as he was saying as entertainment becomes more and more thing still gotta have your wrestlers and i i was glad to be that i was like oh i'm glad i can be that in this uh in this setting and and gosh it's one of it's one of my favorite uh favorite, favorite moments. Plus to be there. I didn't know how important it was, but to be there at the time for this emergence of good guy, Randy Orton, and all the things he would become to be part of that was,

was, uh, was special. Um, that's a real good mania, mania feeling that we all share. Um, I also really liked those burnt orange trunks yeah i

really liked him i told you that i had white trunks that day i had white trunks with burnt orange logos on them but i had chocolate protein powder in my bag and it spilled it on your wrestlemania gear over it so i had the backup. I wore the backup gear. Always have backup gear. That's a lesson. That's a good plan. That's a big Nightmare Factory lesson. You think your gear is going to look good? Make sure you got a backup set.

I wore backup set at Royal Rumble. Really? Yeah, I didn't want to wear black tights. Oh, you got black tights. I had black tights to go. Sandra did a killer job on this thing. Poor thing. I put her through the ringer at the end.

She put the scales all on the bad arm, you know, where the pe oh yeah but then i was watching all these rumbles i'm like you can't have black tights in the rumble you gotta see the guy with black tights like you need the white tights plus i lost all this i lost like legit no wrestler exaggeration i think i lost four inches off my waist from when i was wrestling with uh seth at hell in the cell Cell. So everything was a little big, you know? But gosh, I was like, well, we've got to do the white. So I just split my gear up, you know? But always have the backup. Do you already know what the WrestleMania gear is going to look like in your head?

I have an idea. I'll show you a picture. Okay. They can't see it, right? No. This will be soon. I mean, everyone's going to be like, oh, my God. How could you not show this? I mean, excuse me, the tights. I can't see it, right? No. This will be soon. I mean, everyone's going to be like, oh, my God. How could you not show this?

The trunks, I don't. I mean, excuse me, the tights, I don't know. But I think we're doing something like this. So it's very what we do, but with the added bigness. Oh, yeah. I like that a lot. Yeah, because this is something. Sandra's great.

Shout out to, if you find a great gear person, it's your life. You know, just amazing. Sandra's great. Shout out to. If you find a great gear person, it's your life. You know, you. Just amazing. Sandra's amazing. I hate when Sandra makes gear for other people. You're possessive. Well, also because I can see like the snake skin sometimes. I'll see it on somebody else's deal and I'll know like you did that.

Like that's my material. That's my material. So I try to, you know, this is so terrible. The scales and stuff. But the scale lady, I don't know her directly. She's wonderful. She helps Sandra. But what the hell was I talking about?

You're talking about WrestleMania gear. Sandra making gear for other people. I don't like when the, yeah, but what was the point? Where was I going with it? How much you love Sandra. She's been your gear person forever. When you find a gear person, you stick with them. Sandra wants to keep designing and creating new outfits for me.

And that's because she's a master designer and all this. But the thing I was trying to say, I found the look. Yeah, you nailed it. You just got to change up the colors. Yeah, that's it. And that's an area where she's like, oh, we could change this. I'm like, yeah, you're the best. You really are the best.

But this is the look and the more older i get the more i have um kind of a love for these these guys who are really um consistent you know john jean shorts right you know t-shirt change but just i want to stay the same and i don't know if that's her favorite thing which is why i'm waiting for her to be like you know what i'm just gonna make you the same thing every time and i'm to start making new stuff for other people. But she got me through. She made all the Stardust outfits. She made a ton of Dashing Cody Rhodes stuff.

So I was explaining, we're not that anymore. We're not looking. We found it. And it's an ongoing journey with the best seamstress in the business. And I like all the seamstresses. Julie, Terry, Surratt. I'm getting to know Jolene, Robert. I mean, I like every seamstress, you know, but Sandra's my number one. I won't change from her.

She's going to quit me before I quit her. So we talked about you being a bus guy now. Let's say you were back in the rental car days, still driving the rental cars. If I had to have you pick three people in the current wwe roster to ride with who would you go with the foreigners and i hope that's not an inappropriate way to put it yeah who who do you mean by that imperium okay i love watching people so i'm a naive i'm a naive American, essentially, right? Yeah.

The first time I went out of the country was with WWE. I found out, oh, not everybody loves Americans. Oh, and then it was a great every time. I got a really worldly perspective because you find out, we're not the be-all, end-all of everything. Again, I should have never thought that. But I like helping them discover this place that we have. I really do.

Like, there's, it's so different from Austria in the case of Gunther. So different. I would just try. I'm doubtful they would ever be interested in riding with me. But I would try because there's so much fun. You know, have they been to a racetrack have they been to a quick trip have they been to in-and-out burger water burger almost everything is gonna rotate around the burgers burgers and fast food establishments but you know how's that's america though yeah exactly that's america have they have they walked in and got a day pass at every gym? What's their smoothie scene like?

Are they hitting Palm Beach tans up? What a wrestler question. The accessibility of these silly things we need for our gig, I like helping them along the way. Plus, I like the group a lot. I like that group a lot. I like that group a lot. They seem like they really get it. I loved that final 10 minutes of you and him in the Rumble.

My mom, man. I was watching her face. During the match, could you see her? I saw her, and she just was... Because she looked at him when he was backstage, too, like she wanted to fight him. Because every chop you put that peck to work yeah god and those are those are these ones and not these ones these are

stoppers my pt guy was there brian tovin and uh i think he was thinking like is this guy gonna end up back and yeah what an idiot like you to end up back? What an idiot. But I am definitely an idiot wrestler in a sense that I love the pain. Love it to a degree too much. Yeah, look at the hell in the cell match. Right. Now I'm older. Now you have to recognize when, listen, you're not a martyr. Don't be that indulgent.

Just take care of yourself more. And I've finally started to do that. This guy. Lead by example, he says,'ve finally started to do that this guy lead by example he says i've started to do it you three matches ago you had a bicep hanging off your tricep hanging off your pec couldn't couldn't get hurt any worse they told me yeah and then i saw an interview where you said you almost threw up mid-match right in the beginning yeah do the pain first bump was it uh cody cutter I sat up and almost did the shock vomit. But then Dr. Dugas, who put me back together, he was telling me I bled a lot.

He's like, man, you bled so much. It was so much. And I saw some of the footage that was in the vignettes. And I think it's in the documentary. I mean, blood squirting out and Brandy just staring at it through the window. So maybe I could have hurt it worse. But they did everything they possibly could and also i was really embarrassed i was so embarrassed i got heard and i walked out in all state arena and this

giant poster of me it's like oh it's a stardust moment almost like maybe i'm not meant to be that guy right maybe i'm not if i can't even get to this um but yeah i was i tell people i told them at that press conference after rumble wwe really does love those moments you know so yeah if you see a lot of stuff evolving around that peck it is i'm sorry it's it was something that people touched on and they it you know it was a moment so it's a big moment it was a moment you taking that jacket off the crowd gasping big moment um and gasping not in the way like you expect them to think like oh good for you no like oh my god what's he doing yeah more like seeing some of the kids ask that you could see some kids ask their parents like what is that some people being like is that real is

that makeup my mom was picking me up from surgery four days later and asked was it makeup you're in the medical field you have met you know or ER tech, same day surgery. The stitches are on it. You've stitched me up before. Is it making? No. Yeah, it was gnarly. All right, I've got to ask you a nerd question. We're on My Mom's Basement. Yeah.

As a fellow comic book fan appreciator, what's one wish you have for the new DC universe under James Gunn? I know. It's a big question. There's a lot of wishes out there. I know you're a big Batman and Robin guy and we know we're gonna get that so you got to be happy about that right yeah you are dealing with the biggest IPs and not that Marvel is not now the Marvel IPs are even bigger because of how great the MCU has been but DC DC has the biggest eyepiece just right out of the gate. Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, and everything that comes.

You're dealing with the biggest of the big. Do not let, if truly is that James Gunn is able to weave it, like Paul has woven it with the MCUcu if he truly is able to do that then it's going to be the best time but if you know and i have not i don't know if warner brothers discovery or whatever gets their hands in it before you've got it's gonna take time think about how long the mcu took to develop yeah we love seeing the big here's the movies for phase one phase two love it love it but really please allow things to allow things to be a double to be a triple and then there's a home run you've got to not every um middle card I can't believe

I use middle card but middle card a lower not every middle card, a lower card character is going to click with everybody, but they're gonna, they're gonna click. Um, and I, you know, I've seen the flash trailer last night. It's, it's going to be really tough because as much as people are, Oh, DC, you know, they did, they never figured it out. There's some areas where they had it really figured out. The animated movies have been outstanding forever. Yeah. I'm re-watching them right now.

HBO Max just hit, boom, hit them up. Plus, some of the live-action movies, were they the Avengers Endgame? No. But some of them were freaking outstanding. So people now have made that connection. So there's gonna be i heard oh we're recasting batman oh okay but worry you no but like and this people are gonna

i i've really liked every batman you know i agree with you on that but actually i've liked every batman in their own way but christian bale still he's alive he's alive oh dude back the truck up right okay if you're gonna be a young guy it's fine because as a wrestler it's time for the young to to do their thing so if you're gonna recast understood understood but let it take its time don't panic that is my whole thing about what happens with james gunn and he's been don't panic that's your thing don't panic what you tell people before you go out right 100 they're going nuts if they throw the belt back if they boo if they cheer don't panic yeah just have a good time james gunn has done really great by pro wrestlers i'd love to work with him one day my gosh i would he's

done great by wrestlers so i have this you know me anyone who's likes wrestlers i'm like this is my guy just don't panic and don't let yourself be panicked don't let any corporate no just go with your vision lead lead and i hope it's i hope it's a home run because you're dealing with the biggest and the best ips there were and thank you for doing damien i love a father and son story I love moving Batman forward as well and Damien is the way to do it I mean your son is member of the league of freaking assassins and shadows essentially he's a killer to a guy with a no kill code

I don't know if you'll get like the bat cow yeah the whole family I kind of hope you get the ridiculousness of it all I hope we get an established Nightwing. Like Dick Grayson should be in this universe already, right? Oh, my gosh.

And Blue Haven already do. Oh, man. A Red Hood. I said you could do a whole show just based on the three Robins. Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake. Go, you know, one, two, three. Poor Tim Drake doesn't get enough love. I love Tim Drake.

He's my favorite. Widely considered the best detective of the bunch. And when he debuted, I was just a kid that thought, oh, my God, he wears long sleeves and long pants as Robin. That's the coolest thing I've ever seen. I liked in the Arkham games, you've got Tim Drake, right? Yeah. I like Tim Drake more. But Damien's my guy.

And I think Damien's, I didn't realize Damien's a polarizing comic book. He's very polarized. I didn't realize that either because I love the Grant Morrison run. That's like, it came out when I was in high school. So I was buying the weekly issues of it at the time. I'm very nostalgic towards it already. I'm a huge Damien guy. Is there a better few books than R.I.P.?

I know. I mean, like, is there a better few books, especially how Joker handles, like uh dr hurt and the whole like there's not really but yes i i'm excited to see damien i'm very excited you giving him the rap is that that was our no that was our last thing i saved the nerd talk for the end i know the wrestling fans are like you know get to the wrestling get to the wrestlemania before the batman stuff you nerd but damien wayne is wrestling to me the whole story yeah i mean i've seen you repost david's father literally a national monument that is batman and your kid with this woman that you weren't planning on having a kid with has been trained the opposite and you're meant to take

him on it's not like taking on the orphans that were the robins who like adored you in their way like he doesn't. And then he does, and I'm not going to ruin it for anybody, but Damian Wayne's a great character. And in my family, I like to think I'm Nightwing. I'm probably Damian Wayne, though.

So, I'm a big fan. Alright, there you go. Read the Damian Wayne comics, the Grant Morse comics. If you don't want to do that, at least watch the animated movies because they feature Damian. So good. Batman and Son. All right, thanks, Cody. I appreciate it.

Obviously, the A&E Legends series is debuting on February 19th, and in the week before WrestleMania, you'll get the dusty episode that we spoke about today. And Cody will finish the story the next week, so you know we'll be in his corner.