Cody Rhodes is the face of WWE and the most famous star in wrestling at the moment, but his time in the ring hasn’t always been so easy. He has spoken often about his failed first run in WWE, including playing the horrendous Stardust gimmick, before he chose to leave the promotion and bet on himself. Cody Rhodes succeeded in doing that and was instrumental in helping create All Elite Wrestling, but despite his fame and talent in the ring, fans eventually turned on the babyface.
One of his worst and weirdest moments came during a 2021 episode of AEW Dynamite when the American Nightmare gave a promo about racism ahead of his Double or Nothing match with Anthony Ogogo. Although he meant well, it came off as a white man acting like he was some sort of civil rights activist. Rhodes may have recovered from the incident, but it’s something he’s still made fun of for to this day.
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Cody Rhodes Was Feuding With Anthony Ogogo
The Two Were Set To Have A Match At AEW Double Or Nothing
- Anthony Ogogo was an Olympian boxer.
- Ogogo attacked Cody Rhodes in his AEW debut.
- Rhodes and Ogogo had a strange weigh-in segment on Dynamite.
In March 2021, former boxer and Olympian Anthony Ogogo made his AEW debut by attacking Cody Rhodes on Dynamite. Although he didn’t have much of a career in AEW, he couldn’t have asked for a better start by immediately being put against one of the faces of the company. Sadly, their feud ended up being a dud for multiple reasons.
One strange AEW Dynamite segment saw Rhodes and Ogogo stripping down to their underwear for a weigh-in moderated by Paul Wight. It felt like the worst of WWE and not what AEW was all about. In an interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Anthony Ogogo didn’t hold back on his thoughts about the moment, calling it “dogsh**t”, and adding:
[Cody] was like, ‘We are not going to touch’. I’m like, ‘Oh, I have watched enough wrestling to know that that’s a bit drab, a bit s**t’. He says, ‘Nah, it’s gonna be cool’. It’s my third week on TV, I am going to turn up, work hard and do what I am told.” (h/t What Culture)
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- Rhodes beat Ogogo at Double or Nothing.
- Cody’s promo about racism is all anyone remembers about the feud.
- Rhodes spoke about segregation and his wife now having a baby who was white and Black.
If that had been the worst of it, so be it, but this boring moment had nothing on the bizarre promo Cody Rhodes cut. The American Nightmare ended up winning the feud by defeating Anthony Ogogo at Double or Nothing, but all anyone remembers are the words that came out of Cody’s mouth on the May 12, 2021 Dynamite.
Rhodes spoke about how Ogogo, who is from England, was running down America. Cody celebrated America, which has been done countless times in wrestling feuds, but then he went too far when talking about the American dream. He spoke about immigrants coming to the United States, but, with tears in his eyes, followed it up with a history lesson about segregation. Cody said:
“Prior to 1961, in Atlanta, Georgia, there was segregation. Blacks and whites could not attend the same schools. And in 2021, in the very same city, my wife will give birth to a beautiful white, a beautiful Black American princess who will have both identities, shun neither, and I want her to know I didn’t just lay down under another man’s flag. I didn’t just have this defeatist attitude when somebody ran down the United States. I got up off my ass and fought back.”
There was nothing offensive about the promo, but it came off as cheesy and silly, especially from a white man who was feuding with a Black man. Fans were quick to make fun of Rhodes. Look in the comments section for the YouTube video and you’ll see a plethora of comments joking about how Cody Rhodes single-handedly ended racism.
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The American Nightmare Addressed Race Better In An Interview About His Wife
- The American Nightmare said that he was a dummy for doing the promo.
- Rhodes called the race part of the Dynamite promo tone-deaf.
- Cody handled a race talk better when he spoke about Brandi Rhodes with the media.
Right after the promo, in a media call ahead of Double or Nothing, Rhodes told Wrestling Inc.’s Nick Hausman that he wasn’t trying to mansplain racism. He talked about being made of by fans and said:
“Chalk this up to me being a dummy.”
In an interview on Rasslin’ with Brandon F. Walker, Cody Rhodes said he stood by what he said in the promo, but he admitted:
“However, a white guy talking about race relations, who has an American flag tattoo on his neck… I can see why people would use the terms ‘tone-deaf’ when it came to that. And then trying to defend it and all — and again, intentions were good, and sincere, and I was so excited about Brandi and the baby.
“But it just… that should have just been one where I went out and almost just winged it… It set the angle in like a tailspin where it just wasn’t a classic, UK vs. USA, fun-spirited deal. I was going to go over to the UK, we have the return match. Now I just never want to think about it again.” (h/t Cageside Seats)
It wasn’t the first time Cody Rhodes had talked about race in AEW. Following Double or Nothing in 2019, he was asked at the press conference about the diversity in the company. Rhodes, in a much better moment, spoke about a conversation he once had with his wife, Brandi Rhodes, who is Black.
“I said, ‘I don’t see color’ and she said, ‘Well, then you don’t see my experience’. And I thought, oh, that’s, you’re right, I can’t just say that. You need to be able to see that experience and at least understand it. And the old territory system of ‘just one’, and a lot of folks may remember that, that’s out… And that’s a very diverse profile, and I’m really proud of it… We’re going to promote them as wrestlers. That’s all the elements of diversity. We’re not gonna make it a P.R. element… It’s about the wrestling.”
Cody Rhodes may have missed the mark with his Dynamite promo, but the remarks he gets are usually all in good fun. People know his heart was in the right place, so the comments have been jokes and not angry criticism. After all, who could be upset with the wrestler who brought racism to an end with one powerful promo?
