Rhodes shared his thoughts about Jay Briscoe and tells an NJPW Wrestle Kingdom story.
Fresh off of winning the 2023 WWE men’s Royal Rumble match, Cody Rhodes sat down with Logan Paul to record an episode of the IMPAULSIVE podcast.
Rhodes is set to challenge for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 39 at SoFi Stadium.
As the conversation on the podcast picked up, Rhodes’ ‘American Nightmare’ logo and neck tattoo was brought up. He did not think it would be as big as it is based off the sketch he saw. Rhodes recounted showing up to a production meeting for AEW after getting the tattoo and Jim Ross continuously staring at him the whole meeting. Before getting the tattoo, company President Tony Khan did not think Rhodes would actually get it on his neck.
The tattoo on the neck… The dude drew it and I’ve always liked the design and ‘The American Nightmare’ design was what it was but, I powered through because I have one tattoo on my chest for my dad and stuff so I don’t have a lot of tattoos, and I’m powering through and he’s like, ‘Do you really want to take a break? You probably wanna take a break, right? You wanna take a break?’ And I kept thinking, ah, I’m good, I’m good. I wish I had took a break because I didn’t know it was double the size of the drawing I saw and I thought, oh my God, I’m wrestling in two days because he said, ‘Either do it months out or just two days before…’ I don’t know if it was a mistake or I wasn’t paying attention. A lot of people were like, ‘Neck? Neck? Neck?’ And then my boss at the time, this was when I was at AEW, he just thought, ‘No way. Not gonna be your neck’ and then I walked into the production meeting the next day… I remember Jim Ross was — legendary wrestling announcer Jim Ross — literally just (staring at me). The whole meeting was just staring at it. Not listening to anything.
The late Jamin Pugh (Jay Briscoe) was spoken highly of by Cody. He explained to Logan how good Jay was in the ring.
Whenever we lose a great wrestler, we just lost one with Jay Briscoe. He was ROH. Whenever we lose a great wrestler, my sister always says, ‘Man, the matches in heaven are great tonight’ and if I think about it, what a super card… It sucks to see somebody who puts in so much time but yeah, that’s a great way to really honor what we do here and now, honor their legacy. I’m not sure how familiar you (Logan Paul) are with Jay Briscoe but as you learn and get more indoctrinated in the business. When I went to ROH, again, another part of this excursion, that guy was it. He was the deal.
Towards the conclusion of the interview, Rhodes told the story of when he was in Japan prior to the formal announcement of All Elite Wrestling.
There would be occasions when himself and other wrestlers were on an elevator and Rhodes would play Shane McMahon’s ‘Here Comes the Money’ theme as a hint about what was to come. Rhodes said that was not well received.
You mentioned the excursion I went on and doing it but when I plugged back into, all right, not even just WWE but when we were starting up the other promotion (AEW), the money was large and I had been away from the large money for a while and I was in Tokyo Dome Hotel getting ready for this big show, Wrestle Kingdom, they have for New Japan. It’s a great show. But I knew in a few weeks, it was gonna go down. We’re gonna announce it to the world and we’re gonna be on an actual real network. This is happening. So Shane’s music is ‘Here Comes the Money.’ It’s a very signature music, so every time I get on the elevator with the other guys who are in the group with me, I would play that music and there was all these other wrestlers (who would look back). I mean, we were the enemy. We were leaving, they didn’t know why… And I just played it to the point where now I can’t see Shane (McMahon) and not be like, man, I ruined your song. Playing it everywhere.
In the main event of the January 31st Monday Night Raw, Cody scored a win over Finn Balor with assistance from Edge and Beth Phoenix.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the IMPAULSIVE podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
