Cody Rhodes’ road to success has not been easy, for the professional wrestler had to go through several roadblocks to reach where he is now. Now slated to be in one of the highest-stakes tag team matches in WWE’s history in the upcoming WrestleMania 40, Rhodes is one of the most spectacular professional wrestlers that the sport has ever seen.
Yet back in 2016, Rhodes departed from WWE after numerous failed gimmicks. But it was really his run as Stardust that made him leave the organization despite him doing everything to make it work.
Reason Why Cody Rhodes Left WWE in 2016
The son of wrestler Dusty Rhodes, Cody Rhodes is one of the best professional wrestlers of the sport. Yet there was a time when the wrestler’s gimmicks failed to please the audience, making him leave WWE back in 2016.
Since the start of his wrestling career, Rhodes has taken up various gimmicks such as Dashing and Stardust. But they never made it through the audience with Rhodes falling short of the main event, now and then. And so after struggling for years, he decided to take a huge leap of faith and left WWE.
Leaving the organization was probably the best thing that happened to his career, which began to soar (quite literally) thanks to his feat in the independent scene. Even though he was initially hesitant to take the leap, in an interview with TNT Sports, Rhodes revealed the incident that made him take the decision.
“There was a lot of rock bottom [playing Stardust]. Charlotte Flair brought a fan to a show. She told him, ‘Hey, do you wanna meet Stardust?’ and I was just not painted up or anything there earlier in the day in like my sweats. And he came up to me, he’s like, ‘You’re Stardust?’ … I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, and I used to wrestle as Cody Rhodes.’ And he was like, ‘What? Who? What do you mean?’ He had no idea that I’d won the Intercontinental title or won some tag titles or Legacy. Nothing. Stardust was his only knowledge of me, and that was a rock bottom moment.”
As heartbreaking as it would have been for Rhodey to experience this incident, there is no denying that it proved to be pivotal for his future success. Without this fan interaction, the American Nightmare would have never been here facing The Rock and Roman Reigns along with Seth Rollins in the upcoming main event of WrestleMania 40.
Dusty Rhodes advised Cody Rhodes to Leave the WWE
Being the son of a wrestler as revered as Dusty Rhodes would have certainly been hard for Cody Rhodes. But not being able to make it to the main event despite prowess in the sport must have been even more challenging for the American Nightmare. Yet what turned out to be an even bigger challenge was when his own father advised him to leave WWE.
In an interview with Wrestledelphia Radio, Rhodes revealed it was Rhodes Sr. who told him to leave WWE in 2016.
“At 28, I recalled particularly, he was unhappy with the direction things were going with me and Big Show, and he just thought that I was so close to the keys to the kingdom, and they were slipping away, that maybe leaving would wake them to the idea that this is somebody who wanted to captain your ship and the way you guys are treating him has pushed him out.”
Yet Rhodes wanted to stick it out and keep trying. But ultimately it was the advice of his father that proved lucky for him, and Rhodes regretted not taking it sooner.
And so, while Cody Rhodes’ journey in the professional wrestling industry has been full of ups and downs, it is inspirational to see how he never gave up but continues to strive for success even in the face of great challenges.
