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Cody Rhodes Reveals Creative Process For His Promos
During the 5/12 episode of AEW Dynamite, Cody Rhodes delivered a patriotic promo against Anthony Ogogo, challenging him to a match at Double Or Nothing. Rhodes will be known as “The American Dream” that night, paying homage to his late father Dusty Rhodes, who previously used the moniker.
Ahead of this weekend’s Double Or Nothing pay-per-view, Cody Rhodes with Gamestop’s Wrestling Buddies podcast, speaking on a number of topics, including the story behind his match with Ogogo, and the creative process behind his promos.
“When I was just thinking about what the story really is, Anthony [Ogogo] is living the American dream for real. All the wrestlers, like Bruno Sammartino, who I referenced in my interview, who have come over, have lived the American dream here,” he explained. “[With] what [that] stands for and [it being] Memorial Day weekend and fans coming back and just all that beautiful synergy and kismet, I ended up saying it once. ‘He won’t be wrestling the American Nightmare. He’ll be wrestling the American Dream.’ And when I said it, I just couldn’t move past it. I thought, ‘That’s it. That’s the ticket.'”
Rhodes spoke on the creative process behind his promos, revealing he workshops them heavily for weeks, and has a full focus group to test them on.
“This is probably gonna sound not cool, because a lot of wrestlers–especially wrestlers from my dad’s era–will lie to you and say, ‘Oh, I just came up with that promo right there on the spot,’ which is bulls***,”
“But whatever. I workshop my promos heavily for weeks on end. We have a full focus group for them, as crazy as that sounds. This is a data-based company, so I workshop everything I do. And because my promos have been held to a really high standard–people pick at them and find things in them and they put a microscope on them, which I love. With that in mind, when I was doing the promo I couldn’t come up with a finish.”
Cody Rhodes spent the last two years attempting to trademark “The American Dream”, but recently abandoned the trademark after facing several roadblocks from The United States Patent and Trademark Office.
AEW Double or Nothing will air this Sunday, May 30 on pay-per-view and FITE.