Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes has remembered an emotional moment he shared together with his brother and AEW star, Dustin Rhodes, prior to his match at WrestleMania 40.
Rhodes finished the story by defeating Roman Reigns and capturing the world title, and prior to the match, he had several friends and members of the family on his bus to share their support for him in his bid to win the championship. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, an emotional Rhodes recalled a matter Dustin asked him that left an impact on him.
“I tear up each time I give it some thought. And it happened, and nobody knew it happened, but my brother Dustin, you already know, I don’t desire to say we now have an advanced relationship, but families are complicated. We definitely love one another, but we wrestle at different places, and I do not at all times agree with what he does. I’m sure he doesn’t at all times agree with what I do. It’s brother stuff. But he just got here on my bus and asked me, ‘Are you ready?’ I just loved it,” he said. “That was a moment that just felt so good. To give you the option to inform my big brother, who’d been through this business and been through it hard, lived it hard, fought hard, all that, to give you the option to only tell him yes and really mean it. Yes, I’m ready.”
Rhodes said that the query made his day, explaining that it was something his father, the late, great Dusty Rhodes, would’ve asked him, which made him emotional.
“It wasn’t his to ask, it was my dad’s to ask, and my dad couldn’t be there. We have now a novel relationship, in that I often attempt to think I’m the older brother, but that is boastful on my behalf. I’m the little brother still. And it was his to ask that night. ‘Are you ready?’ It just jogged my memory so much of the old man,” he said.
Dustin was egging Cody to win the title after the latter’s Royal Rumble win that 12 months, and “The American Nightmare” needed to cross just a few hurdles before laying his hands on the belt.