In a recent interview on The Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, former WWE superstar Cody Rhodes commented on a variety of topics including the Stardust character, the WWE Draft, wanting to be different from his father and his brother and more.

On wanting to be different from his father and brother, Cody had the following to say:

“So, I didn’t not want to do Dusty or Goldust because I didn’t think they were great or that I don’t love them, because I do love them, and I do think they are great, so if you go out and you do someone’s finishing move that you are related to, I feel that they are not cheering for you, they are cheering for the nostalgia; they are cheering for whoever was the one who made us look at that maneuver. I always approached it that way; it may have been stubborn, but that was how I looked at it.

That is why in the early stages, I dyed my hair black; I was an antagonist; that was great because Dusty was the lifelong hero, and Goldust was this bizarre-larger than life character, so at the end of the day, I wanted to be different; you look at us on paper, and it’s like, cool, everyone is different; just look at the Rotunda family. You don’t see Bray going out there and telling people to pay their taxes. I would love it if he did, but one night, I would love it. Bray is doing it correctly, look at Husky Harris, it takes a few runs at it..parts of being a second and third generation is falling on your a** and failing on occasion, like hey, this didn’t work. I feel like the first part of my career wasn’t working.

The plucky underdog, like what was exciting about that? So, when Vince asked me, which is weird because he is also multi-generational. It was a bizarre ask, but when I first got the concept art. Whenever creative services gets on something, it makes you feel good because you know they tend to invest in it, so creative service department came up with some of the greatest characters in WWE. They make all this concept art. The first stuff I saw about Stardust was the coolest stuff ever, and it was right along the lines of a comic book villain. I had silver hair, a star in my eye contact; I was like, wow, I’m going to be ok. I can wear a bodysuit, I can stop working out for a few weeks, I’m going to be ok, and then, every week, this is what he picked, and this is what he picked; so, every week it was becoming more and more a carbon copy of Goldust.

There is some pictures online; I don’t think any of the boys posted it, but I was supposed to have a mask, and the mask looked like black condom on top of my head, and it was just terrifying, and they made me go up to the production meeting room and stand there in this get up, and I lifted it up, and said, this I cannot do. Then they said, well, why don’t you shave your head…like Dustin, and then I was like, so, I’m only going to be mini-Dustin, because Dustin is like 11 feet tall for some reason, so I’m going to be mini-Dustin, and I even had a fight and said let me do silver and black, then they made it gold and black. The first concept was so cool, then it went away and I tried slowly, slowly to get there.”

The interview is available in full at this link.