Chad Gable

Summary

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Podcast Summary — What Do You Wanna Talk About? with Cody Rhodes

Episode: Chad Gable

Release Date: July 29, 2026
Host: Cody Rhodes
Guest: Chad Gable

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Brief Overview

In this episode, Cody Rhodes welcomes Chad Gable—a celebrated WWE superstar and former amateur wrestling champion—onto the bus for a deep, honest discussion about wrestling, drive, family, overcoming setbacks, and finding magic both in and outside the ring. The conversation spans Gable’s amateur background, his storied tag team runs, his ambitions for singles glory, and the lessons he’s learned from legends like The Undertaker. Packed with personal stories, pro wrestling philosophy, and authentic emotion, the episode provides a rare look behind the curtain at both the business and the human beings who dedicate their lives to it.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Wrestling Pedigree & Terminology

(01:21–04:43)

• Cody introduces Chad Gable, highlighting his Minnesota state wrestling background, Olympic trials win, and multiple tag team championships.
• Discussion of the terms "shooter" (authentic, real wrestling skills, “the most real deal of the real deals”—Gable) versus "hooker," drawing on old wrestling jargon.

  Chad Gable (02:36): “Shooter, I am the most real deal of the real deals. Hooker might be someone that knows the game, but a shooter is—you’re in trouble, man.”

• Cody and Chad banter about locker room reputation and wrestling history.

Creating 'Magic' in Wrestling Matches

(04:53–10:21)

• They recount a recent match that resonated with everyone:

  Cody Rhodes (05:52): “You guys had them, had us… did you know something magical was happening?”
  Chad Gable (06:24): “By the end, I knew. Going into it, I had high expectations, but I can certainly say it delivered beyond those… to hear some of my peers say that match reminded them what they love about wrestling was one of the most humbling and gratifying things.”

• Gable discusses the rare alignment of critical and commercial success in wrestling, likening it to great directors (like Scorsese).
• The “in the zone” feeling and the importance of creating moments that remind both performers and fans why they fell in love with wrestling.

Family and Life Behind the Performer

(12:35–14:13)

• Cody praises Gable as “an all-time family man” whose kids and wife are central to his life.
• Gable reflects on maintaining normalcy for his kids and the importance of family support.

  Chad Gable (13:53): “My kids… that’s all they’ve ever known me as. To them, they could take it or leave it. I like it that way.”

Love for Greco-Roman Wrestling & Sporting Influences

(14:17–17:25)

• Gable’s preference for Greco-Roman style due to his physical strengths.
• Recommendation for aspiring amateur wrestlers to watch Vision Quest—the best depiction of wrestling on film, says both Cody and Chad.

  Chad Gable (17:21): “To this day, it’s still the best amateur wrestling movie ever.”

• Chad shares a touching story about a marathon Greco-Roman Olympic trials match (Brandon Paulson, 2004), highlighting the values of endurance, accountability, respect.

Lessons from Wrestling—Accountability

(21:18–23:01)

• The duo discusses how wrestling teaches self-reliance and accountability.

  Chad Gable (22:13): “It served me very well in life… it’s helped me not blame outside sources for anything most of the time… you take accountability.”

Working with The Undertaker & Professional Growth

(25:54–29:28)

• Gable opens up about learning from The Undertaker, who finally drew out something in him that previous coaches couldn’t.

  Chad Gable (27:08): “He lit a fire under me, and something just clicked. I lost myself, was just in the moment like I’d never been.”

• They reflect on the idea that the secret of great wrestling lies in a kind of realness—real competition, real emotion, real reactions.

Creative Collaboration in WWE

(30:39–32:03)

• Praise for Jeremy Borash (JB) as a creative partner: “Pleasure to work with. Genius. Inspiring. Willing and open to collaborate in ways I haven’t experienced.”
• Gable names Ivan Ivanov as a key mentor, teaching him the ultimate work ethic and humility required to achieve something special.

Fighting for Others & Personal Causes

(34:09–34:33)

• Gable’s connection to the Special Olympics and his role as Minnesota’s ambassador, inspired by his nephew Peter, who’s epileptic.

The Infamous “Shorty G” Gimmick—Owning Mistakes and Moving Forward

(35:05–37:46)

• Gable explains he felt boxed in by the “Shorty G” gimmick, delivered by Eric Bischoff.

  Chad Gable (36:06): “I think I put on the face of ‘This could work,’ and I tried… but deep down I knew. This could be the nail in the coffin. It was a low point for sure.”

• Emotional support from Luke Harper (Brody Lee) during that period.

Tag Team Excellence: American Alpha & NXT

(40:04–42:26)

• Describes the era of NXT’s “black and gold” brand as a creative cauldron: “Scenius”—scene-based genius.
• The rivalry with The Revival produced competitive magic:

  Chad Gable (41:54): “We were perfect partners… Our mindsets exactly the same... there was a competitive spark I have not felt since.”

• Stories about two-out-of-three falls matches, live-crowd reactions, and the value of the “coconut loop”.

The Art of “Real” Wrestling

(44:12–45:35)

• Cody and Chad discuss Ironman matches—Cody’s fandom for the Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels WrestleMania classic, and Gable’s penchant for training by matching his treadmill cardio to the match length.

The Hunger for Singles Success

(47:55–50:43)

• Gable’s next “mountain to climb”:

  Chad Gable (47:55): “I think I need to win a singles championship for myself… I have to deliver. This is one that I haven’t done yet.”
  Cody Rhodes (51:01): “I think you will capture your singles championship and I think you’ll capture more than one before the end of all this.”

• Gable shares the conviction he feels after making a promise to win the Intercontinental Title—“I swore to God I would win that championship.”

Lighthearted: On Otis and Locker Room Camaraderie

(53:18–56:38)

• Stories about Otis: his unique language (“I speak Otis!”—Gable), wild bus ride bar setups, and his physical strength.
• Gable details how he’s known Otis since their amateur wrestling youth—he often has to translate Otis’ exuberant but cryptic speech to others.

Wrestling Tape-Trading, Inspirations, and Learning

(57:12–61:58)

• Gable admits to being a true tape-trader, collecting and obsessing over tapes of wrestlers like Kenta Kobashi, Jushin “Thunder” Liger, and Stan Hansen.
• Cody and Chad discuss the importance of emotion and realness in wrestling, especially in Japanese wrestling’s “selling” style.

Backstage Realities, Initiative & Philosophy

(62:12–68:54)

• Gable recounts near-misses with singles success (notably with Gunther/IC title), and how he came to accept that sometimes hard work alone isn’t enough in WWE—circumstance also matters.
• He continues to create, filming vignettes on his own. Cody affirms the shift from competing with others to competing with oneself:

  Cody Rhodes (67:30): “It wasn’t until my lesson for me was until I started competing with me that I found any type of bone.” Chad Gable (68:38): “If you have that same relationship to yourself, and you prove yourself wrong… That delivers every time.”

The WWE Dream Team

(69:20–70:55)

• Gable’s personal “Dream Team”: Otis, Jason Jordan, Finn Balor, and Bayley.

  Chad Gable (70:33): “She [Bayley] has that same mindset… she gets it.”

Lighthearted Closing: Wrestling, Art, and Wheatley Vodka

(71:58–75:26)

• Cody brings up Gable’s creative side and overseas photo contest with Sami Zayn—though Gable lost, the experience is an example of bonding and joy backstage.
• Playful banter for Wheatley Vodka’s jingle—Gable’s custom lyric: “Wheatley so good I drink it deeply.”

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Chad Gable (07:30): “To hear some of my peers say that match reminded them what they love about wrestling and what made them fall in love with it… was just one of the most humbling and gratifying things.”
• Cody Rhodes (22:13): “Wrestling taught me that you take accountability.”
• Chad Gable (27:08): “He [Undertaker] lit a fire under me, and something just clicked.”
• Chad Gable (36:06): “Deep down I knew, man, this is… this could be the nail in the coffin. That was a low point for sure.”
• Cody Rhodes (67:30): “It wasn’t until… I started competing with me that I found any type of bone… If you exceed your own expectations, that delivers.”
• Cody to Gable (71:00): “You have done incredible things and you will do incredible things, but you've already done incredible things.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:21: Intro & Gable’s credentials, “shooter” vs “hooker”
• 04:53: Universal “magic” wrestling moment—match discussion
• 12:35: Life as a family man
• 14:17: Gable’s love for Greco-Roman wrestling
• 16:45: Inspirational amateur wrestling stories & movies
• 21:18: Accountability lessons from wrestling
• 25:54: Lessons learned from The Undertaker
• 30:39: Collaborating with Jeremy Borash (“JB”)
• 34:09: Special Olympics advocacy—personal impact
• 35:05: The “Shorty G” era and its fallout
• 40:04: NXT “scenius” and American Alpha vs. The Revival
• 44:12: Ironman matches, the art of bell-to-bell wrestling
• 47:55: Gable’s hunger for a singles championship
• 53:18: On Otis—friendship and translation
• 57:12: Tape trading and classic wrestling inspirations
• 62:12: Facing setbacks with Gunther, persistence
• 69:20: Dream Team selections
• 71:58: Creative photo contest with Sami Zayn, backstage camaraderie
• 74:49: Customized Wheatley Vodka jingle

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Takeaways

• Chad Gable is as passionate, driven, and humble as his fans suspect, rooted in both wrestling excellence and personal integrity.
• The secret of wrestling “magic”: Meeting at the intersection of artistry, realness, and pure effort—bolstered by community, collaboration, and accountability.
• Human behind the wrestler: Gable’s commitment to family and community underscores every professional accomplishment.
• Perpetual learning: Even for top-level stars, each match and backstage challenge can teach something new—“If you did it once, you can do it again.”
• Authenticity, humility, and constant drive are at the core of sustained success, both in and outside WWE.

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Transcript

[Cody Rhodes]

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[Cody Rhodes]

Hello everybody, this is American Nightmare. Cody Rhodes. Welcome to what do youo Want To Talk About A Fanatics and WWE ORIG Production. Today, my guest is a guest we have wanted for a long time, all of us. He is a former Minnesota State Wrestling champion. He won the 2012 Olympic trials. He has been an NXT tag team champion, a RAW tag team champion, and he has been on the minds of pretty much every wrestling fan, everybody involved in wrestling, everybody involved in WWE spanning over multiple locker rooms. Everywhere you go, everyone is talking about this guy. And we welcome to the podcast, Ladies and gentlemen, Chad Gable.

[Chad Gable]

Wow.

[Cody Rhodes]

I'm sorry if I'm a little bit rusty.

[Chad Gable]

That was great.

[Cody Rhodes]

It's been a minute. It's incredible.

[Chad Gable]

I fooled me.

[Cody Rhodes]

I am excited at the idea that I got to mention you being a Minnesota State wrestling champion and you'd be classified as wrestlers. Go and tell me. Correct me because there was other qualifications but shooter, right? We would say shooter.

[Chad Gable]

We would say shooter.

[Cody Rhodes]

What's the difference between a shooter and a hooker? And that's going to sound like a funny question, but that's a There are people in this who know that hooker was a different thing than a shooter. Correct.

[Chad Gable]

I mean my assumption is that the shooter I am the most real deal of the real deals. Yeah, like hooker might be someone that knows the game, but a shooter is you're in trouble, man.

[Cody Rhodes]

I think we're gonna. We're gonna phone in a friend here on this, but I think you're on it. Shooter is all encompassing.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Hooker is lure them in and hook them with something. Some sort of Gerald Briscoe, who was probably a shooter, but was a. Ben, I feel you. You know this. Answer phone in a friend.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Oh.

[Cody Rhodes]

But did Luthez call himself a hooker? Because in case this went awry, in case this performance, he could rely on his skills as a shooter.

[Chad Gable]

I think that's pretty accurate.

[Cody Rhodes]

For all of our. I. I have never once mentioned this, but for all of the Cauliflower Alley Club, all the people out there, if you know the answer. I was taught it as a young man and forgot because it seemed like it was more important if you were going to be either to be a shooter, because you could do it all. And as a shooter. Do you know this? You've been mentioned on this show multiple times.

[Chad Gable]

I've heard it once or twice. Yeah. I watched the Finn episode. Finn is my guy, one of my guys.

[Cody Rhodes]

Did he put you on his team?

[Chad Gable]

I was on his team, man. Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Happy to hear that.

[Cody Rhodes]

That whenever someone is brought up who has the skills. Yeah, that's. That's a great, like, well, your team's gonna go undefeated. There's, you know, that also leaves you less to do.

[Chad Gable]

Sure, sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

On that team. Like. Oh, he's got him. He's. He's got him. I see you have something special in front of you provided by our friends, Wheatley American Vodka, who we love here. What do you got, Cody?

[Chad Gable]

Today we are drinking a chaos theory. Oh, yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

What do you know about it?

[Chad Gable]

Main ingredient, of course, Wheatley Vodka.

[Cody Rhodes]

There it is.

[Chad Gable]

Tasted a hint of lemonade.

[Cody Rhodes]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Is it good?

[Chad Gable]

And some.

[Cody Rhodes]

Cheers to you, man.

[Chad Gable]

Cheers.

[Cody Rhodes]

Cheers to you. Thank you for being here.

[Chad Gable]

Blue Curacao.

[Cody Rhodes]

Oh, alrighty. We will put those ingredients on the screen again. Wheatley American Vodka. I have the classic American mule chef's kiss, as always. Hey. So I'm gonna cut right to it.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

I feel like, well, sometimes on this show, we beat around the bush and I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to beat around the bush. Let's not beat around the bush in here. Right?

[Chad Gable]

Jump right in, man.

[Cody Rhodes]

Let's jump right in. There are moments in pro wrestling, as a wrestler, as a fan, as anyone who works for any wrestling company anywhere on earth, there are moments where we all agree on one thing. They are very rare. They are maybe once a year, if we're lucky, twice a year, if everything is hot. We're talking the purists, the hardcore fans. We're talking the casual fan. We're talking a designation of fans you don't even know existed. We're talking someone who walked in for the first time and wrestling was happening in the ring. We're talking people who just stream. We're talking people on social. We're talking people in the seats who paid to be there, who buy the merch. Every type of fan. El Grande Americano versus El Grande Americano. I'm sure I was one of the hundreds who texted you or spoke, reached out and just said, genuinely inspiring.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You guys had them, had us. And I. I am asking because I want to know, as far as in the moment, did you feel like everyone in the world, you know, you remember Jim Ross? He used to say, the world's watching.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You know, did you feel that everyone was watching? Did you know something magical was happening?

[Chad Gable]

By the end, I knew going into it, I had high hopes.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Dude.

[Cody Rhodes]

Hey, that's a good answer, by the way. Cheers.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

By the end, I knew.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Can.

[Cody Rhodes]

Chad, baby. Chad is here, dude.

[Chad Gable]

Going into it, I had high expectations, but I can certainly say it delivered. Beyond those, you know, I went to art school, and, like, we were always taught, like, you can have, like, critical acclaim or, you know, you can have commercial success. You don't really always get everything, you know, you can't always have it all.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Very few people get that. You know, we're talking, like, Scorsese and people like that, that direct these epic movies. So to have that kind of match where it was not only critically but, you know, it was. It was praised by everybody I talked to. And, like, yeah, to a point where it made me uncomfortable. Like, I don't seek that kind of thing, but I talked to so many people, and then they would talk to me in person, and I would be, like, sweating because I'm like, I can't deal with this. It's like, too much. People were being so. So complimentary. But it was nice to hear it from my peers. The people that, like, I value their opinions and seek their respect, you know, above all else.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And to hear some of my peers say that that match reminded them what they love about wrestling and what made them fall in love with it was just one of the most, like, humbling and just, like, gratifying things to hear about it all.

[Cody Rhodes]

So I heard the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels, say one time, the good stuff.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

And we, because of the performative nature of what we do, we're going to always tell you it's the good stuff. And we might be close, we might be right. But then there's those that are undeniably the good stuff. And this was the good stuff you said you knew by the end. Yeah. So it's funny you mentioned art school, which I want to. I want to ask about Howard Fine, my acting coach. He literally used to say, the door to commercial success is, you know, this wide, guys. The door to artistic success is. And to do them both. Sure. And if you saw Harrison Ford recently, his speech about being able to make entertainment and make a living at the same time, to make art, to do them all, is probably the most difficult thing. Sure. And you guys, you did it. Here's something I noticed about it. Okay. I have followed AAA for a long time, and now that the Undertaker is involved with aaa, it's even more available, especially working at wwe, seeing it more frequently. And it base. It's a partner.

[Chad Gable]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

And Bo Rash, we're going to talk about them all. Jb, the who. But I still didn't know all the nuances in the characters and everyone involved in this. You know, there's run ins. And yet I was so excited at everything. I was popping for things that if you had asked me, like, who's that?

[Chad Gable]

I don't.

[Commercial Announcer 2]

I don't know.

[Cody Rhodes]

These people are losing their mind, which is the, you know, the good stuff. But why did you feel like at the end. Did you just. Did you get through?

[Commercial Announcer 2]

Did you.

[Cody Rhodes]

I get to a place in matches where I don't know if you're like this, but I get to play some matches where it's. I'll tell myself one more thing. Just can't. Can't f this one thing up and we're good. We're home.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah, we're home.

[Cody Rhodes]

Was that the feeling?

[Chad Gable]

It was close to that. I think it was more. There was a moment right towards the end, and we were there. We were there. The rest was. It was cakewalk. And I saw the blood dripping down from my head and I looked around at the mat and it was just soaked. And I heard the people and there was that quiet, almost quiet calm that they were. They were ready for it. They were ready for the crescendo. And when I felt that, it was like, we did it. We're there. We created the magic that, like so many people have told me about over the years, that's possible to create and that I've experienced as a Fan, you know, as a young kid, like, we did it, we made it. It was just that, that moment, it was almost like a quiet, serene.

[Cody Rhodes]

Sure, it's here. You were in it.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah, we were in it.

[Cody Rhodes]

Well, you were in the eye of the hurricane there too. It's all happening around you. It's funny you mentioned seeing the blood. I don't think people realize that all wrestlers for the most part are psychopaths. And all wrestlers for the most part, like a little blood from time to time. The first time. Are you familiar with a wrestler named Davari?

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

Okay. The wrestler named Ivari, who's also a producer for us.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

Really jacked, by the way. Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Major, Major Jack.

[Cody Rhodes]

What's going on?

[Chad Gable]

You know, he's got it figured out, man, because he seems so chilled out all the time and he's just like, just jacked and looks great all the time.

[Cody Rhodes]

I think on some of the run ins he's trying to get that jacket off.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Just to. Just for people to see, like, look at me.

[Chad Gable]

It's a little tighter shirt on those.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah, a little.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah, yeah. I know that dude.

[Cody Rhodes]

He first match I had at WWE was on my birthday on a live event. This is before a TV debut. And he was very good as a dancing partner goes and would become great, especially when I needed him. And once TV started for me, he was one of the only guys who wanted to help.

[Chad Gable]

Oh, wow.

[Cody Rhodes]

He though that first night maybe not so helpful. He shot me off and I made the mistake of he said as he shot me off. So he's shooting me towards the ropes is what I mean. He said. And that means if you didn't hear it, don't keep running.

[Chad Gable]

Okay.

[Cody Rhodes]

Hang on to the ropes. Don't just run in. I didn't hear what he said, which I believe what he said is back elbow because I ran right into his back elbow and I had a full blown Harry Potter size scar, flap of skin, blood everywhere. And this is my first live event with WWE on the main roster. And I remember looking down, same way what you were looking down, thinking it's cool, but then realizing as I pulled my head up and I saw it squirt.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah. Oh yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Not cool. And Mike Kyota is like, we got, we gotta go home. Yeah. And this is my first, like what? My yellow boots were. Hand me down boots for my dad. Oh my gosh. But it was, I. It was that moment. Wrestlers are, are good for that punch. Oh yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You're pretty, but you're pretty, not psycho. Went to School, lived a life. I'd say you're also. We like to really credit and throw praise up to the family men. You are a all time family man.

[Chad Gable]

Thank you.

[Cody Rhodes]

Those kids have been in the front row. Yeah, Wifey always there. You're just doing it all.

[Chad Gable]

They tag along, man. They love it. They're, they're, they're part of the whole story. You know, it's. That's really, that's all my kids have ever known me as. You know, I was already on the main roster by the time I had my first kid. So it's cool in a sense that they don't look at it as that big of a deal, I guess as some kids might, you know, if their dad were a WWE wrestler to them, you know, they could take it or leave it. Some nights they don't watch at home. They love going to the shows, but they're not obsessed with it. They never really talk to me about wwe, just I'm dad, you know, and I like it that way at home. But they're, they're my life, man. That's it.

[Cody Rhodes]

How long you, your wife been married?

[Chad Gable]

We've been married 12 years.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And we've been together over 20. We've been together since we were so. She was a sophomore in high school. I was a junior.

[Cody Rhodes]

High school sweetheart.

[Chad Gable]

High school sweetheart.

[Cody Rhodes]

It might be a first time on the show. High school sweethearts. That, that's big. What's the secret to that success?

[Chad Gable]

That's a good question. Communication. Yeah, I think it's just honest and open communication.

[Cody Rhodes]

This podcast has gone further than I thought it was gonna. We're just talking wrestling. Yeah, we should have, we should have beat around the bush. I'm asking like, oh, we're deep in this. In that chaos theory again. Provided by our friends Wheatley American Vodka, who we love.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Um, as far as shooter goes, when we say shooter, we're talking. You have amateur wrestling skills, folk style, Greco Roman, freestyle. Did you have a preference of the three?

[Chad Gable]

Greco Roman 100.

[Cody Rhodes]

Really?

[Chad Gable]

Oh, yes. Day one, I didn't start Greco Roman. That was the last one I started, interestingly enough. It was like fifth grade. But I, I just got the hips for it, man. I had the hips from day one. I was always a upper body guy. You need your hips to throw opponents for people that don't know. Yeah, and I had them. I just had that inkling to throw people. And my dad saw it too, and me and we ran with it. That's all. I fell in love and that's All I ever wanted to do from there.

[Cody Rhodes]

I feel like as I was leaving the hotel today, Penn State was getting ready to be. Wrestling was getting ready to be on tv.

[Chad Gable]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

And I felt like I was gonna ask you if there's something you could tell a kid, because I loved. I did not. I was not in a state where it was hyper competitive. It was a. It wasn't the most. Georgia is a baseball state. Sure, if anything. And amateur wrestling needed funding there. We didn't have a lot of. We had good athletes, maybe, but skill. And I remember, I think I told you I went to a Kin Cheritao gold medal camp and he called all the other states to crab walk across the mat. And he hadn't called mine because he didn't know anyone from Georgia was there.

[Chad Gable]

Wow.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

No, you never called Georgia.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah, he called Georgia and it was just me. And it was awkward because I had to go all the way and come back. I'm like, I'm the only one. I went by myself because that was the only way I thought, I gotta get better at this in case I want to pursue it beyond, you know, on a. On a collegiate level. That was my phone, by the way. Did you hear that? That was my phone. Points off. This guy named Matt Brickley. Yeah. He's actually an amateur wrestling guy.

[Commercial Announcer 2]

This is.

[Cody Rhodes]

The ears are burning. The ears are burning. This is the head coach at my old high school. And so he was not my coach, new coach. And he brought good old Midwest, good old every other place besides the South. He brought that amateur wrestling energy. His kids wrestle. Here's my question for you. What would you point a kid at to watch from an amateur wrestling standpoint? What would you say is something they could watch to get them into it? Because pro wrestling, if you've ever seen the south park episode, is not gonna. If they're watching pro wrestling, they might have a misunderstanding of what right it is. You know, Greco freestyle folk style, whatever it may be. What's something that can get them in to amateur wrestling?

[Chad Gable]

Man, you've. Have you seen Vision Quest?

[Cody Rhodes]

Of course.

[Chad Gable]

I showed my son request this year.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And like, he loved it.

[Cody Rhodes]

Okay.

[Chad Gable]

And I was very hesitant because there's like, he's only six and there's a scene or two in there that might be questionable for a kid of that age. But it hit hard for him.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

It's just enough to understand the sport and what rewards it can give you.

[Cody Rhodes]

Madonna is in Vision Quest.

[Chad Gable]

Yes. Correct.

[Cody Rhodes]

Who's seen Vision Quest in this room? You should all See, that's a tragedy. It is a tragedy. It's a great sports movie. It is. It just happens to be about high school wrestling.

[Chad Gable]

I think to this day it's still the best amateur wrestling movie ever.

[Cody Rhodes]

Oh, they've never come close. I don't think that's incredible, him going up the steps. Oh, my gosh. Carrying the log, weighing in naked. Yeah, that's a big part of it. Like the confidence and you just weighing in naked. The whole deal. Yeah, it's a good one. I'm telling. Yeah, that was the whole thing. All right, sports fans, this is the tag team you've been waiting for. Affirm and Fanatics have joined forces. You can grab your fan gear today and pay over time with a firm. You get simple monthly payment options. No late fees, no hidden charges, and no surprises. Just flexible plans that fit your budget. Whatever gear helps you be the fan you want to be, like a New Jersey, the latest collectible, or a classic throwback. A firm can help you make it yours with a payment plan that works for you. Because being a fan isn't about spending more. It's about backing your team, your heroes, and your story your way. Visit affirm.comwwe to get started or download the Affirm app. It's free on iOS and Android. With Affirm and Fanatics now, every fan can own their moment, subject to eligibility. Terms apply. There's nothing like the American Express Platinum card. Find out your welcome offer after you apply, which could be as high 175,000 points. Learn more and find out your [e-mail] explorer Platinum. Terms apply.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

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[Cody Rhodes]

But anyways, so Vision Quest. That's where we want to send them. That's a great one. Is there a match out there?

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Or is it. Watching the NCAAs? Is there. Is there something that. I mean, UFC is a great. I love when I find out a guy's got a great pedigree there because I got a sense of where that's going.

[Chad Gable]

I have a match that stands out to me, and it's going to be obscure for anyone else, but, like, there's a Greco Roman finals match with one of my youth coaches, Brandon Paulson. This was to make the Olympic team in 2004. And it's two smaller guys and they went into overtime and then a second overtime. And no, they. Someone had to score a point. And this had never happened where they didn't want to go to criteria, because if they went to criteria, they would just. Well, that guy had an extra stalling point, so he wins. But this was to go to the Olympics, so they didn't want to end it that way. So the referee didn't know what to do. He kind of. You can watch in the match, he kind of throws his hands up and he just says, start the clock over. Start the clock over. And it happens three times, and they keep going. They wrestle for, like, over 30 minutes. Something close to. I don't know how long the match was. And you can see the crowd as he's telling them, roll the clock over. Everybody just gets up as a sign of respect and just starts clapping and, you know, round of applause, standing ovation, and they're both leave the match just bloody and beaten. One guy's heartbroken. They're both crying, they're hugging each other. And it's just a prime example of, you know, everything that wrestling will. Will give you in life.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

I always liked the accountability of. Of it. Sure. You were either not good, didn't do the work, or you were good. Yes, did do the work. You. It was. It's funny because my dad never really cared. Again, this is Georgia. We weren't at this competitive level that you were at, but my dad never cared for the dual meets. Sure. It was all about the tournaments.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

He was like, yeah, yeah, they're on a team.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

But, you know, some are on the team and some are on the team, you know, but there was always something about it. You, you, you. You got to become. I did in my case, before things took off for me, I got to Become a very good loser.

[Chad Gable]

Yep.

[Cody Rhodes]

I got to be okay with okay, shake his hand, run off. Because I'd see kids, you know, when I watch the NCAA is they'd always run off the mat. And I thought, man, all right, no matter. Win, lose, you. That's the thing. So there was an accountability I liked from amateur wrestling that I think nothing else has.

[Chad Gable]

No, it's stuck with me to this day. I think it served me very well in life. Just like the onus is on you and you alone. And it's really helped me not blame outside sources for anything most of the time in my life. You know, it's like you can usually do something about your situation most times. And wrestling taught me that you take accountability.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah. What a. But the truth. You're telling the truth.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

But I feel like I. I try to live the way you're speaking right now. It sounds so goody two shoes, huh?

[Chad Gable]

It does. It is.

[Cody Rhodes]

Oh, for sure. Yeah. It's.

[Chad Gable]

It's.

[Cody Rhodes]

It's salt of the earth.

[Chad Gable]

It is.

[Cody Rhodes]

It's. It's. It's not. It's not what anyone ever wants to hear.

[Chad Gable]

And it's not easy. It's like maybe one of the hardest things to do.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Because you can certainly find someone to blame for everything.

[Cody Rhodes]

Sure.

[Chad Gable]

If you want. Yeah. So it takes. It takes some integrity, I think.

[Cody Rhodes]

Speaking of someone to blame, do you. Do we say anything about the other? I mean, now the mask is off.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

I think we can say. But our other. Your. Your counterpart there, your nemesis. However we'd like to. Is there any. Anything we'd like to say about him in that moment or anything as he continues to grow and. And move down there like wildfire.

[Chad Gable]

Just what a magical thing he's done.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I mean, I took umbrance with him, taking this thing that I. I had created, I had built. But far be it for me to discredit anybody for taking it to a level that he did, because that is not something that's easily done in this place. You could be saddled with something like that and really put on a Boo Boo face or something and say I hate this. And I've seen it happen a million times. And he did the exact opposite and turned it into absolute gold.

[Cody Rhodes]

I watch you in many situation particularly circling the intercontinental title for. And. And this is not. This is WrestleMania's past. I feel like you. You very good about no Boo Boo face. And I'm a big. You know how they tell you all the old time wrestlers are big on. Oh, you don't Sell it. Yeah, don't sell anything. I sell everything. You will know when I'm not happy. You'll know when I'm. It's. Yeah, you'll know. Try not to in the, in the moment, in the pro. Like, as a pro, you never want to in. But during the day there's a lot of hall of Fame boo boo faces. Yeah, sure, yeah. Trying to think of a real hall of Fame boo boo face that we can just, you know, blast. Here's something that's happened and. And everyone in here should know this and is responsible for this as well. Wrestling media has now discovered this podcast and they like to clickbait it and aggregate it.

[Chad Gable]

Okay.

[Cody Rhodes]

And I would say to them, it's only going to get worse. It's our podcast. We're going to say what we want. And yeah, if I tell a story about a workplace proximity associate or even a friend, I stand by it and most people are asked and if not, run it. But it's only going to get worse. So if you guys need to get your news from this, we will do that. There'll be news. Breaking news. I mean, not breaking news. But I am curious because we talked about this and I thought, ooh, he has a unique experience that very few have. You're under the booking tree, the learning tree, and under now the tutelage and guidance of the Undertaker.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

And not just in a locker room. Hey, here's what you can do, pal. It's a whole nother thing. Sure. How has that affected you as a performer, as a wrestler? Talking about commercial, talking about artistic. How has that affected you?

[Chad Gable]

So as far as Undertaker goes, I think he gets the credit for pulling something out of me that a number of people have tried to over the years and just haven't been able to. And for whatever reason he was. I've thought a great deal about it. Why. And I've always had these coaching figures in my life through amateur wrestling that I've always looked up to is like, you want to please these guys because they are. They're your coaches and you want to make them happy and deliver what they're looking for.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And he was a guy that, I think for a long time, I never, I never was giving him what he wanted. And it was frustrating the hell out of me. Like, I'm a guy that needs that progress. I need to see progress. And I wasn't getting it with him. I was like, man, I'm not giving him what he needs. And then finally one day he gave us like the Speech backstage. And specifically, I remember he said some things right before this, like, big brawl I had with El Grande.

[Cody Rhodes]

I remember you ringside, another moment that everyone was watching.

[Chad Gable]

He lit a fire under me, and something just clicked. And he. He just turned me into wrestler, Greco Roman wrestler mode for those three, five minutes, whatever it was, Ringside, I lost myself. I was just in the moment like I'd never been. And when I got done with that and things, the dust settled and cleared. I was like, I get it. I. I see what he meant. I see what he's been talking about. And I looked at him and told him that afterwards. I almost wanted to apologize for, like, not understanding it up to that point, because then. Then it seems so easy.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Once you finally get it and it clicks. But, man, yeah, he. He had a breakthrough for me.

[Cody Rhodes]

I want to kind of, like, extrapolate on this, because I'm asking you. And I'm asking me. I'm asking. It's almost just you said it. It clicked and you got it. I think maybe the secret. This is me saying, I think. And maybe the secret to pro wrestling is it's. This is going to sound wild. It's real. And I, a slow learner, didn't understand it fully until I got into what I would say is the upper card and the battle on screen, the battle backstage, the classic lineup. They're going to earn it. He's going to earn it. I'm going to make him earn it. Starting to borderline just to shoot. Which then it wasn't. But it was.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

And like you said, after it all clicked. It seems like only after.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

It all. So I don't know, maybe that's a great discovery for us now because that. Whatever it is, whatever the secret.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You know. And cheers, by the way, to a fellow podcast man, the Undertaker. Cheers. Cheers to taker. Cheers to the dead man. And I golfed on it, of course.

[Chad Gable]

I mean, yeah. Basically says, what would you do to this guy if he stole something from you?

[Cody Rhodes]

Yep.

[Chad Gable]

Right. Think of that. Go out. He stole your lifeline here.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And he's taking it and claiming it as his own. What would you do to him? And he said that in a much more aggressive and inspirational way. But that's what he got through to me. And I said, let's try it, man. What a game changer.

[Cody Rhodes]

That's. I think we've. Here's what I like and love about this. Not enough people know what you know, and they don't know it until. And there's moments I Remember Randy telling me one time I was in Sacramento, and I was turning on Rey Mysterio, and that was the beginning of a WrestleMania story, and I was taking his mask off. I remember Randy telling me, he's in that moment, just. He's all yours. Just eat. And he's talking about Rey Mysterios.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Just eat them up, and he'll be fine with it. But the way he was describing and the way it went that night was. It was treated as if it was just sincere.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Minus a punch to the nose. It was just sincere and real. And. I don't know, we shouldn't. Maybe we should keep this to ourselves. Our knowledge. It's ours. Yeah. But also then I feel like, especially with this podcast or in general with what we do, you figure something new out.

[Chad Gable]

Yep.

[Cody Rhodes]

I was just talking about this on the ride here. I learned something.

[Chad Gable]

Found some nugget in there every time.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah. And it's like we were talking about the live events earlier.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

How much we missed them, man. How much we, like, need them. Because that's where you learn something. It's not always the, you know, the table set up on a headlock takeover. It's not that.

[Chad Gable]

No.

[Cody Rhodes]

It's something different I want to mention, too, because AAA and Undertaker, he's. It's getting a real, what I call Favreau Filoni vibe going on. But we have to mention his partner in crime, that being JB. Right.

[Chad Gable]

Mr. Borash.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

He's a special dude, huh?

[Chad Gable]

What a guy. Minnesota guy. Minnesota guy.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah. There we are.

[Chad Gable]

What a. What a pleasure to work with. Just a genius creatively. Kind of inspiring to listen to him talk about ideas that not only he has, but that he's willing and open to collaborate with us on to a degree that I just haven't ever experienced. You know, it's. It's really great. I feel like we. The whole thing was just a conglomerate effort with all of us. And he's open to everything. Yeah. Very open to communication. So just nothing but good things to say about him. He's been a pleasure to work with. It's awesome.

[Cody Rhodes]

You mentioned head coaching, Undertaker being this coach, and you've inspired, you know, coaching figures. Any others you want to bring up? I asked because I was thinking in my mind, who are the coaches that have really guided me? I had a guy named Steve Day who's a big part of it, and Triple H has become part of it in more recent times. There's nothing like a good guide, a good coach. Who else is on there for you.

[Chad Gable]

I mean in terms of life. My first high level Greco Roman coach, his name was Ivan Ivanov. He's a Bulgarian, Eastern European. Hard man. Yeah, man. But he taught me essentially everything I know about shutting up and doing the work and don't talk back and just grind it out until it's time. And he was here trying to make a life for his family and watching him do that while he was leading all of us just showed me that there's a certain level of work ethic that is required to do something really special in life. And I hadn't seen it yet or reach that level. He taught me that next level. He was awesome hard man, but awesome hard man. Yeah, hard man.

[Cody Rhodes]

You wouldn't hire an electrician to perform a root canal, would you? Just like I wouldn't hire my tailor to set up the pyrotechnics for my WWE entrance. Hiring the wrong people for the job can be disastrous. That's where Morgan and Morgan comes in. If you're ever injured by the negligence of another. Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm for a reason. Whenever I witness an injury or an accident, I automatically think Morgan and Morgan. They have over 100 offices nationwide and more than 1, 000 lawyers. With over $30 billion recovered for over 500, 000 clients. Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation. If you are ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. Yes, that's right, free. For more information go to for the people.com Cody or dial pound law. That's f o r the people.com Cody our dial pound law and let them know I sent you. This is a paid advertisement. This segment is brought to you by Morgan and Morgan. Morgan and Morgan has been fighting for the people for over 35 years. I ask you today, Chad, as my guest, is there a moment where you have fought like Morgan and Morgan fought for the people, fought for your family, fought for your friends?

[Chad Gable]

My nephew is epileptic and very heavily involved in Special Olympics. And so recently I was the ambassador for the Special Olympic Games in Minnesota. And helping those athletes and cheering them on and just being there for them, it's just been not only inspiring, the most rewarding thing I think I've done in years.

[Cody Rhodes]

What's his name?

[Chad Gable]

Peter.

[Cody Rhodes]

Cheers.

[Chad Gable]

Peter Maxim.

[Cody Rhodes]

Cheers to Peter.

[Chad Gable]

Cheers. Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

For more information go to forthepeople.com cody or dial pound law. We. We were you were thinking earlier I didn't want To. I didn't want to rile you up, but you. Because you said so kindly. It's you. A lesson we find out later is often. This was my fault. I could have fixed this. I could have done that. And it is very easy to blame some people, but let's blame some people. Sure. Let's talk about. I did not encounter Shorty G. That was yourself.

[Chad Gable]

Lucky.

[Cody Rhodes]

That was. That was gone. Done and dusted by. I did not encounter this as. As I came back to wwe. Whose fault is Shorty G?

[Chad Gable]

To my knowledge, I'd have to whittle it down to Eric Bischoff.

[Cody Rhodes]

No way.

[Chad Gable]

Eric. Maybe. I don't. I can't say that firmly, but he was the one that delivered me the news, so. Yeah, that's. I'll leave it at that.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I liked working with Eric, by the way. Another different. Another Minnesota.

[Cody Rhodes]

A different. He is. He is a Minnesota guy for sure.

[Chad Gable]

But yeah, that was interesting. Little run there.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

If that's the word for it. I don't know.

[Cody Rhodes]

Well, in the end, probably Eric just trying to find the thing.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Trying to find, you know, every. The mouse. We're all in the maze trying to find the cheese. And it's not often the choice we make. What you. As you were doing it. Yeah. Did you feel. Did you feel it had a. It had. It could work? Did you feel it could move? Did you. Did you or did you feel boxed in immediately?

[Chad Gable]

I felt boxed in.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah. And I. I think I put on the face of. This could work. We can make this work. And I tried. I don't want to pretend like I had fallen.

[Commercial Announcer 2]

Oh, yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You gave it your all.

[Chad Gable]

You know, I think deep down I knew, man, this is. This might be a killer. This could be the nail in the coffin. I had a very encouraging text from one Luke Harper after the first promo I did when I, like, essentially named myself Shorty G. Yeah. That was super encouraging from a guy like that because that was. That was a low point for sure, referring to myself as that. But he. He made me feel as good as I could have about it. And I will never forget that. And I mean, it was immediate afterwards. Took a lot of the stress off of me, but yeah, that was.

[Cody Rhodes]

So you felt boxed then.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

But you. You're. You're riding off of a moment, and you're writing to your next moment for sure.

[Chad Gable]

Right.

[Cody Rhodes]

You're writing off a moment right now that could have equally been boxed in.

[Chad Gable]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

You know, shout out to. To Brody to Harper. Shout out. Just lived it. Knew It.

[Chad Gable]

Yep.

[Cody Rhodes]

Also another. Another quality family, man.

[Chad Gable]

One of my favorites.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah. One of. One of one. One of the best. I don't know if I've told this story before, but he and I wrestled his. His last match and I. I thought we were going to have a drink together. Yeah. And he handed me a bottle and I was like, are you not going to have any? He goes, I got to get home to the wife and kids.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

And I thought, man, I will have one for. Because. Thank you. But that's where you should be. Go and do that. Yeah. So what. What a guy.

[Chad Gable]

I would say there's a few people both in NXT and the main roster. When I got to both places that were. What I say is, like, unnecessarily, like, awesome to me.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And he was one of them on the main roster from the moment I got up.

[Cody Rhodes]

Well, I mean, you got to remember we talked about it when we started up. Your shooter.

[Chad Gable]

Sure. Maybe it was just scary.

[Cody Rhodes]

People like a shooter. You know what I mean?

[Chad Gable]

You can find some clips of him trying to. Trying to shoot with me. Oh, my gosh. Battle royals. Yeah. We should dig them up. They're pretty good. He gave it his best shot.

[Cody Rhodes]

I. I look forward to the day that I tell people a lot. Finishing the story for me is going to be getting my win back on our Truth. Oh, and. And I'm hoping there's a battle royale on TV coming up at some point that the crowd is just confused why I've just tried to double leg him.

[Chad Gable]

And amateur wrestling probably like, strong as a bull.

[Cody Rhodes]

Still would probably defend just fine. But again, we're talking about breaking news, aggregating news from the pod. That's news. When R Truth and I encounter each other in the ring, I am going to shoot on him. And it might not work. It might not. But I can't wait any longer. I can't. I just had a birthday. I got to finish running out.

[Chad Gable]

That's time's running.

[Cody Rhodes]

That guy beat me like 60 times and, you know, always had some sort of lesson for me. Shout out to Ronnie, though. God bless. Now he knows it's coming. Now he knows it's. Now he knows it's coming. We're talking about Shorty G. Yeah. Do you ever do. Do the Topps cards, you know?

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

Topps. Amazing. With the line of cards and the different variants, they come out. But there are a lot.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

And the other day they asked me to get there a little early to sign some Topps cards. And I was a lot of Topps cards. But there was a lot of Stardust cards.

[Chad Gable]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

And I wrote on the 1 of 1. The lowest point in my life. Enjoy. And I signed it. And they all giggled and I thought, no, it was gang like. I'm glad this does something for someone. Now. This was a. I felt boxed in. I. That's why. Because we're talking about El Grande versus El Grande. Something about what your nemesis is doing. He's refusing.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

Again, we're talking about. At the beginning of the podcast, you had the world. It's not the first time. You had the world, too. Because I'm going to bring up another time. You had the whole world watching. Right. He's doing that with this.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

One to look out for. That's one to look out for.

[Chad Gable]

Dangerous.

[Cody Rhodes]

That's dangerous.

[Chad Gable]

It's dangerous.

[Cody Rhodes]

Stay in Triple A. Yeah, you're good.

[Chad Gable]

You got it down there.

[Cody Rhodes]

You're killing it down there. No, he's.

[Chad Gable]

You're a lifer.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah, he's one to look out for. I. I want to talk about. Because you're. I hope it doesn't. It shouldn't be deceiving, but maybe it's a little deceiving. We talked about that match. There's also a series of American Alpha matches that also had. The world was watching. Nothing was like black and gold. All of us who were on the main roster or whatever it was, couldn't get a bone like that, were jealous, blah, blah. I was down the street. I was living in Orlando at the time. Tell me. Tell me about that partnership and tell me about those matches.

[Chad Gable]

There's a term called, like, scenius, if you've ever heard this. But it's like, I love this thing because it's this idea of just a scene or this one quiet place in the world where something's happening and, like, going on at that moment in time. And I think NXT, black and gold during 2015 and 16 was like that. It was just this group of people that were so driven and competitive at the same time. It was a team, but we were all fighting with each other at the same time to be the best. And when you have that, it creates just magic. And I think that's what we had with the revival, Jason and I. Yeah, Jason and I were. We were perfect partners. Our mindsets were exactly the same. From amateur wrestling. We got along like brothers from day one when we got paired with them and we ran with them for months on end with the revival, there was a competitive spark there that I have not felt since we Were really good friends with the guys. But when it came time to do the deed, it was like, nope, we're gonna one up you every single night.

[Cody Rhodes]

Again. Real.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah, it was. That was as real as it gets. And it led to some magic. And we were just out to outperform each other. And when. And that was happening throughout the whole roster at that time, you know, singles, guys, everybody and the girls, just. Those were some of my house show matches back then. Were my favorites. Like we would do live events even just in Florida in front of 100 people.

[Cody Rhodes]

The coconut loop.

[Chad Gable]

30 minutes on a coconut loop. 2 out of 3 falls. 30 to 40 minutes on a coconut loop just for. Just for the love of the game.

[Cody Rhodes]

I feel like it's because it's you. I know the answer to this, but I'm asking because maybe I'm a bit more of a. Were they into a two out of three falls match as a fandom? Yes, if you can get them in very much out of threes. So years ago, experimenting on the main roster live events, there was a text in vote that you could do at intermission for the main event. It was very obvious what you were supposed to pick.

[Chad Gable]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

His street fight. Right. Very obvious. But one time, I don't know if it was Cena or it might have been, somebody decided to stir it up and vote for Glenn Jacobs. Kane, I forget who he's wrestling. And they decided to make it a two out of three falls match. And I remember as the big Red machine was walking past everyone who had texted a hundred times.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

At the monitor, walking past to go to Gorilla, him saying, you guys didn't rib me. You ribbed the audience. And I thought, oh yeah, we did. Kind of. I don't know if they're going to be into this two out of three falls match now. Yeah. But they were into yours.

[Chad Gable]

Yep. I think to your point, you got to have the right players in there.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

For a match like that. But they were into them.

[Cody Rhodes]

Do you think you could go 60 minutes today? Not 30, 60.

[Chad Gable]

100%.

[Cody Rhodes]

Do you think an audience would like

[Chad Gable]

a 60 minute match with the right players? Yeah, I'd be the right player for that.

[Cody Rhodes]

Well, if you're going into a 60 minute match, an Ironman match, not the half hour version, 60 minutes, what do you rely on? Do you rely on big variety, fun moments or do you actually. Brett, Sean being example from a WrestleMania, is it actually bell to bell wrestling?

[Chad Gable]

I think for me it's bell to bell wrestling. With those moments built in. We're Going, baby stud.

[Cody Rhodes]

Man.

[Chad Gable]

I'll do this thing. Talk about wrestlers, amateur wrestlers being a psycho. Where sometimes for my cardio, I'll pick an Ironman match and I will crank the treadmill to 15 for the incline and just go. And I'll say, it's not over till the match is over. And like, we'll do Brett and Sean or whatever.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And it's like, you know, sometimes it's 60 minutes some whatever it ends up being, but it's like, I love it.

[Cody Rhodes]

Do you like Brett and Sean?

[Chad Gable]

I love that match.

[Cody Rhodes]

So do I. And there's a lot of. Back to you guys. There's a lot of haters of the Ironman match at WrestleMania 12. Who are you? Who the.

[Commercial Announcer 2]

Sean had.

[Cody Rhodes]

We were waiting. Brett fans had enjoyed Brett. Sean wrestled for the title the year before and didn't win.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Back to back rumbles. If I had to wait an hour.

[Chad Gable]

Plus.

[Cody Rhodes]

Plus my dad literally had to, like, give me a squeeze.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Because when they went the hour, I thought, what?

[Chad Gable]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

What the. No, no. And then he's out. We're gonna go to sudden death. And then I knew all the old school rules of wrestling because of my family. Yeah. So I knew Brett had a reason to be like, no.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

What? I. I leave. I leave with the title. So all of that moment that I guess was real, which we're really discovering. It's just real. All of that was really. But. Oh, man. Yeah. I'm leaving this podcast with you today, figuring out that the biggest secret to what we do is it's incredibly real.

[Chad Gable]

I can't wait to wrestle you again. Hey, real baby.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

You better be ready.

[Cody Rhodes]

Have you heard what I said about you on the podcast about wrestling you.

[Chad Gable]

I don't. I don't know.

[Cody Rhodes]

Okay. So I said. I forget who I said it to, but I said, normally when someone suggests, I'll pick you up and it's like a ddt. It was like a Northern Lights type positioning.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

I'm longer and lankier and a bit awkward as a body type, but it was the one person. This is what I said where I didn't question it because I knew you had the strength to do it. But if it had been anybody else, I would have been like, ah, the classic what a compliment doesn't work for me. But I remember doing it because we wrestled that night. We wrestled so much.

[Chad Gable]

Was.

[Cody Rhodes]

There was. There was a great deal happening in my life. I believe I found out what was going down at WrestleMania earlier that day. And I nonetheless was Going to see it through. We. I never wanted the audience to lose any faith.

[Chad Gable]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

So I wasn't going to lose faith in me. But that was such a fun time.

[Chad Gable]

I have such fond memory of that little period because I found out out of nowhere, I was, like, working out in my home gym.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And I got a call and they're like, hey, are you at home right now? Yeah. Smackdown's in Minneapolis. Like, you want to wrestle Cody? It's like, yeah, I think it was that night. Or like the next day, maybe. And then we had a promo seg, too, which, like. Yeah, I don't ever get that really, with especially a guy at your level. So, like, to me, it was bonus. And then the match itself, I was like, as far as a TV match goes, like, that was so. I loved that. I loved that. Felt like it was aggressive, hard hitting and just. What a blast, man.

[Cody Rhodes]

Well, I mean, TV matches, as they go, you bring them up, they. They don't always hit that way. But I can say, I think a big, you know, question for me is coming off of what we talked about right at the beginning, because we're not beating around the bush here, not today. Is we talked about what you just did, and, you know, El Grande versus El Grande and having the world watching it. And now seeing you last week, what do you feel is the next mountain you want to climb? And. And I don't want to. Again, we don't have to break any news, but feel free. What is the next mountain you want to climb here?

[Chad Gable]

I mean, without being a total cliche, Like, I need. I think I need to win a singles championship at this point for myself and just for my legacy in order to take the next step. You listed off some of my achievements at the beginning, and they're all tag team stuff, which is great. And they were all. I have fond memories of it all, but, like, where's the single stuff I need to convince myself that I am what I have said I am. There's a big part of that for me. There's a conviction there that's like, I'm a big guy about. Like, if I put something out in the universe, I have to deliver. I think that's something that's been a strength of mine and served me well my whole life, whether it was for amateur championships or just even getting to the wwe, things like that. Like, if I say something publicly and make it known, I see to it that it gets done. I don't know how always or how it works out, but I do. This is One that I haven't done yet, I haven't made happen. And I've said it. So it's weighing on me. And I think that's the next step.

[Cody Rhodes]

Sure. And I mean, Singles Championship goes is, you've got the World Championship, the WWE Championship, the United States Championship, the Intercontinental Championship. You being on raw, I think we're circling the Intercontinental Championship.

[Chad Gable]

And also to that point, I was reminded just recently that I said on TV once, I swear to God, I'm winning that championship. And I was taught from a young age, you don't swear to God something unless you're gonna do it. And I. That one hit me hard. It's like, you swear to God you were gonna win that Intercontinental Championship, so I better do it.

[Cody Rhodes]

Listen, swearing to the man upstairs, definitely, and I fully understand the concept of it was very helpful for me over the course of my career. I needed to will things into existence. If you told me something couldn't be done, I needed to tell you it could be. I needed to rally those who believed in just confidence. Even if they didn't believe in me, they believed in the confidence. I'm going to tell you that these things on this list are important, but I will say this. As wrestlers, often we have to say things about what we're going to do, knowing we may not do them. And I learned a very valuable lesson from a guy who gets way too much credit on this podcast. So we're not going to say his name, but I learned a very valuable lesson that that is part of the job. Sure, that is part of the job, and I hated that. But it helps remind us that we're the collaborative effort of what we do. Such and such as belief helps it no matter if I'm up or down. Their belief, if it's tag team wrestling, they say this about this all the time. Working the apron, if you don't care about the guy getting beat up, if you don't want that tag, the audience doesn't care. Exactly. So you caring means they care. But you did swear. You swore upwards.

[Chad Gable]

That's a big one.

[Cody Rhodes]

A Minnesota boy. Yeah. So you got plenty of time.

[Chad Gable]

Make it happen, man.

[Cody Rhodes]

I would. I would wager I'll go ahead and put it out into the ether. Breaking news. I'll put it out into the ether. I think you will capture your singles championship and I think you'll capture more than one before the end of. Before the end of all this. So now we're both screwed now. Now we're. You heard it now.

[Chad Gable]

Now that's in the ether. Now that's out there.

[Cody Rhodes]

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[Commercial Announcer 1]

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[Cody Rhodes]

Do you want to talk about Otis at all?

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

I don't know. Do you know that my experience with Otis.

[Chad Gable]

I better have a little sip before I get to all this.

[Cody Rhodes]

I came back and I knew WWE had changed, but also I thought plenty of things were the same. And I remember they didn't even do the long international tours anymore.

[Chad Gable]

They were short.

[Cody Rhodes]

It's like two nights on the Bus. They were little. They're actually pretty healthy. They were just these little pack show. But I got on the bus and I wandered to the back, but I didn't go all the way back. I was new. Wandered to the back, and there he was sitting at the little table portion. And he had a full bar. A full bar. And he had a fan for himself.

[Chad Gable]

Oh, yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

He had a fan and a full bar. And I thought, this guy is. Yeah, this is it. Yes, we're back.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah, he's bringing it back.

[Cody Rhodes]

Wrestling, baby. But then I looked on the sheet and I saw we were only on that bus one night and it was only going like an hour and a half.

[Chad Gable]

Yes. So.

[Cody Rhodes]

So none of it, like, I don't think any of it got consumed. Yes, it was wild, but also about. About big O. I feel bad. He gets going in a way that's almost Cajun.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

He gets going in a way that he says stuff to me all the time. I have no clue. And I always am a yeah man.

[Chad Gable]

So fortunately, I speak Otis, okay? For I've known the guy for on almost 20 years. He used to wrestle my brother, my younger brother in amateur wrestling. So I coach against him. Anyway, I speak Otis, and I know when other people don't. And I learned this from my parents or dealing with my parents when he would talk to them. Because I'm looking at my dad as he's telling my dad stories and stuff, and I'm like, my dad has no clue what he's talking about. Not a single word. Not only does he not know what he's talking about, he can't understand half of what he's saying. So I taught my dad just to do the thing just like what you said. Huh? Huh? And if there's something relevant or something important that he is trying to communicate, I will get that across to you. And so I dealt with that, being his tag partner for a long time, just teaching guys, if any of this is relevant, I'll make sure, you know. But for now, enjoy the guy because he's. He's the man.

[Cody Rhodes]

What an athlete, too.

[Chad Gable]

Just so explosive.

[Cody Rhodes]

What a. What an ass.

[Chad Gable]

Gary Strong.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I took a mitt from him and the Royal Rumble, like, two years ago that I swear, I still feel in my jaw or my back, like left side of my molars, because it's just unbelievable, the weight behind that thing.

[Cody Rhodes]

I love how you said mitt.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah, that's what they are, man.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah, they're mitts.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Mitts.

[Cody Rhodes]

I heard someone describe John Candy's hands as Mitts. There you go. And Chris Farley. I also heard the same. They're mitts, and they had. The nimbleness that you didn't see was there. You know, there was a quickness and athleticism that was there.

[Chad Gable]

You know, he's like one of those guys that. He wouldn't harm a fly, you know? But if he ever got unhinged and went off, everybody's. Everybody's in trouble.

[Cody Rhodes]

How do we get him unhinged? Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I don't.

[Cody Rhodes]

You've got the secret to that. You don't want.

[Chad Gable]

I think I do have the secret,

[Cody Rhodes]

but I don't want to stir it up a little bit.

[Chad Gable]

We're done for in that case. And he's.

[Cody Rhodes]

He's. He's definitely a special athlete.

[Chad Gable]

Sweetheart man.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

The truest of friends.

[Cody Rhodes]

Will you. As far as we talked about JB and we talked about the Undertaker and we've talked about these different moments where you've had the attention of the audience in terms of whether it was at nxt and then obviously what you've been doing recently. You're talking about these Iron man matches that you're watching and putting it on. Who's someone. Because you're a wrestler's wrestler. Who's someone you're watching right now as far as that, you're picking things up from.

[Chad Gable]

I find myself going back to some of my tape trading heroes when I was a younger kid. So lately I've been watching.

[Cody Rhodes]

Do you. Do you classify yourself, by the way, as a tape trader?

[Chad Gable]

For sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

Wow.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

A lot of people are fake nerd girls on the tape trader. They say they were, but, like. Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I mean, if I was one of the fakes, I wouldn't know it because I had. You had. My wall was full of.

[Cody Rhodes]

Okay.

[Chad Gable]

I mean, that's it. I obsessed about it.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I made my own labels for, like, everything and then would ship. You know, it's big time. So Kibashi right now, I go back and watch a lot of him. Liger. These guys that just inspired me because of their uniqueness. Like Kibashi's facials and the way he would get across the emotion of, like, pain and anguish but then come out of it. Yeah. And ligers just athletically his style and it was just different. Different to me, that stood out. And there was a lot of that going on in wcw too, at the time. But this was like, to me, next level, you could.

[Cody Rhodes]

You could drop right into WCW during that period and you would have.

[Chad Gable]

There's some guys.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah. You would have had the time of your life.

[Chad Gable]

Oh my gosh. Some of these guys. Yeah. But I, I'll go back and watch that stuff and I'll go back and watch, you know, even guys like Stan Hansen just because of some of that realism stuff we talked about.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

When you watch a guy like that make an entrance in Japan and he looks like, like the people are scared of him, you know, as he's coming

[Cody Rhodes]

through the also again. Israel.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

I need them to know I'm. I'm dangerous.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

So I'm swinging the bull rope and if you get out of the way, get out of the way. Otherwise I got you. You know, they, he needed them to know.

[Chad Gable]

I love it, man. I'm watching stuff that it makes me feel something now.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah. You know, you like Liger and I, I grew up, I loved Liger growing up. What a unique again. Could have fit anywhere, anytime. Every part of that was successful. Whoever came up with the presentation of it. The fact that what he was doing. But also he was a bigger light heavyweight. So sure fit into anything.

[Chad Gable]

He's what made me think like I had a couple friends in amateur wrestling that we started wearing warm up clothes that we called thick clothes because Liger had that thick.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Build that I thought was so cool. He was short, stocky, but he moved like a, like a junior, you know.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Shooting star press like with a tuck that nobody else had. Just every little thing he did was.

[Cody Rhodes]

I like how you said junior.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

It's funny that you didn't you. Because your, your experience in wrestling, pro wrestling is all wwe.

[Chad Gable]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

It's funny you didn't see all like, you know, the juniors and stuff as far as in Japan and all that. But just knowing Junior, I'll tell you some, some crazy thing because you mentioned Kibashi.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Right. I obviously know. I feel like I know my wrestling.

[Commercial Announcer 2]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

I, I love it. And I made a mistake the other night that I'm not gonna forgive myself for.

[Chad Gable]

Okay.

[Cody Rhodes]

One of our peers, I won't say which, does this move where he runs you to the ropes, hits you with a knee, runs you to the other ropes, hits you with a knee, then pulls you to the center and he gives you like this big chop across your chest. The running of the ropes knee part. Do you remember a wrestler named Val Venus?

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

Okay. So I remembered that he did that.

[Chad Gable]

Okay.

[Cody Rhodes]

So when this person mentioned it, I said, oh yeah, the, the Val Venus. And he goes no, Kibashi. And I, I can never go back in time and correct. Have I done what Exactly. So I've limited my spectrum and scope of the entertainment to that attitude era of wwe. But, yeah, I'll never choice. I will never. It was what I thought. And I. I actually like the need. Move them along the knee. And that's how I teach kids Nightmare Factory how to run the ropes. Is going with them.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah, yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You know, move them. I remember those four steps. Yeah. Kabashi's kibosh is a special one. Yeah, yeah. There's. I. I don't know if I mentioned this on the show before, and it's maybe something you've seen, but I always would. I would always get irritated when you hear people talk about, you know, in Japan, they're not selling.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

And I. I'd say they are very much selling.

[Chad Gable]

Sure.

[Cody Rhodes]

They're selling that. They're not hurt.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

You know, it's like when you go out and you get drunk, you don't pretend to be more drunk.

[Chad Gable]

Right.

[Cody Rhodes]

You pretending to be sober. I'm okay.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You know, like, you walk straight, you pretend to be sober.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

That's very much the case over there is I'm not her. And then you see it finally set in.

[Chad Gable]

When the big one happens, you see it. It. To me, it becomes all that much more real.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Oh, now he's screwed. Like, just saw it.

[Cody Rhodes]

And I think to tell those stories, you need a little more time, for sure. Which is funny because when you come over and you have a more American style, it's a. A little bit of like, right away, grabbing what hurts and moving to that. And then the time is more at a premium, but nothing like when you have a good amount of time. My gosh. Oh, man. I'm so glad you came on the podcast.

[Chad Gable]

Thank you, Cody.

[Cody Rhodes]

I am. I am so. I'm so glad you're here. I want to ask you. We talked about Shorty G. This is going to be a different G. You have a very unique rivalry on record with who I call Big G. With Gunther.

[Chad Gable]

Yes, sir.

[Cody Rhodes]

Who is. Who's been on the pod before and retired the greatest of all time, John Cena. All of that talking about singles titles, talking about your next. Your next step. All of that looked like it was heading towards you becoming intercontinental champion or competing again at WrestleMania for the Intercontinental Championship, it seems. And I'm not. I don't want to speculate, please. A bit of a swerve in all of that. But you again, still standing.

[Chad Gable]

Still standing.

[Cody Rhodes]

Elton John style. Still standing. Just looked at it as an opportunity and not. Woe is me. Which we got a lot of that, by the way.

[Chad Gable]

Sure. Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Here I am. Breaking news. A lot of woe is me. You know what I mean? Yeah. Guys, this is the greatest job on earth.

[Chad Gable]

Figure it out.

[Cody Rhodes]

Thank you. Yes, yes, yes, yes. But your. Your mindset during that period, I'm curious what it was.

[Chad Gable]

Super hungry, super motivated. Because he was the first guy, I think, kind of at that level that I had mixed it up with for any length of a program, you know, like multiple matches. And we had some chemistry, man, me and him, and still do. Like, we did it on live events. We did it, and it was great. One of my favorite opponents, so I wanted to go all in on that. I made some of these vignettes on

[Cody Rhodes]

my own, I remember.

[Chad Gable]

And. And I was doing everything I could.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And it didn't pan out. Now would I say, Am I surprised that it didn't? No. I don't know that that was ever the plan. I was still in a mode then where I was just trying to do whatever I could. I didn't have anyone telling me, here's the plans, here's what's going to be in the pipeline for you. Nothing. I was just doing what I could, and I think I took it as far as it was going to be taken at that time, and I accepted that. Frustrated. Yeah. But it was one of those moments that was clear to me.

[Cody Rhodes]

You.

[Chad Gable]

You don't control everything here. You can't just. You can't just work your way into success. Like you can work. It's not like amateur wrestling, where the harder you work, you're gonna see the results.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yes.

[Chad Gable]

They don't. It doesn't exist like that. It's not that kind of place. And that's fine.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I had to come to terms with that, and I have now. That doesn't change the work ethic part of it. It's still in there. Otherwise, I'd be ashamed on a daily basis. But it was eye opening. And so it served me going forward because now I'm doing the same thing. The El grande Americano stuff again, like I said with my nemesis, he could have taken that and done what a million people would have done and said, oh, I hate this. I don't want to do this. I could have done the same.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I loved doing that. It was so fun. From the moment I put the mask on, it's like, this is something totally new. And that far into my career, being able to experience, like, new things in a whole new wave of, like, being a luchador like that. I Had never even considered. Yeah, it was magic. It's like I was freed by that. I told people I was, like, dancing on my entrances, which I don't ever dance. And, like, just having the mask itself on made me. It just freed me. And so it was just a great experience. And, like, if you look at everything as potential for growth, potential for success, that there's something in there you can take, and then the sky's the limit. You just have to have those glasses on when you're looking at stuff like that.

[Cody Rhodes]

You mentioned that you were doing these on your own and you were trying to create something. One of the things I see a lot with younger wrestlers and when I was a younger wrestler, is doing it once, trying to do something to themselves, and then when the results aren't there, never doing it again. Sure. And I think you'd be the type that say, you know now exactly where you're going. Say you have more information than you ever did. Say, you know, you're. You would still do it.

[Chad Gable]

So that's insane that you just said that, because I was talking to a guy, my friend this morning, Cole, that helps me with these things, and we've got a whole plan for one now, regardless of where everything goes.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I can't stop. It's like, I take this stuff home with me, for better or for worse.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

I take it home with me, and I have for 13 years. It's all I do.

[Cody Rhodes]

Dude, you're addicted.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah. Let's go.

[Cody Rhodes]

Let's go. It's not unhealthy at all, guys. We're into this. We like this gig. But no, that's the. It means you love it.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

I think a lesson that I learned one time before, even before Stardust, I was on. I think it was we're all at the time might have been smackdown, but I. I wrote, like, six guys.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

All peers of mine. No, no, he. I wrote them on a sheet of paper, and I wrote something next to them all next to them that they had better than I did.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

It was silly stuff. I remember for, like, Dolph Ziggler, it was abs.

[Chad Gable]

Oh.

[Cody Rhodes]

It was, like, silly stuff, but it was. Hey, I have to cover this spread.

[Chad Gable]

Yep.

[Cody Rhodes]

And then I can get ahead of them. And it wasn't until. It wasn't that I put that away. It wasn't until my lesson for me was until I started competing with me.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

That I found any type of bone. Any type of. Okay, now we're going. Because that's a big mistake. Is. Well, such and Such doesn't care as much. Or such and such is late all the time. Or such and such you this. That. That's never going to help.

[Chad Gable]

Welcome to a life of misery.

[Cody Rhodes]

Right. 100.

[Chad Gable]

That's screwed.

[Cody Rhodes]

It's never going to help you. It's good to go through early, I think. But after a minute, don't worry.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah, they.

[Cody Rhodes]

They're gonna get what they're gonna get. And. And you. You, if you really think of it, are gonna get what you want if you actually put in the time and effort. I had that situation with multiple tag partners.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

Every tag partner was always better than me.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

And I was told they were better than me. One I was told, don't bring him down flat out, you know? So for me, it became, I gotta compete with these guys. And I remember the moment. I don't want to use the word surpassed and be dramatic.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

But the moment I moved past them creatively, I wasn't stoked.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

I didn't think, like, got him. I remember feeling like, oh, that's kind of sucks.

[Chad Gable]

It never really delivers.

[Cody Rhodes]

It didn't deliver. It wasn't. It wasn't a feeling like, you know, it was more of a. Well, I hope he works hard. I hope he gets something too, you know?

[Chad Gable]

But if you have that same relationship, but to yourself, and you prove yourself wrong, if you say that I'm better than what I thought. That does deliver every time. If you. If you exceed your expectations, meet them and exceed them every time. That delivers.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

In a way that the vice versa just couldn't. It's. It's very true.

[Cody Rhodes]

We got deep here today, man. We got deep. We could have just surfaced. We could have got. We could have just surface leveled it, you know, Buried Bischoff.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You know, we should get him on, by the way. We got to get his defense for all this. Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Someday.

[Cody Rhodes]

Someday, maybe.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You know. Hey, hey. Breaking news. Who knows? Chaos Theory. Classic American Mule bought to us by our friends at Wheatley American Vodka. And we always like to do the American Dream Team. I consider myself in Wheatley, the Dream Team. I like to ask my guests, what is your Dream Team? And lately, we just overly qualify. I don't even. I have to start right in on. There is no wrong Dream Team. There is no right Dream Team. You pick a hundred people or you

[Chad Gable]

pick four people just for life.

[Cody Rhodes]

This is who you. I like to think this is your WWE specific Dream Team, which often, in your case, as we found out, you. You're addicted.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

You're. You've got the sickness. You got the fever. So who is. Who is going into this with you? Who's on. Who's with you?

[Chad Gable]

Otis.

[Cody Rhodes]

I knew it.

[Chad Gable]

I mean, no question. Jason Jordan.

[Cody Rhodes]

Hell, yeah. Nice.

[Chad Gable]

Finn Balor.

[Cody Rhodes]

All right.

[Chad Gable]

Gotta have.

[Cody Rhodes]

We love Finn. I mean, we love Finn.

[Chad Gable]

He brings a lot to the table.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah. He's. He's incredibly smart. One of my favorite people to sit down and talk to.

[Chad Gable]

He'd be our intelligence guy.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

And Bailey.

[Cody Rhodes]

Really?

[Chad Gable]

Yeah. I have her in there.

[Cody Rhodes]

I want. Tell me why she. Not that we need a why. She's phenomenal. Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

She's. She's obsessed. At the same level. She has that same mindset. She's from the same NXT era as me. That competitive. She gets it. Coffee lover, like me.

[Cody Rhodes]

Coffee.

[Chad Gable]

Share a lot of. Share a lot of hobbies.

[Cody Rhodes]

So you.

[Commercial Announcer 2]

You.

[Cody Rhodes]

We've said you. We've said obsessed, we've said the sickness. I. I often refer to it as the fever. Here is something that can help you with the fever.

[Chad Gable]

Okay.

[Cody Rhodes]

Because I have it. Please know. And I've sat there with our boss one time.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Please know that you have done incredible things and you will do incredible things, but you've already done incredible things. I am just telling you that as your peer and someone who loves wrestling, it ain't easy to get their attention. It's definitely not easy to get ours right. Or this room.

[Commercial Announcer 2]

This.

[Cody Rhodes]

All we do is wrestling all the time. You've done that multiple times in your career. And what that tells me, and this is what I tell anyone who goes ups and downs. It's wins and losses, highs and lows. If you did it once, you can do it again. It's. Hey, I hate using them as an example. But the Miz is the greatest example. Anytime somebody sits with me and tells me, oh, I don't think Mez is a good wrestler. Get the out of here. You get the out of here. Miz. Because he's done it.

[Chad Gable]

Yep.

[Cody Rhodes]

Right. And it's all different types of. It's. It's fun, variety, entertainment. It's the wrestling. Wrestling. If you can do it and you did it once, you can do it again, and you have done it multiple times. Thank you. You mentioned your hobbies, too. I'm gonna throw this out there at the last minute.

[Chad Gable]

Yeah.

[Cody Rhodes]

Do you remember your photo contest you did with Sammy overseas?

[Chad Gable]

One of the fondest memories I have. Talk about live events being awesome.

[Cody Rhodes]

I got to tell you my version of this. So you and Sammy decided to take a photo overseas on a tour and at the end, all the photos were going to be put up, right?

[Chad Gable]

Yes, it was. Other gallery.

[Cody Rhodes]

Gallery was going to be put up and there was going to be a vote amongst the roster.

[Chad Gable]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

On who had took the best photo. There were no rules. Right. It could be a professional camera or.

[Chad Gable]

There was no rules whatsoever. They just. The only rule was we had to take photos of the same objects. Xavier woods was also in this.

[Cody Rhodes]

And Xavier woods was in this as well. So this photo competition exists. And I don't even like leaving the hotel. So this was the most I saw of these beautiful places, was your photos on the gallery day. Here's what I always liked about this, and I don't mind putting this out there for the universe now. And I'm sure he doesn't mind either. Or maybe he does. You. You didn't win.

[Chad Gable]

A lot to say about that. Yes, I didn't win.

[Cody Rhodes]

You didn't win the Sami Zayn one. But the whole thing to me seemed like a gift to the boys. You did something that we got to enjoy. That wasn't just the matches. It wasn't just the hotels. It wasn't. You did this thing. We got to look at this gallery and go, cool. I have in my duffel bag the winning photo really asked Sammy, as a joke, to autograph it. The autograph I got is not a joke. It's a full note about how grateful he was that he won and the beauty of the city and that I, I. He hopes I voted for him because it meant a lot to him. And I realized that as I was doing, like, hey, sign it for me. Autograph for me now. Oh, my God, this is real. Like, now. Again, the lesson today. So I still have it in my bag.

[Chad Gable]

He.

[Cody Rhodes]

He was into that. Oh, he was living and breathing that photo competition.

[Chad Gable]

It's exhausting thinking of his joy after he won that contest. Look, I went to art school, like I said. I'm not gonna big myself up. Like I'm some big art critic. I know art.

[Cody Rhodes]

He didn't go to art school.

[Chad Gable]

No, his. The stuff he hung on the wall was hotel art.

[Cody Rhodes]

Oh, my God.

[Chad Gable]

It was less than hotel art.

[Cody Rhodes]

Yeah.

[Chad Gable]

Now I put these gorgeous. Leave it. Leave it at that.

[Cody Rhodes]

No, we don't have.

[Chad Gable]

He was.

[Cody Rhodes]

No, that's fine, guys.

[Chad Gable]

Congrats to Sammy. Yeah, we'll do it again once these live events come back overseas. We'll do it again.

[Cody Rhodes]

For the purposes podcast. I'll find the photo because I had it. And I looked at that note the other day and thought, why did I get involved. Oh, I was just a voter, but yeah, we'll see. And maybe put it out there. Art is also in the eye of the beholder. I mean, you went to art school.

[Chad Gable]

He's Picasso in his own eye.

[Cody Rhodes]

Our friends at Wheatley Vodka, they have a little jingle. I even met the guy who sang this song. I'm gonna play it for you, and then I'm gonna ask you to replace a single word. Moscow always get the mule. Vodka this good is an American jewel. Wheatley so good I drink it neatly. If you were to take the word neatly out of the equation, what is that word for you? Wheatley. So good I drink it deeply.

[Chad Gable]

I don't know.

[Commercial Announcer 2]

To the.

[Cody Rhodes]

To the pod. Oh, my gosh. Well done. Well done.

[Chad Gable]

Is that woman used every time or no?

[Cody Rhodes]

You'd be shocked at the ones.

[Chad Gable]

That's the first one that came to mind.

[Cody Rhodes]

Used and missed when they were right in front of us. This was wonderful. Thank you for finally coming on the pod. I hope the things you said here, I hope we will it into existence.

[Chad Gable]

Thank you.

[Cody Rhodes]

I think it'll happen. Thank you again. It was inspiring and I look to be inspired more so thank you, my friend. Ladies and gentlemen, what do you want to talk about? Chad Gable. Thank you, Cody. There's nothing like the American Express Platinum Card. Find out your welcome offer after you apply, which could be as high as 175,000 points. Learn more and find out your [e-mail] explorer Platinum. Terms apply.

[Chad Gable]

Get that AMEX Gold Card ready.

[Cody Rhodes]

I'm way too tired to cook tonight. You read my mind. With the Gold Card, we can get

[Chad Gable]

up to $120 a year in statement credits. Are you feeling the Cheesecake Factory?

[Cody Rhodes]

Five guys. Either of those sound good?

[Commercial Announcer 2]

Yes.

[Cody Rhodes]

Which one?

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Both pay with the Gold Card to receive up to $10 a month in

[Cody Rhodes]

statement credits at participating partners. Uncover more ways to reward [e-mail] explored.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

Enrollment required.

[Cody Rhodes]

Terms apply.

[Commercial Announcer 2]

We have the tech to get food delivered in 15 minutes, but we all have horror stories about buying tickets. The GameTime app gives fans the advantage. Get amazing tickets in just a few taps. Fees are included, so what you see is what you pay. And the gametime guarantee means authentic tickets at the best price every time. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to concerts, sports, comedy, and more with GameTime. Download the GameTime app and create an account for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.

[Commercial Announcer 1]

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