Cody Garrett Runnels Rhodes is an American professional wrestler, the current Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. He ended the longest WWE title run of the 21st century by beating Roman Reigns in the main event of the second night of Wrestlemania XL.
Cody said in the most recent promo “My name is Cody Rhodes; Once undesirable become undeniable and now your Undisputed WWE Champion.”
The son of Michelle Rubio and WWE Hall of famer Dusty Rhodes and the half-brother of wrestler Dustin Rhodes, he rose to prominence during his first tenure with WWE from 2006 to 2016. He adopted various gimmicks under his real name before being repackaged as a melodramatic spin-off of Dustin’s Goldust character named Stardust.
Rhodes and his half-brother inducted their father into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31, 2007.
In September 2013, Rhodes married ring announcer and former wrestler Brandi Reed. They have one child together, as well as a Siberian Husky named Pharaoh, who has appeared alongside Rhodes on both AEW and WWE programming.
After an amateur wrestling career that earned him two Georgia state championships, Rhodes joined WWE in 2006 and was initially assigned to its developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he became a Triple Crown Champion. He joined WWE’s main roster in 2007 and throughout his WWE career, became a two-time Intercontinental Champion and a prolific tag team wrestler, winning eight world tag team championships (three World Tag Team Championships, four WWE/Raw Tag Team Championships, and one SmackDown Tag Team Championship) with five separate partners; his fourth Raw Tag Team Championship and one SmackDown Tag Team Championship were held together as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship.
Following his departure from WWE in May 2016, Rhodes began wrestling on the independent circuit and making several appearances in TNA, where he wrestled under the mononym Cody due to WWE owning the “Cody Rhodes” name until giving it up in 2020. From early 2016 to early 2017, he competed at WWE’s WrestleMania, NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom, and ROH’s Final Battle events, as well as appearing for TNA’s Bound for Glory event.
In September 2017, he wrestled in ROH, where he became a one-time ROH World Champion. He would later become a one-time IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion in NJPW and a one-time ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion (with Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson).
In 2018, Rhodes, along with the Jacksons, promoted an independent pay-per-view event called All In that took place in September. This event, in association with ROH, marked a significant moment in professional wrestling history by becoming the first non-WWE or World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promoted event in the United States to sell 10,000 tickets since 1993.
The success of All In was instrumental in inspiring the formation of AEW in January 2019. At the event, he won the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship from Nick Aldis as part of ROH’s partnership with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), marking the first time the championship had been won by both a father and son.
In January 2019, Rhodes was named as an executive vice president of the newly formed AEW, where he would also wrestle. While there, he had critically acclaimed matches with his half-brother Dustin, Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Brodie Lee, in addition to becoming the inaugural AEW TNT Champion.
Title reigns:
OVW
On May 13, 2006. He formed a tag team with Shawn Spears in mid-August 2006 and won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship twice. He also won the OVW Heavyweight Championship and the OVW Television Championship.
WWE First run
On September, he began a feud with Hardcore Holly and lost three consecutive matches to him. Later, they would work as a tag team and they defeated Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch on the Raw 15th Anniversary special episode for the World Tag Team Championship, marking Rhodes’ first championship in WWE.
In May 2008, Ted DiBiase jr. began feuding with the duo, threatening to take their titles in his first match as part of the Raw brand. At the pay-per-view event, Night of Champions on June 29, Rhodes turned on Holly by revealing himself as Ted DiBiase’s partner to help DiBiase win the match and also become a two-time World Tag Team Champion.
After holding the championship for just over a month, they dropped it to John Cena and Batista on the August 4, 2008, episode of Raw, but regained it the next week. At Night of Champions in September, Rhodes and McIntyre captured the WWE Tag Team Championship in a Tag Team Turmoil match. At Bragging Rights, Rhodes and McIntyre lost the championship to The Nexus (John Cena and David Otunga). On the October 29 SmackDown, after losing a tag team match, Rhodes and McIntyre dissolved their partnership.
At the August 9 tapings of the August 12 SmackDown, Rhodes defeated Ezekiel Jackson to win the Intercontinental Championship, his first singles title with the company. At WrestleMania XXVIII, Rhodes lost the Intercontinental Championship to Big Show, ending his near eight-month reign of 233 days.
Four weeks after losing the title, Rhodes regained it at Extreme Rules by defeating Big Show in a Tables match. On the May 7 episode of Raw, Rhodes retained his title against Big Show in a rematch after getting himself counted out. Two weeks later at Over the Limit, Rhodes lost the Intercontinental Championship to the returning Christian.
On October 14 episode of Raw, Rhodes and Goldust defeated The Shield in a No Disqualification match to become Tag Team Champions. The Rhodes brothers then retain the titles for months, over opponents which included the former champions The Shield, until they lost them at the Royal Rumble to The New Age Outlaws.
At Night of Champions, Stardust and Goldust defeated the Usos to become WWE Tag Team Champions for their second reign as a team. At Hell in a Cell, they successfully retained against The Usos. They lost the title to Damien Mizdow and The Miz in a fatal four-way tag team match also involving The Usos and Los Matadores the next month at Survivor Series.
Independent Circuit
On November 26 at WrestleCade’s Showcase of Champions, Rhodes defeated Sonjay Dutt for the GFW NEX*GEN Championship. On March 3, 2017, Rhodes appeared for Northeast Wrestling (NEW) in Connecticut, defeating Kurt Angle in a steel cage match. On March 18, 2017, Cody defeated Mike Bennett for the NEW Heavyweight Championship. On December 1, 2017, Rhodes lost the NEW Heavyweight Championship to Flip Gordon in a triple threat match.
On November 30 at Delete WCPW, Rhodes defeated El Ligero for the WCPW Internet Championship and retained his GFW NEX*GEN Championship at the same time in a title for title match. On April 29, 2017, at No Regrets, Rhodes lost the WCPW Internet Championship to Gabriel Kidd in a triple threat match also involving Joe Hendry.
On May 13, 2018, tickets to “All In” sold out in 30 minutes. At the event on September 1, Cody defeated Nick Aldis to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Cody lost the championship back to Aldis in a two-out-of-three falls match at the NWA 70th Anniversary Show on October 21.
ROH
On June 23 at Best in the World, Cody defeated Christopher Daniels to become the new ROH World Champion, marking the first world title of his career. Cody was also billed as the first member of the Rhodes family to capture a world title in 31 years. Cody and Dusty are the second father-son combination to win major world championships in the United States after Fritz and Kerry Von Erich.
On July 21, 2018, he and fellow Bullet Club members The Young Bucks defeated The Kingdom to win the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, marking his first reign. Cody and The Bucks lost the titles at Survival of the Fittest to The Kingdom on November 4 after a 106-day reign and two successful title defenses. Cody faced Jay Lethal for the ROH World Championship at Final Battle, but he lost the match. The next day, Cody left ROH.
NJPW
At The New Beginning in Sapporo, he attacked Kenny Omega with the help of Adam Page, eventually being stopped by Ibushi. This led to a match at the G1 Special in San Francisco on July 7, where Cody unsuccessfully challenged Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
On December 10, 2016, Rhodes, billed as “The American Nightmare” Cody, appeared at New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s (NJPW) World Tag League finals via video package, announcing himself as the newest member of Bullet Club.
At Fighting Spirit Unleashed, Cody defeated Robinson to win the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, his first championship in NJPW. At Wrestle Kingdom 13 on January 4, 2019, Cody lost the United States Heavyweight Championship back to Robinson.
AEW
On March 30, AEW announced a new title, the AEW TNT Championship; Cody was announced as a participant for an eight-man, single-elimination tournament to crown the inaugural champion. Cody defeated Shawn Spears and Darby Allin to reach the finals of the tournament to face Lance Archer, who also advanced to the finals. At Double Or Nothing on May 23, Cody defeated Archer to become the inaugural TNT Champion; Mike Tyson afterwards presented Cody with the title belt. Over the following weeks, Cody successfully defended the championship against the likes of Jungle Boy, Marq Quen, Ricky Starks, Jake Hager, Sonny Kiss, Eddie Kingston, Warhorse, and Scorpio Sky. Cody lost the championship to Brodie Lee on the August 22 episode of Dynamite, ending his reign at 82 days.
Cody would defeat Brodie Lee to win the TNT Championship in a Dog Collar match on the October 7 episode of Dynamite, beginning his second reign with the championship, also marking Lee’s final match before his death in December of that year. On November 7, Cody lost the TNT Championship to Darby Allin at Full Gear.
On December 25 at the special Holiday Bash episode of Rampage, Rhodes defeated Sammy Guevara to win the TNT Championship for a record third time. At the Beach Break event on January 26, 2022, Rhodes lost the title back to Guevara in a highly acclaimed ladder match.
WWE Current run
On the first night of WrestleMania 38 on April 2, Rhodes was revealed as Seth “Freakin” Rollins‘ surprise opponent, making his return to WWE after six years and defeating Rollins. On the following episode of Raw, Rhodes stated that he returned to WWE to win the championship that his father never got to hold, the WWE Championship. Rhodes subsequently defeated Rollins once more in a rematch at WrestleMania Backlash.
Ahead of their Hell in a Cell match at the eponymous event, Rhodes suffered a legitimate pectoral muscle tear, which had eventuated halfway through a brawl on the prior episode of Raw. The injury was exacerbated when the muscle tore entirely off the bone while Rhodes was weight training in the days preceding the event. He entered Hell in a Cell with a massive spot of discolored skin, but despite the severe injury, managed to defeat Rollins for the third time in a critically acclaimed match. Dave Meltzer rated the match five stars, the first WWE main roster match since 2011 to receive such a rating.
On the January 16, 2023, episode of Raw, Rhodes announced in a pre-taped video that he would return to competition in the men’s Royal Rumble match at Royal Rumble on January 28, which he won after lastly eliminating Gunther. On the following episode of Raw, Rhodes challenged Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 39. In the main event of the second night of WrestleMania, Rhodes was defeated by Reigns after interference from Solo Sikoa.
At Fastlane on October 7, Cody and Jey Uso won the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship from Finn Bálor and Damien Priest, netting Cody’s first championship win since his return to WWE, and his first tag title win since 2014. Cody and Jey went on to retain their titles against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn on the following episode of Raw and Austin Theory and Grayson Waller on the following episode of SmackDown. He and Jey, however, would lose the titles back to Bálor and Priest in a rematch on the October 16 episode of Raw after interference from Jey’s brother Jimmy, ending their reign at 9 days.
On the November 27 episode of Raw, Rhodes announced he would compete in the men’s Royal Rumble match at Royal Rumble on January 27, which he won after lastly eliminating CM Punk. This was the first time someone had won two consecutive Rumble matches since Stone Cold Steve Austin won in 1997 and 1998.
On April 6, on night one of WrestleMania XL, Rhodes and World Heavyweight Champion Rollins lost to The Rock and Reigns meaning that on night two of WrestleMania XL, Rhodes’ match against Reigns would be a Bloodline Rules match. On night two, Rhodes would ultimately defeat Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (WWE Championship and WWE Universal Championship) to capture his first world title in WWE.
