Cody Rhodes Admits He Nearly Quit WWE To Pursue Another Career

Cody Rhodes has admitted there was a point in his career where he considered giving up on WWE altogether, but not wrestling.

2022 saw The American Nightmare make his triumphant return to WWE at WrestleMania 38. Given the full persona seen in AEW, Rhodes received a thunderous ovation as he made his entrance to take on Seth Rollins after first being revealed as the surprise opponent for The Visionary.

Rhodes would go from strength to strength from that point on, beginning his ascent to becoming the number one baby face in the company, top merch seller, and reigning as WWE Champion for just over a year after finishing the story at WrestleMania 40 in 2024. However, it wasn’t always great for Rhodes.

In what is widely regarded as the worst portion of his career, Rhodes portrayed the Stardust character on TV from 2014 to 2016. The year before, Rhodes also saw his WrestleMania 29 match cut, which would have seen him team with Damian Sandow and The Bella Twins to take on Brodus Clay and Tensai and the Funkadactyls Cameron and Naomi. According to the former WWE Champion, this could have been the beginning of the end of his time in the ring.

Cody Rhodes Nearly Left WWE To Pursue Amateur Wrestling Career

Speaking with Nikki Bella on his What Do You Wanna Talk About podcast, Rhodes spoke about the darker period of his career, admitting that he nearly went on to pursue coaching amateur wrestling:

“Around the time we got cut at WrestleMania, and around the time Stardust popped up, I was going to get my degree so that in the public school system in Georgia, I could be an amateur wrestling coach,” Rhodes revealed. “I had completely given up on entertainment, on ever making it… I thought I had done everything right. I was very pity party, feel sorry for myself, all those things. Couldn’t get a look left or right.”

Later in the show, Rhodes reflected on how far he had come as a performer since that time:

“A series of things happened in my life where now I look back and I’m like, ‘Man, what the… who were you?’” he said. “‘You weren’t you.’ It’s like a gap few years of not being me.”