Even Cody Rhodes admits he’s thought about turning heel in WWE

Cody Rhodes is a red, white, and blue babyface.

When he talks to his young fans, aka the “Little Nightmares,” he tells them to eat their vitamins and say their prayers, or that they should stay true to “hustle, loyalty, respect,” or whatever adage is appropriate at the time and not already taken by the John Cenas and Hulk Hogans of the world.

But somewhere, deep down, Rhodes is a freakin’ heel who leans into everything he does weekly, from wearing suits to talking properly and even condescending with his use of upper crust attitude.

While fans – and Tommy Dreamer – have been pushing to see Rhodes turn heel for a while, including for most of his AEW run and even now that he’s won the WWE Championship, an appearance on Cheap Heat, Rhodes effectively said it’s not going to happen, even if he’s thought about it once or twice before.

“I think I’m lying if I say that I don’t think about it. The truth is, I’m so caught up in the connection that I have, whether it’s the friendship bracelets I get at the shows or these moments you have with the kids in full cosplay. This new generation of fan that will grow up and have podcasts and radio shows, I’m so invested in them. It’s rare when I think outside of what about a version of me that is hated, that is disliked, that is booed? I’ve certainly been booed before and booed heavily. I think minimally about it. You never say never. John’s (turn) never happened, and rightfully so. What we got there, we look back and realize the magic of what John was able to do,” Cody Rhodes told Peter Rosenberg via Fightful.

“With the time I have left contract-wise, I don’t see it. Never say never. Absolutes are the worst thing in sports entertainment and pro wrestling. Here is the tricky part; all this stuff about me usually gets people booed in the first place. There are old-head podcaster types who can’t understand it. They can’t get it. ‘Why is he using big words? Why does he have a suit on? He should be a man of the people.’ I would be such a fraud if I was trying to be like the common man Dusty Rhodes gimmick. This is who I am and who I became. It was through trial and error because my last days at AEW were certainly a heel run. They were loud and proud. I like what we’ve captured here. I don’t want to be so full of myself, but I want to make sure we honor these young fans. These little kiddos.”

Well, Rhodes does have one thing correct: darn near everything about his presentation, from his suits to his holier-than-thou demeanor to his reliance on connections—many of which came from his father—to get ahead in the industry, really are traditional heel activities. If Rhodes really leaned into that, and not in an AEW, ‘I’m a heel because I won’t turn heel’ sort of way, well, fans could be looking at one of the all-time great bad guy angles in this generation of professional wrestling, as opposed to a performer who is constantly questioned for his unusual presentation. I mean, come on, how is someone named the “American Nightmare” a babyface?