WWE Champion Cody Rhodes Talks Gunther, Street Fighter & More

Cody Rhodes joined Suzy Shuster, who admitted she had never interviewed an undisputed WWE Champion before, and immediately the conversation turned to the thing that mattered most to both of them: Italy. The undisputed WWE Champion is on a whirlwind, leaving for a non-televised event in Liverpool, then Barcelona for SmackDown, before landing in Turin for Clash in Italy, with additional stops in Florence and Rome. Suzy, who loves Italy more than life itself, promised to load him up with recommendations and phrases.

Rhodes is genuinely excited to bring wrestling to a country where the global appetite for the sport is at an all-time high. He recalled a non-televised show in Milan last year, after which he told WWE president Nick Khan they would be coming back, and the company has not made a liar out of him. Italian crowds, he said, are rambunctious, energetic, and tireless, with a beautiful element of hooliganism that American buildings do not always provide.

That set up his opponent, and Rhodes did not pretend to be worried. Gunther, he allowed, is a big, cat-like athlete in the lineage of Terry Gordy, Bam Bam Bigelow, and especially Vader, physically imposing with a style all his own. But Rhodes pointed out that Gunther has lately been in nostalgia matches, against Goldberg, against AJ Styles on his way out, against a retiring John Cena, whom Rhodes had already beaten. This, Rhodes insisted, is a prize fight, a different kind of match, and not one Gunther is ready for.

He delivered the kicker with a smile that the show called next-level Jedi mind tricks. His message to Gunther was to enjoy the media rounds, because it is some of the most fun he will ever have, and he only gets to do it because he is wrestling for the richest prize in the game at an event Rhodes believes is becoming one of the big four. That privilege continues, Rhodes said, only if Gunther leaves Italy with the title, and he does not expect that to happen. "I am easy to find and I am hard to beat," he said, predicting he would turn up a few weeks later with the belt in tow.

The belt, it turns out, never leaves his side. Asked if a bag man carries it, Rhodes said no, he hauls it through every airport himself. WWE now tracks the championships with barcodes inside, he revealed, and if two are floating around, he keeps both on him at all times. It is a champagne problem, the kind of extra weight you would miss if it were gone, even if it means explaining yourself to every TSA agent at the X-ray machine.

What struck most was his gratitude for all of it. Because he hit his stride later in his career than he wanted, Rhodes said, he refuses to take any of it for granted, the fans in hotels, the airport collectors, the constant being "on." He copped to a boomer mentality, even though he is not a boomer, calling the whole thing a gift with a timeline on it. The retirements around WWE have taught him that, and so, as he put it, he does not really have bad days. The taboo around the title still matters to him too. He has never touched the world heavyweight championship Roman Reigns holds, because in his old-school view, you only touch the belt once you have won it.

Rhodes was candid about what comes next. He wants to grow beyond telling stories in the ring, and Street Fighter, due this October with a cast including 50 Cent, Jason Momoa, and Noah Centineo, is his first real step. Following Bautista, Dwayne Johnson, and Cena into Hollywood feels like a natural extension, but only when his run is done. Keeping the title as long as he can is the immediate goal.

He also reflected on the 2016 leap that made all of this possible, when he walked away from WWE without even signing his release papers. The confidence, he admitted, was a bluff, a big card game that stopped being a bluff the moment the fans backed him with their wallets at tiny independent shows. He surrounded himself with people who wanted to win, his wife Brandi among them, because, as he put it, mediocrity loves company, and he was never there just to take the check.