Cody Rhodes Told Vince McMahon He Never Wanted To See Stardust Again Ahead Of WWE Return

When Cody Rhodes left WWE in 2016 he’d been plying his trade as Stardust, the comic book inspired cosmic spin-off to older brother Goldust.

Whilst many decried the gimmick, Rhodes staid quiet on the matter, but revealed to BT Sport’s Ariel Helwani that part of his negotiations with WWE included a request to never reference Stardust again:

“There wasn’t any true guarantees, there was a request,” Rhodes said. “I said I never want to ever see Stardust ever again and I never want to see, hear it or talk about it and it was a handshake and that was all I needed. Then the first thing I did in the match last night was a random Stardust reference, I thought what’re you doing? You’re going back on your own strange request, other than that it was complex to get this all together and maybe one of wrestling’s biggest contracts, which I’m so flattered about. I have a child so yeah.

“But it was more a matter of, I don’t not trust people right, it’s not that I don’t trust this person’s word or this person’s words, but at this point in my career, I do trust myself, fully, implicitly I trust myself. So I know what I can do and given the platform to do it, I’m able to move on, I’m able to get over, I’m able to get what I want and that was presented to me on a silver platter last night. Nothing changed, nothing, Kingdom played, wrestling is more than one royal family and this is a world where wrestling term isn’t said that often. So to hear that was a big give from them and to be me. There’s nothing silly about the entertainment industry to me because this is my life’s work, sports entertainment, pro wrestling. I think I’m the best there is and how I define it as a wrestler, because there’s all these terms, to me what a pro wrestler is is your ability to capture people’s imagination from week to week.

“Are they talking about it, good, bad or ugly? That’s what I’ve been able to bring to the table everywhere I’ve gone and to be able to carry it without saying a word for 40 something days and them understand when I walked out felt like yup, I am the best. But, Roman and Brock are wrestling for the best, what matters the most and a title that was never on a Rhodes. Not saying anymore than that but my intentions are probably clear as to what I like and it’s another thing if it’s unattained but I don’t want it to go unsaid.”

H/T: Wrestling Inc.