On the “All The Smoke” podcast, Cody Rhodes reflected on his historic 2025 feud with John Cena. The rivalry saw Rhodes lose his Undisputed WWE Championship to a heel Cena at WrestleMania 41 before regaining it in a rematch at SummerSlam.
Rhodes described the feud as “one story told in two parts” and spoke about the honor of working with a man he considers a mentor.
“To wrestle a person who gave me his playbook. Who was the model for how I like to be as a babyface professional wrestler… To be able to stand across from a guy who was your mentor… It’s rare you get the time to actually play the game against them… [I’m] very blessed that I got to be in there with him, but in the moment it couldn’t be one of those ‘I’m blessed.’… I needed to bring everything I possibly could.”
Rhodes also praised Cena’s legendary work ethic as the key to his success, both in WWE and in Hollywood.
“The thing he’ll be remembered for is the work, is the work ethic he had. He’s set a standard that… if you’re at NXT right now and you don’t know about what John’s day was like on a Monday night… then you should look it up. Because that’s the level you need to do… the reason John Cena and ‘You Can’t See Me’ is culturally relevant is his work ethic.”
Finally, Rhodes briefly touched on his role as Guile in the upcoming Street Fighter movie, laughing off some online “haters” who, due to his lisp, have nicknamed his character’s iconic move: “Thonic Boom!”
H/T to Fightful for the transcription. Thanks for checking out this article. Make sure to follow Jeff Jarrett and all things GFE on Facebook.
