Photo credit: WWE 2K24
Following his announcement as the cover athlete for the standard edition of the WWE 2K24 video game on Monday, Cody Rhodes sat down with Bleacher Report to discuss the honor, as well as the Royal Rumble, The Rock, CM Punk, Roman Reigns and what lies ahead for his career.
Since returning to WWE at WrestleMania 38 in 2022, Rhodes has won a Royal Rumble, main evented WrestleMania and cemented himself as a top star in the company, but he admitted that being on the cover of WWE 2K24 is near the top of that list of accolades:
“I put it up there as the highest of highs in terms of its significance. 2K is just an unbelievable organization and to be in the same conversation as a Kobe Bryant, as a John Cena, as Rhea [Ripley] and Bianca [Belair] as 2K cover athletes, it’s hard to have a bad day when something like that is put in front of you. I know we’ve worked hard and I can pat myself on the back all day long, but the reality is I just feel very lucky.”
Rhodes is sharing the 2K cover athlete honor with Ripley and Belair, as they are both featured in the cover of the WWE 2K24 deluxe edition, marking the first time two women have shared a WWE 2K cover.
Cody seemed to take as much pride in that as his own accomplishment, especially as a father to 2-year-old daughter named Liberty:
“I think representation is so important, and you couldn’t have found two better ladies, women’s stars and just general stars in our industry than Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair. For me, it would be the same as if a John Cena was on the cover. They’ve done the work. They truly are—if you come to these live events or Raw, SmackDown, all the PLEs—the response that people have to a Rhea Ripley, the response that people have to a Bianca, there’s a real connection.
“Being a girl dad, we’ve grown up in this era of seeing that come to life and seeing that fight and that struggle and that continued struggle for representation, for funding, for all the things. I hope I can be an ally and an advocate for that always, for my own daughter and for everyone else’s daughter.”
WWE 2K24 is chock full of new additions that have wrestling fans and gamers buzzing, including casket matches, ambulance matches, special guest referee matches and gauntlet matches.
Perhaps the biggest inclusion is the Forty Years of WrestleMania Showcase Mode, which allows gamers to relive the history of WrestleMania by playing through and watching video clips of many of the biggest matches to occur on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
Rhodes is especially excited to play through that special Showcase Mode, saying:
“I think the feature I’m looking forward to is the Showcase itself because now you’ve got the Showcase of the Immortals, you’ve got 20-something matches, you’ve got a look at WrestleMania history. WrestleMania history is WWE history, is just sports entertainment and pro wrestling history, it shapes it all. Everything is just shaped by the big event in sports entertainment we call WrestleMania, so to be able to play in that, to finish your story or change a story, whatever it may be, that’s special.”
For those who pre-order the WWE 2K24 standard edition, they will receive the Nightmare Family Pack, which includes several extras such as additional playable characters in “Undashing” Cody Rhodes, Stardust, the 1976 version of Dusty Rhodes and “Superstar” Bill Graham.
Also included is a MyFaction manager card of Cody’s beloved dog, Pharaoh, which is something near and dear to Cody’s heart:
“Any time Pharaoh is brought up or talked about or, in this case, immortalized by the team at 2K, it’s more touching than people realize. When my father passed away, Pharaoh in the strangest of ways embodied a lot of my dad. I had this connection between my dad and the dog, and he just became kind of my watcher, my protector. Now he’s my daughter Liberty’s protector.
“He’s an old man now, he’s 12, he’s a curmudgeon who just wants to lay around, but there’s a deeper bond than I’ve ever had with any animal. And as he gets older and I have less time with him, I’m blown away. I was scared we would start selling these Pharaoh plushies at the live events and nobody would want him or nobody would know who it is, and they sell out or nearly sell out every single night.”
Although being on the cover of a WWE 2K video game is one of the biggest honors a WWE Superstar can earn, Rhodes still has his sights firmly set on finishing his story.
Rhodes is essentially the co-favorite to win Saturday’s men’s Royal Rumble match along with Punk, and if he is victorious, he will become only the fourth person in WWE history to win back-to-back Rumbles, joining Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
The importance of potentially being part of that elite company is not lost on Cody, especially in terms of what it would mean for his fans:
“I think a big thing is it’s validation for the fans that I have now. It was not always easy to be a Cody Rhodes fan, and whether you just jumped onboard or whether you’ve been there from the beginning through the different incarnations of myself, it would be validation, it would be vindication for them. They believed and they were right. And to be the first guy to go back to back since ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, the most prolific sports entertainer of all time, the most profitable top draw ever in the industry, I’d be very lucky to hear that, and hopefully being the odds-on favorite, hopefully the odds are in my favor as we head toward the Royal Rumble.”
A second straight Royal Rumble win would almost certainly mean Rhodes vs. Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in the main event of WrestleMania for a second year in a row, and Rhodes made it clear that is in his plans:
“I’m winning the Royal Rumble, and then I think we’re supposed to wait and say, ‘Hey, this is who I want to challenge,’ but if anyone’s been watching the story, then they know exactly who I want to challenge and when I want to challenge them, and right the wrong that happened at WrestleMania 39.
“As far as CM Punk, that’s one of the things that makes … the Royal Rumble itself so special is CM Punk also feels very strongly and deeply and passionately that he is gonna win the Royal Rumble. I don’t know if in the past there’s ever been this amount of top talent: Jey Uso, Drew [McIntyre], Sami Zayn, this amount of top stars who are vying for it and have a true opportunity.”
While Punk would likely challenge Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 40 if he wins, the one thing possibly standing in between Cody and a rematch with The Tribal Chief is the presence of The Rock.
The Rock made a surprise return to WWE earlier this month on Raw and mentioned “The Head of the Table,” which is one of Reigns’ nicknames. That inevitably got people talking about a Reigns vs. Rock match at WrestleMania.
Rhodes doesn’t envision The Rock cutting him in line and interrupting his story, though, as he noted:
“You mentioned ‘The Great One’ The Rock, nothing but respect for him. I went and saw ‘Jungle Cruise,’ I’m a Rock fan. I don’t think he’s the type that would come in and meddle with a story that’s been being told over the past two years. I think he’s probably up to something else, but you never know with WWE. I’ll be watching just like everybody else when I’m not wrestling.”
To Rhodes’ point, The Rock was named to the board of directors Tuesday for TKO Group Holdings, which is the name of the company formed by the merger between WWE and UFC.
The Rock also appeared on ESPN’s First Take on Tuesday, and while he admitted that a match between himself and Reigns could happen at a WrestleMania, he called himself a “long-gamer” and discussed his desire to have a proper build toward a match.
That could mean The Rock has his sights set on Reigns for WrestleMania 41, and if that is the case, it would leave Reigns open for Cody at WrestleMania 40 in April.
Should that happen, 2024 could be the year of The American Nightmare, as he will have been on the cover of WWE 2K24 and potentially finished his story by beating Reigns for the undisputed WWE universal title.
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