Cody Rhodes acknowledged that his constant presence at the top of WWE may be wearing on fans.
He used the phrase “Cody fatigue” while discussing his eventual retirement and admitted there is a limit to how long he plans to keep up this pace.
In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Rhodes said he has not reached the point of retiring yet, but he believes he needs to recognize when it’s time to step away.
“I have shed so much of my skin for the industry, but I have also been given so, so, so much,” Rhodes said. “I think there’s a point where you have to stop taking. I’m not there, but there’s a point, and I think that’s in that time frame, a point where you just have to stop taking. It’s given me everything.”
He also talked about his role in the Street Fighter movie.
“I am talking to you today, the first time I talked to you, I was a mid card talent at WWE, and no shame to anything in the mid card,” Rhodes said. “Mid card’s beautiful. I heard Triple H explain mid card in a way that changed my perception of it forever. But I was a mid card talent with a ceiling that was right above my head, and I’m talking to you today as someone who got to play Guile from Street Fighter, created by Capcom, a game that I played growing up as a little kid. That’s me. Again, be careful what you wish for, but also I don’t know how many moments like this I can take, and I can get hopefully more, hopefully a lot more.”
Rhodes closed his answer with a nod to how fans have been reacting to him.
“I’ve been so lucky so far and so blessed so far that I think wrestling, I mean, Cody fatigue is already pretty set in,” Rhodes said. “Maybe [he feels that]. But I think you can only go so far. And you’re only supposed to go so far.”
Rhodes had already addressed the mixed reactions he draws from fans in another interview with Van Vliet in March. At the time, he said he had come to see himself as a polarizing wrestler and felt honored by both the support and the criticism. He also said he didn’t intend to focus only on the people booing him, because doing so would hurt his relationship with the fans who continued to support his character.
As previously reported, on October 8, Rhodes said he plans to stop wrestling when his older daughter turns 11 in 2032.
Rhodes made the comments shortly after he signed a new five-year contract extension with WWE. The New York Times revealed the deal, which runs through 2031.