WWE’s Cody Rhodes joins GQ Sports to reveal his 10 Essentials. The American wrestler breaks down his daily essentials: from his WWE championship belt (“this was the title that was around Roman Reigns’ waist”) to his Nintendo Switch (“I can play Donkey Kong all day long”). Watch the full episode of GQ Sports’ 10 Essentials, as The American Nightmare reveals 10 things he can’t live without.
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00:00So, GQ, what do you want to talk about?
00:06I'm the American Nightmare, Cody Rhodes, and here are 10 things I can't live without.
00:16My first essential, I would say, is the most essential, and it is a photo of my wife, my
00:23daughter, and myself.
00:24Not just a photo of family, which obviously that's why it's essential, but at a certain
00:29point in the past year, going into WrestleMania, my tour bus set on fire outside of Lincoln
00:35Financial Field, and I had a few minutes, more like a few seconds, and this was the
00:41first thing I grabbed.
00:43These are the whys in what I do.
00:45In the entertainment business and pro wrestling, suspension of disbelief, whatever, however
00:50you look at it, competitive or performance, it's a shark-infested show business.
00:55I think maybe I used to be one of those sharks, and then I met this lady and had this beautiful
01:01little daughter, and that changed everything for me, so they're the ultimate why in what
01:05I do.
01:06It's as simple as it gets.
01:10It is an American flag baseball cap, USA, stars and stripes, baseball cap.
01:16If you go into a gas station, you can find it.
01:19If you go on Amazon, you can find it.
01:21I'm very lucky I get to be in sports entertainment and pro wrestling, because it's not about
01:25politics.
01:26It's about, hey, this is one thing that we like, regardless of where we sit on the spectrum.
01:31We like this together.
01:33Let's do this pro wrestling thing, but yeah, this hat goes everywhere with me, because
01:37it's also my little incognito hat to the airport.
01:41I've been told that my incognito outfit is actually so covert, it's overt, because I
01:48always wear this hat, and then I'll wear a sleeveless hoodie with the hood pulled over
01:52it.
01:53I try to cover up the tattoo if I'm just trying to move through, but I can say that with wrestling
01:58having hit this new phase of popularity, it's not as easy as it used to be.
02:03It's by no means a problem.
02:05It's the greatest complaint to have, but it's not just one or two people anymore.
02:09It's become kind of a madhouse whenever I go anywhere, but yeah, it's also part of my
02:14little kayfabe, as we like to say in the wrestling business.
02:20This manifestation, this physical form of the title belt, this dates way, way, way,
02:27way back, 50 plus years of history, when it was originally the WWWF.
02:33This is even pre-WWF.
02:35This was the Worldwide Wrestling Federation's championship belt, the same one that Buddy
02:39Rogers had, the same one that superstar Billy Graham had, New York legend Bruno Sammartino
02:45had, and it is the same title that in the garden in 1977, my dad put around his waist,
02:52went up on the buckle and held it up, only to have not won the title based on a technicality
02:57of someone going over the top rope, so he had it, and he let the people see that he
03:01had it and have that moment, but then it was taken away from him.
03:04That became it.
03:06I want to win this title, and while he was still alive, I wanted to hand it to him.
03:11The whole tagline, finish the story, it stems from this moment in New York in 1977, and
03:18I feel like at WrestleMania 39, last year at WrestleMania, everybody thought, oh, that's
03:22the most obvious thing ever.
03:24Cody's gonna win the WWE championship and start that run, the first time ever a Rhodes
03:29with the WWE title.
03:30Didn't happen.
03:31Things then got even hairier in a sense that The Rock decided to show back up and decided,
03:37oh, I'm just gonna take the match that Cody was slotted for, and in the end, all of this
03:42chaos, something magical happened.
03:44We get to WrestleMania 40, we finish the story.
03:47I'd say one of the things I like about the title a lot is it's no longer a matter of,
03:51it's not a nameplate, now it's all about your individual side plates.
03:55I also love that this title is specifically this generation's title.
04:00I am fond of the Winged Eagle, which is a title from the 1990s.
04:04Hulk Hogan wore it, Ultimate Warrior wore it, Ric Flair wore it, Bret Hart wore it,
04:08and I am actively trying to find a way to get that into the WWE world, but this is also
04:14the title that was around Roman Reigns' waist the night I beat him, and there's a part of
04:19that that makes me more linked to this look and this aesthetic for a WWE championship
04:24than ever.
04:27Another essential item happens to be on me at all times.
04:30This is a Rolex Datejust Jubilee bracelet.
04:34Rolexes are all special in their own way, but this is my father's Rolex.
04:39I have a couple that I've purchased.
04:40I have an Omega that I really love as well, but this one is the most important in the
04:45collection.
04:46Around the time I graduated high school, knowing I didn't want to pursue anything in college,
04:50knowing all I ever wanted to be was a pro wrestler, I got a little worried, a little
04:54gun shy that I wasn't big enough.
04:56I thought I'd be 6'6".
04:57Well, it turned out I wasn't 6'6".
04:59So I decided, you know what, I'm going to go to the Howard Fine Acting Studio in L.A.
05:03I'm going to go to L.A., and then if I get big as an actor, I can jump into wrestling.
05:07Absolute nonsense.
05:08He did everything you could possibly do right as a father.
05:11I remember leaving that morning to drive my Volkswagen Jetta from Roswell, Georgia, all
05:17the way to Studio City, California, and he had $10,000 in cash, and he had given me that
05:24to make my way out there and start and get a little place.
05:27He even set me up with a job.
05:28I'd find out later, after he passed, when going around the room with all the goods,
05:33you get this, you get this.
05:36Nobody got the Rolex.
05:37So I asked my mom, and she told me, yeah, I thought you knew.
05:40He pawned that to get the money for you to go to L.A.
05:44Three men, Bruce Prichard, Triple H, and Nick Khan, they knew where to go.
05:50This was something I received after receiving what was already the greatest night of my
05:54professional career in WrestleMania 40, right there in Guerrilla, for the world to see.
05:59It's as essential as essential gets.
06:04Right here, coming in, Suavecito.
06:07Suavecito pomade, to be specific, and it's an outstanding hair product.
06:12My mom, the Cuban side of her family, I didn't realize I was going to have the thickest hair
06:17imaginable amongst my friends, and that it would grow at a rate that is almost terrifying,
06:22especially now that all my friends are around me balding.
06:25Ha ha ha.
06:26I'm not.
06:27But this is the only stuff that they actually can do anything with this mess.
06:32It's got to have product in it.
06:34The other element of it is I am not a natural blonde, so I am coloring this hair on a frequent
06:40basis, especially with the amount it grows.
06:43This helps me on all ends, not just the thick hair, but the color-treated hair.
06:47Suavecito.
06:50My lovely wife gave me a pair of Louis Vuitton cufflinks.
06:53These are not my Louis Vuitton cufflinks.
06:55These are the first cufflinks I ever got.
06:58They're bullets.
06:59It was at a time when I had left WWE, which was unheard of, you know, nobody quit WWE.
07:05They'd fire you, or you'd stay for life, and I was a netbow baby, a nepotism hire.
07:11Dad and brother, I was going to have this gig forever.
07:13I felt like I needed to get out and actually make an attempt at it, and I went all over
07:19the world wrestling, independent promotions, different companies, refused to sign a contract.
07:25I'm bringing the same brand, the American Nightmare, the same walkout song, Kingdom's
07:29Plan.
07:30I'm bringing that everywhere I go.
07:31Along the way, I joined what's called the Bullet Club in New Japan Pro Wrestling, and
07:37they actually gave me the name the American Nightmare.
07:41I own a lot of cufflinks.
07:42I have a lot of Star Wars cufflinks, because I think people know I'm a big, massive Star
07:48Wars fan, but the go-to ones are usually my Louis Vuitton, the little dots.
07:53I feel most comfortable in a suit.
07:56I have some of the cheapest suits.
07:57I have some of the most expensive suits.
08:00It's all about the fit, and especially with what I do, you're looking for a little splash
08:05of color.
08:06You see under the lights, under the camera, oh, well, SmackDown's a blue-lighting treatment.
08:09Raw's a red-lighting treatment.
08:11You don't want to blend in.
08:12How do you separate yourself?
08:14It's all about the fit.
08:18This is one of my most essential items.
08:21It is a rock.
08:24This one is special, because my daughter made it at a little art studio, and she's only
08:30three, so she's just now starting to actually put the finishing touches on things herself,
08:35but yeah, Liberty Runnels, sometimes she'd leave a plushie behind in my bag or something
08:40like that, and I'd want to keep it, because I have that connection to her, but I didn't
08:45have anything that I carried with me.
08:48My dad always had trinkets that we made him and gave him, and he put them in his suitcase.
08:52My sister had made this little plush mouse.
08:55His name was Coco Jiwo.
08:57This stays in my travel bag, but yeah, this is a rock, not to be confused with The Rock.
09:04This is just a rock.
09:06There it is.
09:07It's just a Nintendo Switch.
09:12I don't have enough time and commitment to jump into a modern, big-time console game
09:19like an Elden Ring.
09:21However, I can get on the SNES collection on my Switch, and I can play Donkey Kong all
09:25day long.
09:26It is absolutely essential for me.
09:30Let's go top five overall on the game side of things.
09:35Number five, Ghost of Tsushima.
09:37Ghost of Tsushima works really great for me, because it's a narrative game.
09:40History of Japan is included in there.
09:43Love that.
09:44That's going to be my number five.
09:45Number four is going to be the original Halo Combat Evolved.
09:51That was the first.
09:52Obviously, I know we had FPSs before.
09:54We had Goldeneye.
09:55Gosh, it's the dangdest.
09:56It's the best, but Halo had a streamlined element to it.
10:00I am a terrible marksman in Halo, but if you put me on the back of a warthog, I can
10:04get that flag.
10:06Three-spot, Red Dead Redemption 2.
10:09I never even played the first Red Dead Redemption.
10:11I didn't even know what was going on, but Arthur's story.
10:13Plus, I have this love for America and the history of America, and here you are going
10:17through this period post-Civil War.
10:20What's it like?
10:21I loved Red Dead Redemption 2.
10:22All righty.
10:23We're down to the final two.
10:25It's easy for me.
10:26Number two is the original Metal Gear Solid.
10:29To me, it's a game-changer, and when the movie comes out and it's a big blockbuster
10:33massive hit, and everyone's like, oh, where's the source material?
10:37It's right here.
10:38Metal Gear Solid for the original PlayStation.
10:41It changed everything about modern games.
10:44Number one, right to it.
10:45The main event.
10:46The champion of all games.
10:48It's the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time.
10:51It just is.
10:52There will be people who watch this and are like, oh, Majora's Mask.
10:55Majora's Mask is like DLC, dog.
10:57It's great, but it's an extension of Ocarina of Time.
11:00Those are my top five.
11:02Boom.
11:03Good old-fashioned pro wrestling boots, which apparently are out of style these days, but
11:10these are traditional.
11:11Well, I guess not so traditional, and what makes them not so traditional is I don't do
11:16a lace-up.
11:17I do a zip and a couple buttons.
11:20Always the top two buttons.
11:21I never button the bottom button.
11:23You gotta do this Seg-1 promo, three-piece suit, ready to rock.
11:27You gotta match in Seg-6, so you gotta get dressed.
11:30The last thing I got time to do is individually lace my wrestling boots, so these have been
11:35my go-to.
11:37These are important.
11:38These are essential.
11:39Here's evidence that they're essential.
11:40Told you about that picture earlier of my family.
11:43The only other item that I got off the bus when my air conditioning unit set ablaze was
11:49my boots.
11:50Somebody was asking the other day, they were trying to define a specific point when things
11:56really changed for me.
11:58One of those specific points is the first time I put on the robe that I have now, which
12:03people liken to the character Homelander from The Boys.
12:07I think that's more the two blonde people.
12:10The design for all of my gear, the design and the work itself comes from a woman named
12:16Sandra Gray, who has outfitted almost every wrestler ever in every company and has been
12:21doing it since the early 90s.
12:27I am a big-time fan of cigars.
12:29I know it's not everyone's favorite thing.
12:31I do not encourage anyone to smoke or anything of that nature.
12:35It's just something that I found I liked.
12:37I liked the ritual of it, to be able to sit there and focus and think, pulling it in for
12:4330 seconds and then letting it go.
12:46This particular cigar is an Arturo Fuente 858.
12:51This is a Maduro, and anytime you hear Maduro, it's a darker wrapper is essentially a way
12:56to look at it, versus in a Connecticut or a natural shade that is not dark, a lighter
13:02color cigar.
13:03It's a great starter cigar.
13:05The reason why it matters to me, this is my family's cigar.
13:08It was the cigar that my dad, my brother, every year, here's another box of cigars,
13:13here's another box, and to have that element of my mother's father being from Cuba, just
13:19something I fell into.
13:20I'm not one that's, I need to be smoking a cigar every day.
13:23For me, it's got to be a kind of a milestone, you know, whether that's the one rare day
13:29off you get, or it's a big, you win a huge match.
13:34One of my favorite things on the planet and the ritual of it, it'll always be part of
13:38my life, I think.
13:39GQ, thank you so much for having me, and please check out SummerSlam streaming on Peacock,
13:45where I will be defending one of my essential items.