Quotes from Cody Rhodes

I reached a point where nothing scares me in this industry, mainly because I grew up in it. My earliest memory is 4 years old, getting in a wrestling ring.

Entertainment is changing so much because of the devices we have at our hands. I'm really proud to be on the forefront of that. You don't have to work one place. It's our generation. As much as we get knocks against us, we don't accept non-quality work in our entertainment. We're no longer force-fed. Wrestling is going through that.

Pro wrestling is what provided for my family.

I had one of the best matches of my career with Matt Cross, and I'd never met him before, until that day. Wrestling will always be in my heart.

I just had the absolute best luck in the world in terms of meeting The Young Bucks, and they might look like wild little rock stars who are irresponsible, but they are business geniuses. They set up the deal with Hot Topic, and they're going to be the first 7-figure downside characters that New Japan Pro Wrestling has.

As far as Dustin or Dusty, neither of them contributed to me wanting to be in the industry as far as encouragement. They didn't discourage it, but I think they both were indifferent as far as it had to be my decision.

I just play it safe when it comes to television because it is WWE's intellectual property. But it is literally my legal name, like on my ID. My name hasn't been Cody Runnels since I was 17. But it's theirs. At no point would I ever want to go into a courtroom with a company I have love and admiration for.

A lot of times, guys leave WWE or get fired by WWE, but there's always that little bit of buzz right when they get out on the scene, but like all buzz, it fades. But I feel really flattered that, for whatever reason, it seems to be trending upwards.

I had several decorated characters within the WWE that I was really proud of, coats of paint that changed that I could show a different side to the audience, because I've been in front of them since I was 20 years old, and none of them were necessarily the right one.

Luke Gallows is now entirely focused with WWE, but he built WrestleMerica, which was very much a Southern-based independent.

At 15, I refereed my first match, and I was training at my dad's school even prior to that, so the only thing that I was concerned about - I guess the only thing that made me reluctant and was the reason I was in L.A. and the reason I went to acting school - was I thought maybe I wasn't big enough - physically big enough - to compete with WWE.

I had seen a lot of people who had been released from WWE, or asked for their release, and gone out into the wild unknown. There's more cases of it being unsuccessful than successful.

Everything in the business is based around the idea of a World Championship. WWE, World Heavyweight Championship, Universal Title, the ROH Title, or the IWGP Title - they are all World Championships. The best of the best.

I loved WWE , but in the end, I was unhappy. It was just like planning an escape from a maximum security prison. I'd released a list of potential opponents online, so when the 90-day no-compete clause was up, I had matches booked on good faith. I thought about the follow-up.

After 10 years of WWE, in a somewhat dramatic fashion, it just didn't feel right, so I stepped out of my contract, and after 10 years of that schedule, I had all this time.

I really got struck by lightning when it came to my decision to leave WWE. If I literally think about that day and who I was then, it's drastic. It almost happened overnight for me.

I was really confident when I left WWE. I was confident that I would have a good time, and I was confident that I could wrestle differently than perhaps people saw me in the last few years with WWE, but I definitely wasn't prepared for this level of everything.

The Rhodes in WWE have a wonderful history. I'm glad they let me go. They are the house that built me, and you never know - I might be there again one day.

WWE is the biggest, most wonderful company, and they have WrestleMania, so almost any professional wrestler is going to seek that goal.

I had a habit of watching classic wrestling pretty much on repeat in the locker rooms. With the influx of talent at WWE, with guys like Kevin Owens, he was one of the first people to open my eyes up to the world that is PWG and BOLA.

Some people, they're seeking elsewhere, looking elsewhere. I love WWE, but this is the type of wrestling that I grew up on. And every week, it's bigger and bigger. And these shows are just getting more and more special.

When guys leave - whether they decide to leave or they're forced out - there's usually this period of time we see them around the world, and they can ride that WWE wave and use it, and then it goes away. It loses its luster after a few months.

It's kind of a tricky subject because I had a great time in WWE. There were highs and lows, but I cut my teeth there. I met my wife there.

A lot of the work I did with WWE had very strong comic book ties that were more than just a wink at the audience. There was a period of time when I had a clear protective face mask and a hood over my head that correlated with Doctor Doom.