ROH and New Japan's Brandi Rhodes spoke to Ring Rust Radio recently. You can check out the full podcast at this link, and the submitted highlights below:
Ring Rust Radio: Your performance with Cody at Wrestle Kingdom 12 was my favorite that I've seen from you two, and you both have nailed your characters. Are you mapping out most of what you do beforehand, or is most of it ad-libbed in front of the fans?
Brandi Rhodes: This sport is such a roller coaster. For me personally, I feed off of the energy around me. So if everybody wants something and they are yelling and they are cheering or they like something or they do not like it and they hate it, I totally go off with that. So with that being said, everything of course is not planned. I was the one that started laughing after the thing that happened with Ibushi. It just felt natural like I should laugh, I got him and I should laugh so of course he started laughing and it was great. It was awesome and everybody got it at that point. Still I am very new to things so a lot of times if there is the opportunity to ask a question then I’m going to. It’s something that I’m seeing it as oh ok this make sense to me but maybe it doesn’t make sense to somebody else so I should run it by someone else. It’s really of those natural organic moments where you just know what you should do.
Ring Rust Radio: You were there first hand as the WWE’s women’s revolution kicked into high gear. Now that you are part of Ring of Honor’s Women of Honor championship tournament, how do you feel about the state of women’s wrestling and do you believe you can win the tournament?
Brandi Rhodes: One thing I know to be true is you should never put yourself in anything you don’t think you can win. You might as well be an idiot if you enter contests thinking I don’t think I can win but I’m going to try! Women’s wrestling is absolutely at its peak right now. It’s at the top of its game and is getting so much attention and so many eyes and it should be. Women are stepping up, they are performing, they are showing that we are athletes as well and we deserve the attention we are getting. This is an incredible time to be part of a women’s division, any women’s division really because they’re so solid. The girls are really good and really different and that’s great. I don’t think we have anywhere in wrestling right now two of the same girls trying to be the same girl if that makes any sense. It is just so unique and everyone is soaring right now. It’s great and it’s a positive thing and I hope that it keeps growing and who knows what heights were going to get to?
Ring Rust Radio: Many in the wrestling business say nothing can compare to the enormity of WrestleMania, but Wrestle Kingdom in the Tokyo Dome may be the closest thing. Having been part of both, how would you say Wrestle Kingdom compares to WrestleMania in terms of scale and importance?
Brandi Rhodes: For me it’s kind of an unfair question because I was in two very different roles for each of those. Naturally for me, Wrestle Kingdom had this vastness that the other didn’t because my role was so different. I’m very proud to have been part of Wrestle Kingdom and it never dawned on me the entire time I was out there that almost 40,000 people were out there too. It was just a live in the moment, enjoy what I’m doing type of thing. I don’t add a lot of pressure or take away pressure based on crowds. I am the same amount nervous at Center Stage in Atlanta that I am at the Tokyo Dome in Wrestle Kingdom. It’s all the same to me. The level of performance is the same, the amount that I want to do well is the exact same, and after it’s really cool to get to see what the feedback was socially insane and see how many people watched and how many people enjoyed the show. That’s the biggest difference show is that I would say between the two shows is how much people interact because it’s so much bigger. Really, for me Wrestle Kingdom was the greatest thing I’ve achieved so far.
Ring Rust Radio: With how successful you and Cody have been around the world in wrestling, and now expanding further into mainstream entertainment with WAGS Atlanta, has WWE contacted you about returning and is that something you would consider?
Brandi Rhodes: Wow what a question. All I can say is that we are doing really well with everything that we are doing and we are very happy on this path that we are on and we are happy for every success everyone is having in wrestling right now. I think that everything is continuing to grow were continuing to grow to sky’s the limit.
