Cody Rhodes sees why his program with Anthony Ogogo was labelled by some as "tone-deaf."
In May 2021, Cody Rhodes was locked into a heated feud with former Olympian Anthony Ogogo and the rest of the Nightmare Factory. The two men eventually faced off at Double or Nothing, with Cody picking up the win over the boxing star.
The program, however, was not well received by audiences. Cody's lecturing on race relations was seen by many as tone-deaf and sent what was intended to be a "fun angle" into a complete tailspin.
Speaking with Brandon Walker on the Barstool Rasslin' podcast, Cody Rhodes spoke about the Ogogo program and admitted that he regrets almost everything about it. Though his intentions were good, he understands why it was met with such harsh criticism.
"I can, on record, just go ahead and say [that] I regret almost everything about the Anthony Ogogo angle. Almost everything about it. I'm good now and comfortable now. Anthony is a former Olympian, he's definitely someone who's a developmental talent who's going to be -- We're training him and we recruited him and we're bringing him up through the ranks. What ultimately -- I've never gone on record saying this, but this is the perfect time. I stood by what I said in the promo. I stood by it because I thought the content was good and I thought the intentions were good. However, a white guy talking about race relations, who has an American flag tattoo on his neck, I can see why people would use the terms 'tone-deaf' when it came to that. Then trying to defend it and all -- Just again, intentions were good and sincere and I was so excited about Brandi and the baby but it just -- That should have just been one where I went out and almost just winged it.
"Everything in wrestling I work really, really, really hard on. So you hear about Randy Savage, how he is about his matches and his promos -- There are wrestlers who tend to be more like Randy in terms of their preparation, and then there are wrestlers who are more like my dad who are just cutting a promo on the produce at the grocery store and it's better than most stuff you'll hear on television. I tend to be more of the big-time thinker, planner, workshop, all that stuff, and I worked on that one really hard. That's what made it even more like, 'Damn, every now and then you're going to come up to the plate and strike out.' I overplanned it and struck out. Although I stand by it. I don't have any problem with the content, but once that had happened, it set the angle in a way that Anthony, as far as wrestling age is concerned, he's like 18, he's a baby. He doesn't know what's going on. It set the angle in a tailspin where it just wasn't a classic, USA vs. UK, fun-spirited deal. I was going to go over to the UK and have the return match. Now I just never want to think about it again," Cody said.
Anthony Ogogo recently returned to the ring after 6 months away and won all four of his matches in December, both on Dark and Dark: Elevation.
Cody captured the TNT Championship on Christmas Day from Sammy Guevara. He is set to defend the title against Sammy in a rematch this Saturday, January 8 at AEW Battle of the Belts.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the Barstool Rasslin’ podcast with Brandon Walker with a H/T and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
