Cody Deaner discusses doing WWE extra work in 2004.
Many performers in the world of wrestling start out on a small scale. Many talent who regularly wrestle on the independent scene will sometimes get the chance to do extra work for major companies like WWE, AEW, and IMPACT Wrestling.
This is the case for Cody Deaner, who has quickly become one of the top stars in IMPACT Wrestling. Way before beginning his career in IMPACT in 2018, Deaner regularly worked for independent promotions like Pro Wrestling Eclipse and Crossfire Wrestling. However, Deaner wrestled both Kurt Angle and Muhammad Hassan in WWE back in 2004 as an extra named Cody Steele.
In a new interview with Fightful, Deaner discussed the experience and recalled getting the opportunity to shake Vince McMahon's hand.
"That was my very first break in wrestling. I had been wrestling for four year and my very first opportunity wrestling on television, I had done a dark match that night before with a character that had a short shelf life in Muhammad Hassan. That went so well they decided, ‘That kid needs to be with Kurt Angle tomorrow.’ So I got to be on SmackDown with Kurt Angle and that also went very well. So well that when I came back through the curtain and started to walk towards the locker room, I hear, ‘Cody!’ I turn around and Vince McMahon was sitting at a table in Gorilla, behind a monitor, and he stands up out of his seat and comes around the table and starts walking towards me. So this man that created every hero of mine since I was a child, just said my name and is now walking towards me. My first thought was, ‘Oh, my God. What did I do wrong?’ Instead of him coming up and telling me something I did wrong, he took his hand, he extended it to me and said, ‘Thank you for tonight. You did an amazing job,’ and shook my hand. I was like, ‘Wow.’ You don’t get any better than that in terms of professionally. That was a very high point for me. So that high point also led to one of my first disappointments in wrestling. I go home and I have all these people calling me, people that worked in the WWE, telling me, ‘Man, you did
such a good job. Happy that you’re gonna be getting signed and have a contract and you’re gonna be here.’ I’m like, ‘Well, that’s news to me.’ I did not know I was going to be getting a contract and then that phone call that I thought I was going to get with that contract never came."
Deaner went on and said while that situation was one of the first disappointments of his career, things eventually started to pick up.
"So it was [the] first of many disappointments in terms of timing and being willing to push through those hardships and persevere and have persistence when needed, it was my first real big disappointment after reaching such a high. I know a lot of guys that after a moment like that, they quit. They go, ‘I thought that was it’ and it wasn’t, and then they’re gone. I knew then, ‘No, I’m not done. I belong here in this business at that level. I know I can perform at that level. I’m going to keep moving forward,’ and that’s exactly what I did. Over two decades later, I’m still here. I’m finally passed the torch, I’m leading a group and I’m super stoked about it."
Back in early 2022, Fightful Select revealed that Deaner was working as a producer in IMPACT Wrestling. To learn more, click here.
Elsewhere in the interview, Deaner discussed stabbing Eric Young on a recent episode of IMPACT television. Click here for more information.
