Wrestlers Who Can't Stand Cody Rhodes

"The Grandson of a Plumber," "The American Nightmare," current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes is one of the hottest babyfaces WWE has ever seen in its lengthy history. Fans have been by his side through it all, from his terrible booking as "Stardust" and subsequent departure, to his return at WrestleMania 38 to face Seth "Freakin'" Rollins, to his meteoric rise to the top just to be defeated when he finally got his shot at WrestleMania. Fans only rallied behind him more when they thought Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was going to take away another opportunity for Rhodes to "finish his story" at WrestleMania 40. 

Despite being away from WWE fans for around six years, they were extremely excited to see Rhodes make his comeback at WrestleMania, bringing with him catchy entrance music and a revamped gimmick he had developed over those years on the independent scene and in the company he helped create, AEW. Even if those fans didn't keep up with his travels too closely, Rhodes still returned to a massive pop. Since his return, he's faced off against some of the greats, including Roman Reigns, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, and many, many more in a variety of matches, from inside cells to Bloodline rules.

While the fans may be well on his side, the "Rhodes to the top" didn't happen without the champion making a few enemies along the way. There have been storyline feuds with Rhodes' real-life friends, like Owens, but others that blurred the line of story and reality, such as with The Rock and the WrestleMania 40 main event. Others hate on the champion for other reasons and have taken to social media to trash Rhodes. He may portray the loveable, babyface champion, but there are still wrestlers out there who can't stand Rhodes.

Seth Rollins and Rhodes have been linked for years since Rhodes re-joined WWE, and Rollins was "The American Nightmare's" return match at WrestleMania 38. The pair went on to have a serious of matches, including the infamous Hell in a Cell match in 2022 where Rhodes wrestled with a torn pectoral muscle. Rollins also stood by Rhodes' side at WrestleMania 40 to help him capture the Undisputed Universal Championship from former SHIELD stablemate Roman Reigns, but their relationship has always been more professional than personal. The pair had real-life animosity at the beginning of Rhodes' return run in WWE.

Rollins spoke to Sports Illustrated in 2023 and said their relationship is very complex. He said there's mutual respect between them, but with both of them working at such a high caliber, there's also healthy jealousy in addition to competition. He said he wouldn't go as far as to say they're friends. Rollins also told ESPN ahead of WrestleMania 39 he believed he should have been in Rhodes position in the main event. He explained he was the one to hold down the company while Rhodes "went off and did his own thing," alluding to Rhodes' time in AEW.

Rhodes explained in an interview, also in 2023, that he almost got into a real fight with Rollins due to the competitive nature backstage in WWE. He said it was before he headlined WrestleMania 39 with Reigns. He didn't go into specifics, but said it was the closest he's ever had to something backstage turning into a fist fight. Rhodes said that they absolutely can't stand each other, and he would probably try and rip Rollins' eyes out. In Rollins' ESPN interview, he also seemingly acknowledged the backstage confrontation, when he said "when tempers flare, tempers flare" and admitted there was some true to that, but said he couldn't get into too many details.

Justin Gabriel, now known as PJ Black on the independent scene, had a run in WWE from 2008, beginning in the company's developmental Florida Championship Wrestling through to his time with the Nexus and the Corre in 2013. Gabriel then hit the independents, like Rhodes did upon his release in 2016. The pair faced off six times on TV when they were both with WWE, and Rhodes won every match. That could be why Gabriel has taken to social media in past years to mock Rhodes. Gabriel posted to his X (then known as Twitter) account multiple times about Rhodes back in June 2016. The slew of posts came before Rhodes had matches scheduled on the indies with Kurt Angle, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, and more that summer.

"'I'm so excited for a Cody Rhodes run' – said nobody ever," Gabriel first posted.

He followed up his initial post by saying it's hard for him to get booed by fans, because he's so "lovable," so he was just talking smack about a talented performer. Gabriel continued that he thought that if you want people to hate you, you should troll them, and said he didn't think people understood the concept of a joke. While Rhodes' fans were confused about the posts, Rhodes himself never responded to Gabriel's online attempt to get heat.

Disco Inferno, a former WCW star, was another wrestler who took a shot at Rhodes on social media back when "The American Nightmare" was working outside of WWE. Disco commented on a photo of Rhodes with an injury, a busted up eyebrow, after taking a kick from Kenny Omega at Sakura Genesis in 2018. He was quick to post on Twitter (now known as X) that he thought nobody knew how to work anymore, and that wrestlers rather "kill each other" to get Dave Meltzer to give their match a high rating than worry about their safety.

Rhodes was quick to respond to the social media shot, however. He told Disco to stop because he knew nothing and "drew zero dollars" throughout his career.

"No fan has ever left a show thinking about you," Rhodes shot back in his own post. "You were lucky to be a juiced up double-lifer 'over with the boys' type in an era where you hid in plain sight coasting on others' success. Couldn't hang then, can't get booked now."

Disco said in an interview he thinks Rhodes misinterpreted what he was trying to say. He said he wasn't burying Rhodes, but he was being critical. He said that if he were an agent or on the writing team, he'd be saying it to Rhodes' face. He acknowledged that fans were going to say he was hating, but it's what he used to do for a living.

Following his loss to Reigns at WrestleMania 39, Rhodes won the Royal Rumble for the second time in 2024 to go on to WrestleMania and face "The Tribal Chief" once again. At least, that was the case, initially, before The Rock returned to the company. "The American Nightmare" confronted Reigns on "WWE SmackDown" and said he wouldn't be challenging him at WrestleMania and brought out The Rock, seemingly indicating it would be him to challenge Reigns.

Fans voiced their displeasure so loudly to the assumed change in WrestleMania plans, that WWE had to fix the situation. Rhodes stayed silent for weeks, until a press conference in February. Rhodes interrupted Rocks and Reigns and told everyone what he was feeling, and officially challenge Reigns to the title match. Rock smacked Rhodes across the face, and the event descended into chaos. Despite the match being Rhodes versus Reigns, Rock jumped into the feud, beating Rhodes down backstage and in the ring with Rhodes' own weight belt, and even took things as far as bad-mouthing Rhodes' mother and dubbing his fans "Cody Crybabies." Their feud led to WrestleMania's night one main event, pitting Reigns and Rock against Rollins and Rhodes in a tag match to set up Bloodline Rules for night two.

On the "Raw" after WrestleMania when Rhodes finally had the title around his waist, Rock confronted him in the ring once again. Johnson seemingly gave Rhodes something, possibly a matching Rolex watch Rhodes gifted everyone involved in the first night's main event, and Rock told him their story had only just begun.

Things changed once again when Rock appeared on the "Raw" debut on Netflix in January 2025, and politely acknowledged Rhodes in the crowd. Later, on social media, the pair shared a drink backstage and all seemed to be forgiven, both in storyline and real life, between them, further confusing fans.

Rhodes and former WWE talent Drew Gulak don't seem to like each other for a bizarre reason. Rhodes told a story on "Busted Open Radio" in 2017 that Gulak got upset with him over free pizza back in 2017 when both men were in EVOLVE. Rhodes brought pizza to a table that was set up for him to meet fans and sign autographs, as it was Johnny Gargano's last night with the group, and it was a celebration.

Rhodes said outright that he thinks Gulak and his "grizzle old vet" routine "sucks" and he "hadn't made any money anywhere." He said Gulak looked at him, seemingly frustrated and jealous, and said, "So that's what you need to get over," and walked away. Rhodes said that Gulak is "on his list" and he would regularly text current "WWE NXT" star Ethan Page just to say he thinks Gulak sucks.

While there's no corroborating evidence about the pizza interaction, Gulak is no stranger to backstage incidents. Gulak didn't have his contract renewed by WWE in 2024 after reports of him being a "bully" backstage in "WWE NXT" after reportedly targeting injuries of talents recovering from issues. He was also infamously at the center of a backstage incident with Ronda Rousey, and his public response to her claims was also labeled an issue.