Cody Rhodes Addresses ‘Nepo Baby’ Label & Challenges

WWE’s Cody Rhodes has opened up about the challenges of being a ‘nepo baby’ wrestling star in a recent interview.

Speaking to Natalya on What Do You Wanna Talk About?, the pair shared an insight to their history of being the children of established professional wrestlers.

Referring to themselves as ‘nepo babies’ Natalya would take issue with the term, noting that:

“The nepo baby thing is very, very, very, very overrated.”

Rhodes would counter by suggesting that the whole thing is something that is actively being sought after, saying:

“Nepo babies are in right now. We’re in because people are going ‘Who’s going to do all this work’?”

Having referred to Natalya as a ‘prime example’ at the start of the show, Rhodes would clarify what he meant, before exploring his experience, explaining:

“When I said, in the introduction, (you’re) the prime example of what one should be, what I mean, and this was a conversation I was having with another one of my peers earlier today, was you have to be everything that they expect already that comes with your name and your lineage and you have to be so much more.

“And, in addition to that, you have to be your own personality, in terms of workplace personality. What I mean by that is I have encountered so many people who worked with my dad (Dusty Rhodes) and my brother (Dustin Rhodes) who had a pre-conceived idea as to how I’m going to act, behave and be, and I’m none of those things, and either that excites them, like “oh, he’s tought to work but with, but Cody, see…” or it’s “Man, he’s not funny like his brother.”

“You know, you have to be all these things and own it. You can’t pretend to be something else.”

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Rhodes would state that Natalya is the longest tenured member of the women’s roster in WWE, with the former star going on to share that nepotism had little to do with her initial exposure to the company, saying:

“Right, in January, it’ll be 19 years.

“I was doing an interview earlier today, and it’s funny, I think it’s the first time I’ve verbalized this.

“I was like, they were about, you know, growing up with the family, and was it harder because I was a Hart.

“I said, for the first time ever, I wish so much, looking back at the journey, back then in 2005, when I was sending in tapes and trying to get hired, I wish so much that somebody in my family could have just made a call and been “hey, can you try to get Nattie a job?”

“It was the complete opposite of that because of where the family was at the time with the (WWE), and like, nobody was able to do that for me. My dad (Jim ‘The Anvil’ Niedhart) wasn’t. Bret (Hart) wasn’t. My grandfather (Stu Hart) wasn’t. There’s no uncle. No one could do that for me.

“But, I was looking back on it and I’m like, why I love and appreciate everything that I have now is because, when people read my book, they’ll realize that everything we thought about Nattie is not what we really… It’s totally different to what we thought.

“But, it was nice not having anybody make the call because I was able to… I just push through so much, and I’m so grateful for that.”

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The pair would open up about how financial difficulties contrasted by the periods of historic success in their respective families have led to their current attitude towards money.

Rhodes recently reached the 100-day milestone in his current reign as Undisputed WWE Champion, having defeated John Cena at SummerSlam earlier this year.

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