Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Cody Rhodes may seem worlds apart on the surface, but their paths through life hold many similarities. On this episode of the Dale Jr. Download, the American Nightmare himself joins Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis to discuss their likeness: growing up in the shadow of a generational figure. Dale Jr. shares that while growing up, he used to watch Cody’s father, the iconic Dusty Rhodes, on Saturday morning matinee presentations of NWA Wrestling on television. Meanwhile, Cody recalled the experience of discovering his father’s legacy at an early age, and how over time he developed the inclination to follow in his footsteps. They chat about the internal conflict of being immensely proud of their fathers while wanting to forge a path of their own.
The conversation unpacks Cody’s stellar amateur wrestling career in high school, a sport he originally pursued to prove the legitimacy of his father’s career as a professional. They also discuss him taking on a position at WWE at an early age, and the idea that perhaps he was moved up from the developmental ranks too quickly simply because he was Dusty’s son. Cody speaks on playing the role of Stardust and how the rigidness of the WWE writers at the time led to him burning his bridges and returning to the independent circuit to reinvent himself. He also dives into his catastrophic pectoral injury and how he wrestled through it, only to return to glory on the Wrestlemania stage.
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