Cody Rhodes believes storytelling and in-ring moves are both essential components to making pro wrestling work.
One of the most frequently debated wrestling topics on social media has been whether it’s more important to have great stories or highly rated matches. Rhodes weighed in on the debate on his “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast and said he believes good pro wrestling is a combination of both of those elements.
“There’s such an argument online about, ‘Oh, the spots. Oh, the storytelling. Cinema versus’ — and I don’t think people realize, it’s both. And when it’s everything, it works,” Rhodes said.
“And here’s the story. I remember there was a tag match that followed me one time. I had wrestled Ethan Page, and I thought we did a great job. And we had a crowd that was already a little contentious, and I was getting boos, things were happening. But I knew we killed it. But then there was a match that followed us, and six people on X liked it. It was indulgent, there was no story to it. They worked super hard, it wasn’t a matter of [them] not working.”
The comments from Rhodes came during a discussion he was having with Matt Cardona about Cardona’s death match against Nick Gage for Game Changer Wrestling in 2021. Rhodes said he’s enjoyed the death matches he’s seen because there has been a good story attached.
“If you’re going to do the death match, as we’re talking about here, and we don’t have to circle this forever, if there’s not a story, then it’s just indulgent,” Rhodes said. “And that’s why I kind of have liked the ones that I’ve seen [because there’s been a story].”
Cardona’s GCW run helped the former Zack Ryder reestablish himself after his release from WWE in 2020. Cardona doesn’t know if his WWE return would have ever happened if it wasn’t for all the buzz he generated with his death match against Gage.
On the indies, Cardona was sure to establish a connection with all of the fans he met. Rhodes thinks developing that connection with the audience is one of the most important things a wrestler can do in 2026.
“There’s a connection to it. And I feel like that’s something that has been very hard to say. You know how everything is so polarizing now, you’re either on one side of the fence. It’s crazy when you sit in the middle,” Rhodes said.
“Like, Je’Von [Evans] right now has got a reinventive style. But getting to know Je’Von makes you even more excited about the reinventive style. Getting to know Je’Von gets you more excited about the dumb thing he’s going to do. Because now you have a hope that, ‘I hope he hits it. Oh man.’
“You know, versus indulgence and just doing it for the sake of doing it. I feel very on a high horse over all this and I’m not trying to be, but you know, because the old-time guys are like, ‘Well, it’s not about the five stars.’ They make it so contentious right out of the gate. It’s not. It’s everything, if that makes any sense.”
