In recent interviews, Cody Rhodes has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t plan on turning heel; in fact, he stated that he’d retire before he turns to the dark side. But WWE Hall of Famer Booker T believes doing so might actually be in Rhodes’ best interest.
AEW fans continue to boo “The American Nightmare” and his reception at AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam was particularly negative. For this reason, during a recent episode of his “The Hall of Fame” podcast with co-host Brad Gilmore, Booker T argued that Rhodes could be an amazing heel because people would “love to hate” him. Though he noted that he doesn’t understand the reasoning behind why fans’ response to Rhodes, Booker T expressed that the power of the reaction speaks for itself.
“I’m not sure exactly what the reaction meant or anything like that, but I do know this — in this business, you got good heat, you got bad heat, you got go-away heat, And I don’t know which one was that,” said Booker T. “I don’t know if the fans, I don’t know if Cody Rhodes did anything on television to become a heel. I know everything Cody’s been doing on television, as far as AEW, has been pretty liking towards what the fans would want, I think. I could be wrong. Haven’t been watching every show or anything like that.
“But to get that kind of reaction, there again, it could be the best reaction in the world if he’s gonna be that heel that people are gonna love to hate. Again, I don’t know if that’s what it was, I don’t know it was go-away like, ‘Man, now you Hollywood and you’re like the pot calling the kettle black,’ one of those type of deals. I don’t know. We’ll see in the end, as far as how this thing plays out.”
Booker T then compared the current dynamic with Rhodes’ character to slipping on a banana peel by noting that it could be the best outcome to the situation before he stated that fans will have to wait and see what happens next.
“Hey bro, it might be the best thing that could happen,” said Booker T. “You know sometimes you slip on a banana peel , and it’d be the best banana you ever had in your life. I’m serious man. So you just go with it sometimes. We’ll see how this thing plays out.”
The full clip is available here: