“American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes” Documentary Review #AmericanNightmare #BecomingCodyRhodes #Review @Peacock @CodyRhodes @WWE
American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes centers around him truly coming into his own. As someone who grew up with Cody on screen, it was easy to see that some simply believed he got where he got because of his fathers name. Dusty Rhodes plays a pivotal role in Cody’s life as many prior documentaries reveal; how do you live up to the hero that your father was without bringing shame to the name of the American Dream?
The documentary starts as they all do with his young life and his love for his larger than life father. Cody speaks candidly about his struggles with even wanting to follow not only in his fathers steps but his older brother who we all in WWE know best as Goldust. His inner struggle with knowing how hard his father worked to provide the life he knew was a deciding figure in him not taking wrestling seriously. It was never as he said Cody wrestling it was always Dusty’s son. His choice to pursue a career in acting was met with support from his family but the failure of it not working out gave him time to think and finally commit to wrestling. Coming back to Georgia and having that talk with his father about being serious with WWE led him into at the time the developmental branch of WWE where he only last all of three months before he was pulled out the main roster and in his own words he himself says he knew he wasn’t ready for that big push but did so because when your card is pulled you go out and put on that show.
His WWE debut was filled with loss after loss because rookies don’t just show up and win at that time no matter your name. He had to deal with the weight again of being just Dusty’s son. He needed to carve his name in the world away from his fathers shadow and that’s when all the future characters of Cody came to. I’ll never forget that Cody Rhodes we all associate him with still to this day;the nose guard Cody. He explains that as being the best choice he could have made for himself it really made him a character you could hate and get the crowd into it. That went on for about a year before it came time again to reinvent himself except now here we were again falling onto our family name except now Cody was about to completely transform to match his older brother Goldust and from that was born the infamous Stardust; A character WWE fans and Cody would never forget.
Stardust was the beginning of the end for Cody he talks candidly about his struggles with depression because he just didn’t feel the appreciation from the company after his fathers passing. He like many others assumed with the untimely passing of his father he could finally be reintroduced as Cody Rhodes once again and what a better way to honor is father but that wasn’t the case. WWE didn’t give him that and it led to his difficult choice of finally opening the door and stepping out into what he calls freedom from the vipers grip that was WWE. Young,newlywed and broke Cody never felt happier. With his wife by his side he jumped into the independent circuits and that’s where Cody says he truly earned the name Rhodes back and he knew that there could be more there was no way he would step foot in WWE and from that an idea came to fruition. With his success in the independent circuit the idea of making his own brand with two of his closest friends in the eyes of many looked like a real competitor to the mainstream that was WWE.
It worked and it succeeded more than he and anyone could have thought, AEW was born and currently even without him in the company is a top contender for mainstream wrestling singing so many known names and up and coming superstars. I would have liked there to be more mention about his time in AEW seeing as that’s where much of his fan base came back from and where the American Nightmare was truly molded. I’m not sure many people know this but the American Nightmare name and gimmick came from his time in New Japan Wrestling. This was the moment Cody finally earned his name but there was something missing. With his time in AEW up many speculated like me he would come home to WWE it’s talked about by Cody that Vince McMahon got a plane and met with him face to face to get him back into WWE and it must have worked because as he has returned to WWE Cody has made a huge splash and has been accepted and loved by every fan.
As a fan of Cody Rhodes he is a wrestler who puts his all into everything he does, his goal is simple, finish the story. Win the only belt his father never did throughout this documentary. I couldn’t help but connect more to the person behind the character but it wasn’t till the end; it isn’t a character. This is Cody Rhodes and this right now is his time; Cody was ahead of his time in my opinion the world wasn’t ready for what he had to bring. His time away from this company made this moment right now the right time,the story isn’t done, he still hasn’t gotten the championship and I as a fan am glad he hasn’t for the simple fact watching him on screen every Monday and every PPV more enjoyable. He brings so much to WWE right now that it needs this documentary to solidify Cody’s place as a future hall of famer like his father. “What do you do when you live under a hero’s shadow? What do you do when that shadow is gone? You kick and fight like hell because now you make the shadow!”
