Pro Wrestling Real Life Stories: Episode 1 - All In, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and the butterfly effect
Greetings to one and all joining us here for the very first edition of "Pro Wrestling Real Life Stories". Upon receiving a considerable amount of feedback on several recent pro-wrestling series that we've happened to cover, in this brand new series we are set to navigate through some of the most captivating real-life stories in the sports-entertainment business...Fans can look forward to 2 episodes released every weekend (Saturday & Sunday) in the upcoming days.
Today, given that the professional wrestling world has arrived at All In--without spoiling any results for you kind folks--we take a look back at the storied careers of some of the biggest performers whose names have been attached to All In in some form or another. Our aim is to chronicle the series of events which led some of these fan-favorites toward taking such a monumental financial risk--what with The Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes going 'all in' in hosting All In (pun intended).
Moreover, we are going to be taking a look at some rather intriguing anecdotes from the career of CM Punk--the man who drew the biggest line at the All In meet-and-greet earlier today. Here's a fair warning to those expecting our following discussion to be a dull and diplomatic one--Things are going to get heated and opinions are undoubtedly going to be divided...
#10 Cody Rhodes -- The Rebel
Cody Runnels, perhaps better known by his WWE ring-name Cody Rhodes, is one of the main protagonists of the All In story. Now, granted that the man formerly known as Stardust amassed a ton of wealth over the course of his decade-long stint with the WWE--the fact remains that long before his departure from the company in 2016, he was extremely unhappy about his standing in the promotional pecking order.
Cody left the WWE in 2016, and went on to work for a myriad of pro-wrestling organizations such as Evolve, ROH as well as NJPW--where he would find tremendous success.
Anecdotes:
Addressing his shocking decision of leaving the WWE in 2016, Cody Rhodes spoke to Sam Roberts on the latter's podcast later the same year--wherein the former revealed that the things leading up to his "great escape" from WWE, including said escape as well, were definitely dramatic.
"That didn't sit well with everybody (me leaving WWE)," Cody said. "The week before I quit, I'd been in Greensboro, North Carolina--dressing in the room where Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair had been for WCW Starrcade 1993. And I looked in the bag, and there was this damn trash-bag (Stardust suit/costume) that I have to put on, with stars on it."
"I actually told Kofi (Kingston) a week before, where I had an argument with one of my bosses--we wont say which one--where I said I won't put on that effing suit one more time! I thought that will work. 20 minutes later, I'm putting the suit on (*laughs)--and I'm painting my face so sad in the mirror."