Subhojeet Mukherjee on January 28, 2026
On the January 28, 2026 episode of Six Feet Under, Cody Rhodes opened up about the chaotic and humiliating WrestleMania afterparty moment he now calls the worst night of his life.
It all started during a routine European tour where Cody and Santino Marella were playfully trash-talking each other’s physiques. Cody ribbed Santino for being out of shape—but what began as a locker-room joke spiraled into something much bigger once John Cena and JBL heard about it.
Cody made it clear that his comments weren’t serious and that Santino was no slouch. He genuinely admired his colleague’s background and performance skills.
“People forget: Santino was a shooter. Yeah. Judo. Full-blown judo shooter who ended up being absolutely stellar comedy—hilarious, I mean, show-stealer…”
Once Cena and JBL got involved, the light teasing quickly evolved into a planned segment. They pitched a full-blown bodybuilding contest at the WrestleMania afterparty, which Cody assumed was still all in fun—until the t-shirts gave him a reality check.
“Then we’re going back and forth, and then Cena and JBL got ahold of it and then it became, ‘Well, why don’t you guys have this bodybuilding competition?’
The whole time this is going on, I’m not thinking I’m the heel… It wasn’t until Cena made the T-shirts… It was the Mega Powers shirts, but I was Savage, and I thought, ‘Ah… uh… ah, shit—like, I’m the bad guy?’”
As WrestleMania weekend arrived, Cody didn’t expect the “MuscleMania” gimmick to actually go forward. But just to be safe, he wore a Speedo under his suit. Sure enough, he was summoned from his room to the ballroom stage by WWE referee John Cone—while Triple H was already on the mic hyping it up.
“Then John Cone comes in the room and he’s like, ‘Hey, they’re calling you out there.’ Okay. I walk back into the ballroom and it’s you who’s on the microphone going, ‘Cody, Cody.’
To walk people through what happened: Hunter and UPA—a bodybuilding contest at the WrestleMania after party—and I am in my Speedo.”
The audience? Everyone from WWE superstars to Cody’s own parents. And Santino wasn’t taking it lightly—he came fully prepared with professional posing trunks, amping the whole thing up tenfold.
“Santino’s not even in a Speedo. He’s in full posing trunks—like essentially a thong—full glutes shown, everything. And you’re calling the poses and making little side commentary… And my parents are there. This is great.”
What made it worse? The scheduled headliner for the party, Kid Rock, had to give up his stage time for this unscripted bodybuilding showdown. He didn’t take it well. Apparently, the frustration from Kid Rock was not subtle.
“You kicked Kid Rock off the stage. He was hot, didn’t he? He got hot. He did not want the naked muscle men on the stage. We ruined his vibe.
He said something politically incorrect—I won’t repeat it—but he was pissed… Then not only that, the girl who was the singer for the band starts cutting a promo on me.”
Cody was blindsided by the negative reaction from all directions—especially since he didn’t come up with the segment to begin with. He was just going along with it. Still trying to be a good sport, Cody hit the stage and struck his best poses. He thought he looked decent, but the crowd wasn’t buying it.
“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute—why am I getting all the heat? Paul’s the one who came and said, “Hey, we’re gonna do this thing,” right?’ We go on stage, we do the poses. I am booed every time. And I thought, I’m not in bad shape—but that’s not what this is about.”
It turned into a full-on performance war. Santino broke out a flawless Russian dance routine, while Cody—trying to one-up him—botched a backflip off the stage.
“Santino does this Russian dance where you drop down and kick your feet—flawless. I do a backflip off the stage—not flawless. Again, I’m booed.”
And then came the worst moment of all. Linda McMahon, who Cody deeply respected, was watching from the front row. She initially clapped—then saw how the crowd turned, and gave Cody a double thumbs down. That’s when the embarrassment truly sank in.
“Linda McMahon is in the front row… She’s clapping for me, then she sees the room, and she literally gives me the double thumbs down. My stomach turned. That was the moment I knew this was the worst night of my life.”
To cap it off, JBL had commissioned a ridiculous seven-foot-tall trophy, plastered with figures from random sports, to be presented to Santino—who “won” the contest. Back at his hotel room, Cody was fuming—so much so that he accidentally damaged the furniture.
“Santino wins. He gets this giant trophy JBL commissioned—seven feet tall—with every sport you can imagine. It stayed in the green room. Then I went back to my hotel room, kicked my closet in, broke it, and had to figure out how to tell John Cone.”
But amid the wreckage of his pride, one person offered Cody Rhodes a reason to feel good about the whole debacle—Rey Mysterio.
“The only thing that made sense came from Rey Mysterio. He said, ‘Thanks for doing that for the boys.’ And I thought, ‘That’s why you’re Rey Mysterio.’”
This insane “MuscleMania” story wasn’t televised, but it lives on in WWE legend as one of the most chaotic and humbling moments of Cody Rhodes’ life—and a reminder that sometimes the real drama happens when the cameras are off.
What do you think of Cody Rhodes’ “MuscleMania” nightmare? Did he get done dirty—or was it all part of paying dues? Drop your thoughts below and let us know if you’ve ever been booed for trying to be a team player
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
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