Cody Rhodes has heard the complaints about WWE’s NIL system, but he thinks some hardcore wrestling fans are missing the bigger picture. As far as Cody is concerned, WWE recruiting college athletes instead of exclusively chasing lifelong wrestling fans isn’t some modern problem — it’s basically how the business has always worked.
Speaking on Double Coverage, Cody was discussing the old territorial days and his father Dusty Rhodes’ time in Florida when the conversation turned to wrestlers who came from other sports. Ernie Ladd, who played professional football before becoming a wrestling star, helped Cody make his point.
According to Cody, promoters back then were constantly looking for athletes who had the physical tools to become wrestlers. The NIL system might have a modern name and structure, but he believes the basic idea is nothing new.
“You know, today, hardcore wrestling fans don’t always love the NIL system, and I don’t think they realize, or maybe they do, that’s how we used to do it. You were out there looking for, ‘Hey, this guy, this baseball player out here, I think he’d be great. He’s got a great look.’”
Cody even brought up the kind of old-school recruiting that could happen just from somebody catching a promoter’s eye. If someone looked like an athlete and had the right background, that could be enough to get them through the door.
“Or, you know, Bill Watts seeing somebody go through the airport. ‘What do you do?’ ‘Oh, I play offensive line.’ ‘Hey, try this.’ They were looking for the athlete.”
And Cody doesn’t think WWE needs to spend as much time searching for the people who already live and breathe professional wrestling. In his mind, those people are going to chase wrestling whether WWE finds them first or not.
“And the reason they were looking for the athlete is because the wrestler is always going to find wrestling. Like, the hardcore wrestlers, the types that love it and it’s true to them, they’re going to find it.”
Johnny Gargano was Cody’s example of exactly that kind of wrestler. Cody believes Gargano was always going to fight his way toward WWE because getting there meant too much to him.
“You know, Johnny Gargano was always going to find WWE. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure he was in the biggest wrestling company there is, and will it.”
The NIL system gives WWE a shot at finding the other kind of prospect — someone who might never have thought about becoming a wrestler at all. And Cody thinks Oba Femi could be one of the best examples of what happens when one of those athletes actually starts falling in love with wrestling.
“But these others that are from the sports world, if you put it in front of them, they might fall in love with it. I think Oba, I don’t know, I just kind of keep a distance, watch him, think he’s falling in love with it.”
Before WWE, Oba competed in track and field at the University of Alabama, and Cody clearly thinks WWE found something special there. He believes Oba has already given fans somebody they can get behind for a long time.
“And that again, you know, he’s out there shot putting or whatever the heck it was for Alabama, like setting records. Another one I’m giving you a list here. Another one would be good for the pod. Articulate, lovely, and something that wrestling fans can attach to right now. And I think he’s got them for quite some time.”
When the host suggested Oba was still on his way up, Cody basically argued that he’s already arrived. The scarier part is that nobody really knows how much further he can go.
“I mean, he’s kind of already there, but he’s got his ceiling. What did Michael Jordan say? His ceiling is through the roof.”
Cody later made it clear that his expectations for Oba go way beyond simply becoming another successful WWE wrestler. He wants people across the roster thinking as big as possible about where wrestling could eventually take them.
“I’m wildly, naively, arrogantly, humbly, all those things, but I am super ambitious, and I’m ambitious for our people, for our roster. So Oba, for sure, that ceiling, we can’t see it.”
The subject came up again later when Cody discussed athletes such as Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. Once again, he defended WWE holding tryouts and using NIL to find people from sports backgrounds who might never otherwise walk into a wrestling school.
“No, but that’s modern. Again, that’s why I love that we’re doing these tryouts and the NIL stuff, is let’s find some—”
For Cody, though, there isn’t one perfect background for becoming a wrestler. He loves the artistic side of the business too, but believes wrestling is broad enough that wildly different personalities and skill sets can all work.
“Yeah. Let’s find some of these guys who, you know, have this. I love to have the performative. I love—because you can make it all work in pro wrestling. You can be fully this introvert artist and have crazy ideas, kind of like Mick Foley was, right? Or you can be a combination like Bret Hart.”
Then there are the freak athletes. Cody put Oba alongside names like Brock Lesnar, Trick Williams and Bianca Belair, and he had especially huge praise for Belair.
“Or you can be someone like an Oba, like a Brock, like a Trick, like a Bianca Belair. Bianca Belair is, I mean, maybe WWE’s greatest athlete ever.”
Charlotte Flair’s name also came up, and Cody was just as impressed with what she brings athletically. He believes that kind of physical ability can give somebody an advantage before all the other pieces of becoming a great wrestler even come into play.
“Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Oh my God. And if they look at the system today and think, like, ‘Why do they care so much about the sports and the athleticism?’ It can really help in the ring. It can really give you a side of you, an edge.”
Cody knows athleticism alone isn’t enough to make somebody a wrestling star. Some people win with their promos, others understand the business better than everyone around them, and some simply refuse to stop believing they’re going to make it.
“You know, some people’s edge is their promo. Some people’s edge is their savvy. Some people’s edge is their sheer consistency or their ability to believe in themselves.”
But sometimes WWE finds somebody whose athletic numbers are just ridiculous, and Cody believes that can be an edge all by itself. Brock Lesnar is probably the easiest example of what happens when those physical gifts eventually meet professional wrestling.
“And other people’s edge is just like we were talking about with Brock, just the fact that you said he can run a four-something and he looks that way and his size. Sometimes it’s just on paper.”
So Cody isn’t buying the idea that WWE’s NIL system somehow represents the company moving away from traditional wrestling recruitment. In his eyes, promoters have always gone hunting for great athletes and hoped they’d fall in love with wrestling afterwards — WWE just has a much more organized way of finding them now.
Do you agree with Cody Rhodes’ defense of WWE’s NIL system, or would you rather see WWE recruit more wrestlers who already have experience on the independent scene? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
