WWE Champion Cody Rhodes Opens Up About His Father Dusty's Rolex That He Pawned
At WrestleMania 40, Cody Rhodes finished his story, and after walking backstage, he was gifted a Rolex watch by Nick Khan, Triple H, and Bruce Prichard that his father, the late, great Dusty Rhodes had pawned off.
"The American Nightmare," in his recent interview with the "SI Media" podcast, recalled how his father pawned the watch to fund his acting school education.
"Always wanted it, assumed I would get it. I used to go into his room and his jewelry dish and I put it on my wrist and it was far too big. When he passed away, I just assumed it was coming to me. Then I thought, oh, you know, that's selfish to me. Maybe it comes to Dustin, you know, Dustin deserves it just as much. And then I found out none of us were getting it, we're going to get pocket knives instead and his cowboy stuff because he had pawned it so that I could go to the Howard Fine acting studio in LA and that was the cash he handed me when I was pulling out of Marietta, Georgia to drive all the way over to Studio City there."
Rhodes revealed that the watch gifted to him at WrestleMania 40 was the actual watch that his father had pawned. "They tracked the watch down. There's this big discussion on, 'Is it the watch?' And the best thing I can tell you is it is."
He added that it was a "full-circle moment" for him to be gifted the watch from Bruce Prichard, Triple H, and Nick Khan.
Cody on why he gifted Seth Rollins a Rolex
Cody Rhodes also spoke about the bond he had crafted with Seth Rollins and explained why he gifted his WrestleMania 40 tag team partner matching Rolexes. He revealed that the idea came from the Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair match at WrestleMania XXIV, where the two wore matching, custom Rolexes.
"I remember for Wrestlemania with Shawn Michael vs. Ric Flair, they had the custom Rolexes for each other with, I think, it was 23 was the number," said Rhodes. "But I got it into my mind that I wanted to do something for Seth. We've had such a unique, competitive, challenging relationship, but, also we really were going to do this together. And the fact that he was going to be in the main event of WrestleMania, a spot a lot of people thought he should have been in multiple times already, I wanted to have that moment with him and I like to give gifts."
He also disclosed that he gave several people backstage, including the makeup and travel department teams, gifts ahead of WrestleMania 40 to show them his appreciation for the work they've put in. Rhodes, though, did not divulge if he had given The Rock and Roman Reigns matching Rolexes too.
"I can't confirm that I gave one to Rock or Roman ... you might be right," said Rhodes jokingly.
Eagle-eyed fans spotted Reigns wearing a similar Rolex that Rhodes had gifted Rollins during "The Tribal Chief's" appearance at the WWE Hall of Fame, which answers the questions Rhodes was hesitant to address.